Today's New Reason To Believe Archives

October 2003

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Today’s New Reason To Believe – Friday, October 31

• A recently discovered design feature for box jellyfish provides another example of supernatural creation. One of the five different cell types comprising this jellyfish colony (so-called because the jellyfish is an aggregate of cells that display loose organization) has both a photoreceptor and a protruding hair-like cilium. The photoreceptors spot hazards and favorable opportunities for the jellyfish while the cilia act as rudders to steer the jellyfish. The ruddering capacity requires that these cells be located at the rear of the jellyfish. Other cells in the jellyfish spin the colony rapidly so that the photoreceptors can detect what lies ahead. Such optimal design seems to imply pre-planning, rather than random mutations, and is consistent with a caring Creator and an Artist who enjoys his work.
  • Karin Nordström et al., “A Simple Visual System Without Neurons in Jellyfish Larvae,” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London: Biological Sciences 170 (September 18, 2003), doi: 10.1098/rspb.2003.2504.
  • Tim Lincoln, “Light Touch on the Rudder,” Nature 425 (2003), 360.
• Related Resource: More Than Intelligent Design, by Hugh Ross
• Product Spotlight: The Genesis Question, by Hugh Ross

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Thursday, October 30

• This study supports RTB’s creation model, which proposes that God created life on Earth in a purposeful and progressive fashion. Each step of God’s creative work paved the way for subsequent stages and ultimately humanity’s arrival. Paleontologists have found fossil evidence on Ellesmere Island in northernmost Canada (78-83° N), dating back 4 million years, for plants, insects, and mammals that demonstrate winter and summer temperatures 27°F and 18°F above present ones, respectively. Such high temperatures would have greatly raised the sea level, redistributed rainfall patterns, and made the tropics unbearable. This discovery shows that the presently favorable conditions on Earth for widespread human civilization are more exceptional than once thought.
  • Richard H. Tetford and C. Richard Harington, “An Arctic Mammal Fauna from the Early Pliocene of North America,” Nature 425 (2003), 388-390.
• Related Resource: God’s Perfect Timing for Life, Creation Update (airdate 06-03-03)
• Product Spotlight: The Creator and the Cosmos, by Hugh Ross

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Wednesday, October 29

• As recent as ten years ago, microbiologists viewed bacteria as a “container” of haphazardly arranged molecules. A growing body of evidence, however, indicates that this view is incorrect. Microbiologists now understand that even the simplest of life forms possess a remarkable degree of internal organization at the molecular level. This article complements this new understanding of bacteria by describing the remarkable temporal and spatial organization displayed by the bacterial proteins that regulate cell division. Such design on the biochemical level requires forethought and is expected if a Creator is responsible for life.
  • Kerwyn Casey Huang et al., “Dynamic Structures in Escherichia coli: Spontaneous Formation of MinE Rings and MinD Polar Zones,” PNAS, USA 100 (2003), 12724-28.
• Related Resource: Cell membrane design and complexity, Creation Update (airdate 07-15-03)
• Product Spotlight: Beyond Irreducible Complexity, by Fazale “Fuz” Rana

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Tuesday, October 28

• Scientists have discovered an exquisitely designed eye mechanism in an ancient marine animal that provides evidence for supernatural creation. The trilobite dates back to the Cambrian Explosion (543 million years ago) and possesses a multi-lens system offering the trilobite a continuous 360° view of the sea floor. This eye comes equipped with a sophisticated eyeshade that “protects the visual surface from glare derived from surface light.” Such a purposeful, elegant, creative design implies the handiwork of a Creator.
  • Richard Fortey and Brian Chatterton, “A Devonian Trilobite with an Eyeshade,” Science 301 (2003), 1689.
• Related Resource: The Explosive Appearance of Skeletal Designs, by Fazale “Fuz”Rana
• Product Spotlight: The Genesis Question, by Hugh Ross

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Monday, October 27

• The results of a 40-year study of predation in East Africa challenges the idea of undirected, random process evolution. When researchers studied the mammal community of the Serengeti ecosystem, they found that both a high and well-balanced biodiversity and a finelytuned resource limitation were required in order to stabilize herbivore populations at optimal levels for all life. Such fine-tuning and balance is consistent with an all-powerful Creator who is orchestrating these complex ecosystems.
  • A. R. E. Sinclair, Simon Mduma, and Justin S. Brashares, “Patterns of Predation in a Diverse Predator-Prey System,” Nature 425 (2003), 288-90.
• Related Resource: New Insight into the Ecology of the Cambrian Fauna: Evidence for Creation Mounts, by Fazale “Fuz” Rana
• Product Spotlight: The Genesis Question, by Hugh Ross

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Sunday, October 26

• The results of this study contradict one of evolution’s key predictions. Given the nature of the evolutionary process, separate evolutionary pathways should not yield identical outcomes. Evolution should not repeat. Yet, when viewed in light of the evolutionary framework, the data from this study indicates that aposematism (bright coloration correlated with toxicity) in poisonous frogs developed at least five times independently. This is remarkable, since evolutionary biologists consider aposematism’s origin highly improbable. The intermediate evolutionary steps needed to generate aposematism would increase the risk of predation. The independent, multiple origins of aposematism in poisonous frogs challenges the theory of evolution at a foundational level.
  • Juan Carlos Santos et al., “Multiple Recurring Origins of Aposematism and Diet Specialization in Poison Frogs,” PNAS, USA 100 (2003), 12792-97.
• Related Resource: Convergence: Evidence for a Single Creator, by Fazale “Fuz” Rana

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Saturday, October 25

• The hypothesis for the origin of life on Earth under strictly natural conditions, especially through interstellar or interplanetary transport, has suffered another setback. Experiments conducted on five different Earth-orbiting Russian space missions revealed that infrared radiation in space decayed both the nucleosides placed on the spacecraft and the nucleotides synthesized during space travel. With long flight durations the degradation reactions always exceeded the synthesis reactions. Therefore, such life-critical molecules have little likelihood of safely arriving on Earth from space.
  • Evgenia A. Kuzicheva and Natalia B. Gontareva, “Exobiological Investigations on Russian Spacecrafts,” Astrobiology, 3 (2003),  253-61. [no link for this article]
• Related Resource: Origin-of-Life Predictions Face-Off, by Fazale “Fuz” Rana
• Product Spotlight: The Creator and the Cosmos, by Hugh Ross

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Friday, October 24

• Naturalistic scientists often assert that Earth is not unique among planets in a vast universe. However, new theoretical work demonstrates that not all Earth-sized planets in zones suitable for the existence of liquid water will be rocky like Earth. Many could be predominantly composed of such volatile substances as ammonia, water, and carbon dioxide. Such planets would be too unstable and would lack the necessary physical and chemical conditions for life, adding evidence that Earth is more special than some scientists have thought.
  • Marc J. Kuchner, “Volatile-Rich Earth-Mass Planets in the Habitable Zone,” Astrophysical Journal Letters 596 (2003), L105-L108.
• Related Resource: Search for Planets Draws a Blank, by Hugh Ross
• Product Spotlight: Journey Toward Creation, 2nd edition (DVD)

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Thursday, October 23

• This study describes the oldest fossil representative of the jawed vertebrate taxon that includes sharks, skates, and rays. This research confirms previously discovered fossil evidence for jawed vertebrates existed as far back as the Ordovician period. This means that shortly after the Cambrian Explosion, complex, sophisticated jawed vertebrates appear in a time much too short to be accounted for by undirected biological evolution.
  • Randall F. Miller et al., “The Oldest Articulated Chondrichthyan from the Early Devonian Period,” Nature 425 (2003), 501-04.
• Related Resource: Chordate Fossils Foil Theory, by Fazale “Fuz” Rana

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Wednesday, October 22

• This study supports RTB’s creation model, which proposes that God created life on Earth in a purposeful and progressive fashion. Each step of God’s creative work paved the way for subsequent stages and ultimately humanity’s arrival. A team of German researchers thinks that when land plants first appeared, they caused enough carbon dioxide to be removed from the atmosphere to cool the earth’s temperature to facilitate forthcoming complex animal life. (Complex animals require lower temperatures than single-celled organisms.) The cooling of the earth paved the way for the Cambrian Explosion around 540 million years ago.  The carefully orchestrated sequence of events in life’s history testifies to the Creator’s involvement.
  • “Plants Detonated the Cambrian Explosion,” Nature Science Update.
  • Werner von Bloh et al., “Cambrian Explosion Triggered by Geosphere-Biosphere Feedbacks,” Geophysical Research Letters 30 (2003), 1963ff.
• Related Resource: The Explosive Appearance of Skeletal Designs, by Fazale “Fuz”Rana
• Product Spotlight: Rare Earth, by Donald Brownlee and Peter Ward

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Tuesday, October 21

• The periodic disappearance of species throughout the earth’s history has long been one of science’s enigmas. For the first time, a particular mass extinction event has been linked to a gamma-ray burst. The astronomers found that the late Ordovician mass extinction event (440 million years ago) was unusual in that the extinctions were water-depth related—indicating a very strong ultraviolet radiation that would arise from a nearby gamma-ray burst. A strategic use of gamma-ray bursts could have been used by the Creator to cause mass extinctions, as is hinted at in Psalm 104:29-30.
  • A. L. Melott et al., “Did a Gamma-Ray Burst Initiate the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction?” 2003 preprint.
• Related Resource: The Faint Sun Paradox, by Hugh Ross
• Product Spotlight: The Genesis Question, by Hugh Ross

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Monday, October 20

• Botanists have validated RTB’s biblical creation model claim that bona fide land plants appeared relatively early in Earth’s history (Gen.1:11-12). In a deep core drill in Oman, botanists found clumps of spores packaged in cuticles (external plant structures made up of epidermal cells) dated to be 475 million years old. These structures resembled modern liverworts, small moss-like plants that grow in moist, shaded areas. This discovery is consistent with RTB’s model, which places the appearance of the first land plants between the formation of the great continental land masses (1.0 to 0.6 billion years ago) and the appearance of the swarms of complex sea animals (0.54 to 0.3 billion years ago).
  • Charles H. Wellman, Peter L. Osterloff, and Uzma Mohiuddin, “Fragments of the Earliest Land Plants," Nature 425 (2003), 282-285.
  • Paul Kenrick, “Fishing for the First Plants,” Nature 425 (2003), 248-49.
  • D. S. Heckman et al., “Molecular Evidence for the Early Colonization of Land by Fungi and Plants,” Science 293 (2001), 1129-33 (gives evidence for land plants as early as 700 million years ago).
• Related Resource: Ancient Tree Answers Challenge to Genesis 1, by Hugh Ross
• Product Spotlight: The Genesis Question, by Hugh Ross

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Sunday, October 19

• In an attempt to salvage the naturalistic origin-of-life scenario, some scientists have proposed a model called the “RNA World” which, in turn, gave birth to the first life forms. However, this scenario faces several formidable chemical difficulties. This has led some researchers to now propose a pre-RNA World that ‘invented’ the RNA World. One candidate for the pre-RNA World is a class of molecules known as peptide nucleic acids (PNA). This paper highlights chemical and physical difficulties that would prevent the PNA World from transitioning to an RNA World. In the end, this appears to be another failed attempt to rescue an evolutionary origin-of-life scenario.
  • Valeria Menchise et al., “Insights into Peptide Nucleic Acid (PNA) Structural Features: The Crystal Structure of a D-Lysine-Based Chiral PNA-DNA Duplex,” PNAS, USA 100 (2003), 11801-05.
• Related Resource: Origin-of-Life Predictions Face-Off, by Fazale “Fuz” Rana
• Product Spotlight: Darwin’s Black Box, by Michael Behe

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Saturday, October 18

• Irreducible complexity is a hallmark feature of designed systems. Many biochemical systems inside the cell appear to be irreducibly complex, and hence designed. This study provides another example. The biomolecular components involved in lysine biosynthesis and its regulation form an irreducibly complex system. Natural process evolution simply cannot yield systems like those involved in lysine production. As biochemists continue to characterize the cell’s chemical systems, the evidence for design mounts, and with it evidence that life is the product of a Creator.
  • Frank J. Grundy et al., “The L Box Regulon: Lysine Sensing by Leader RNAs of Bacterial Lysine Biosynthesis Genes?” PNAS, USA 100 (2003), 12057-62.
• Related Resource: Biochemistry and the Bible: Collaborators in Design, by Joe Aguirre
• Product Spotlight: Darwin’s Black Box, by Michael Behe

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Friday, October 17

• Archaeological evidence provides powerful confirmation of the Bible’s historical accuracy. This report describes a new method that will allow archaeologists to directly date ceramic pots at archaeological sites by radiocarbon analysis of animal fats isolated from the walls of the ceramic material. Until now, no method to rigorously date ceramic materials existed. As new tools to study archaeological sites become available, historians will have more opportunities to evaluate the Bible’s historical accuracy.
  • On the Antiquity of Pots: New Method Developed for Dating Archaeological Pottery, ScienceDaily.com.
• Related Resource: Hezekiah’s Tunnel: Another Confirmation of the Bible’s Historical Accuracy, Creation Update (airdate 09-23-03)
• Product Spotlight: Doing Archaeology in the Land of the Bible, by John Currid

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Thursday, October 16

• A major component of RTB’s interpretive approach to the curse described in Genesis 3:17-20 involves the idea of humanity’s exploitation of the earth. This study is the latest example of how humanity’s sinful behavior has caused widespread ecological disaster. Industrial whaling in the North Pacific over the last 50 years has removed the key food source of killer whales. This has caused this predator to sequentially overconsume harbor seals, fur seals, sea lions, and sea otters. Abusive human exploitation of the killer whale’s key food source has led to the collapse of this ecosystem. The Bible provides an explanatory framework that accounts for humanity’s impact on planet Earth.
  • A. M. Springer et al., “Sequential Megafaunal Collapse in the North Pacific Ocean: An Ongoing Legacy of Industrial Whaling?” PNAS, USA 100 (2003), 12223-28.
  • Collapse of Seals, Sea Lions & Sea Otters in North Pacific Triggered by Overfishing of Great Whales, ScienceDaily.com.
• Related Resource: Animal Death Before the Fall: What does the Bible say? by Lee Irons
• Product Spotlight: Life and Death in Eden, by RTB Staff Scholars (cassette and CD)

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Wednesday, October 15

• Why would a good God create harmful bacteria as part of his “very good” creation (Genesis 1:31)? This question troubles Christians and skeptics alike. It turns out, however, that exposure to disease-causing microbes helps to develop the immune system in young children. This report indicates that the overuse of antibiotics in early life leads, in part, to allergies and asthma. In this way, so-called disease-causing bacteria can be understood as serving a greater good in God’s creation.
• Study Shows Link Between Antibiotics And Allergies, Asthma, ScienceDaily.com.
• Related Resource: Microbial Diseases a Part of God's Good Design, Creation Update (airdate 03-25-2003)
• Product Spotlight: Sign up for our auto-delivery program and a cassette of each week’s edition of Creation Update will be shipped directly to your door in quarterly installments. Call 800-482-7836 for details.

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Tuesday, October 14

• Is our sun just like the other millions of late-born stars? A growing body of evidence suggests that it is unique in almost every respect. Astronomers have confirmed that stars much younger than the Sun but otherwise similar to it exhibit stronger and more frequent flares – potentially deadly to life, especially advanced life, on any orbiting planet. For advanced life to arrive on Earth with the just-right timing for survival would seem to require divine intention and intervention.
  • M. Richards et al., “Statistical Analysis of 5 Year Continuous Radio Flare Data from β Persei, V711 Tauri, δ Librae, and UX Arietis,” Astrophysical Journal Supplement 147 (2003), 337-61.
• Related Resource: Rare Sun, by Guillermo Gonzalez
• Product Spotlight: Journey Toward Creation, 2nd edition (DVD)

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Monday, October 13

• If the Creator described in the Bible actually exists, then we would expect to find elegant designs in nature that reflect His limitless knowledge. This news report describes the insight gained by scientists regarding the remarkable ability of snails to traverse complex terrains. Despite Herculean efforts, scientists previously lacked the know-how to develop such elegant machinery without this research into snail locomotion. Does it make sense to conclude that these examples of elegant, highly complex designs found in nature are the result of random, undirected processes? However, such innovation makes sense if an omniscient Mind stands behind them all.
  • “MIT’s RoboSnails Model Novel Movements,” ScienceDaily.com.
• Related Resource: Sticky Gecko Feet, Creation Update (airdate 09-03-2002)
• Product Spotlight: Beyond Irreducible Complexity, by Fazale “Fuz” Rana

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Sunday, October 12

• Some theoretical physicists have posited the idea of multiple universes as a possible loophole around the “apparent” design detected in our universe. However, recent observations of “synchrotron” radiation from the Crab Nebula rule out a class of cosmological models – a subset of quantum gravity models – on which some “multiverse” theories rely. This discovery further diminishes the hopes of those who are searching for a way around the robust space-time theorems that require a transcendent beginning of the universe.
  • T. Jacobson, S. Liberati, and D. Mattingly, “A Strong Astrophysical Constraint on the Violation of Special Relativity by Quantum Gravity,” Nature 424 (2003), 1007-08.
• Related Resource: An Infinity of Universes, by Hugh Ross
• Product Spotlight: The Creator and the Cosmos, by Hugh Ross

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Saturday, October 11

• The proportion of extremely metal-poor galaxies to all other galaxies in the universe (12 to 250,000 among those surveyed to date) has just been added to an already long list of finely tuned parameters needed to create a home for humans. If that proportion were significantly larger or smaller, either an Earth-type planet will not form, or the production of such a planet would occur at the wrong time and/or wrong place for human life to be possible.
  • Alexei Y. Kniazev et al., “Discovery of Eight Extremely Metal-Poor Galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey,” Astrophysical Journal Letters 593 (2003), L73-L76.
• Related Resource: First Detection of an Earth-Sized Planet? by Hugh Ross
• Product Spotlight: Lights in the Sky and Little Green Men, by Hugh Ross, Kenneth Samples and Mark Clark

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Friday, October 10

• In the tradition of Paley’s classic Watchmaker argument, a growing body of evidence indicates that life’s chemistry is the result of deliberate forethought, rather than gradual random processes. This review points out that biochemists, to their surprise, have discovered that biological networks display good engineering principles, which cannot be readily accounted for in an evolutionary framework. Good engineering principles that characterize life’s systems are expected, however, if a Creator is responsible for life.
  • U. Alon, “Biological Networks: The Tinkerer as Engineer,” Science 301 (2003), 1866-67.
• Related Resource: Preplanning of the Cell Cycle, Creation Update (airdate 2-11-2003)
• Product Spotlight: Travels to the Nanoworld, by Michael Gross

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Thursday, October 9

• The bioethical challenge of extracting stem cells from “unused” embryos is a violation of human dignity. However, recent discoveries of alternative sources of multipotent stem cells may eliminate this ethical dilemma. This study confirms that adult bone marrow stem cells (thought to be multipotent) can become epithelial cells of the pulmonary system. Such advances make it increasingly unnecessary to rely on embryonic stems cells to develop tissue replacement therapies.
  • Darwin J. Prockop et al., ”One Strategy for Cell and Gene Therapy: Harnessing the Power of Adult Stem Cells to Repair Tissues,” PNAS, USA 100 (2003), 11917-23.
• Related Resource: A New Direction for Stem Cell Research, by Fazale “Fuz” Rana
• Product Spotlight: A Christian Perspective on Biotechnology, by Fazale “Fuz” Rana

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Wednesday, October 8

• Advances in the analysis of ancient DNA samples hold the promise to provide powerful new ways to test and compare evolutionary models with RTB’s creation model. This brief communication reports the recovery of mitochondrial DNA sequences for a modern human, a California condor, a ringtail cat, an antelope ground squirrel, and the extinct Shasta ground sloth from 10,000-year-old sediments recovered in a dry cave environment. Presumably, these organisms occupied this cave around this time. This report extends the utility of ancient DNA analysis and provides a window into the biology of past organisms.
  • Michael Hofreiter et al., “Molecular Caving,” Current Biology 13 (2003), R693-R695.
• Related Resource: Ancient DNA and Protein Studies to Aid Scientific Advance, Creation Update (airdate 05-13-2003)
• Product Spotlight: Sign up for our auto-delivery program and a cassette of each week’s edition of Creation Update will be shipped directly to your door in quarterly installments. Call 800-482-7836 for details.

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Tuesday, October 7

• This news article reports on emerging technology that provides powerful new evidence for the personhood of unborn babies, which challenges the pro-abortion position. New technology now allows physicians to image the fetus with remarkable detail. Using state-of-the-art 3D and 4D scanning technologies, fetuses can be seen smiling, crying, blinking, and yawning in the womb.
  • “Smiling from the Womb” (See a fetus smiling in utero.)
• Related Resource: Argument for the Silent, by Robert M. Bowman, Jr.

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Monday, October 6

• Evidence continues to mount in favor of the idea that there is only a small window of time in which humanity can safely reside on Earth. While mapping the movement of our solar system relative to several nearby “cloudlets” of interstellar gas and dust, a University of Chicago astronomer discovered how remarkable the timing is for humanity’s existence. She determined that the solar system passed through a cloudlet many tens of thousands of years ago and will enter another within the next 200,000 years – each entrance with potentially dramatic consequences for the heliosphere, which helps protect Earth from deadly cosmic rays. Such fine-tuning makes perfect sense if there is a divine Designer controlling the universe to create favorable conditions to facilitate humanity’s brief survival.
  • Priscilla C. Frisch, “Local Interstellar Matter: The Apex Cloud,” Astrophysical Journal 593 (2003), 868-73.
• Related Resource: A Precise Plan for Humanity, by Hugh Ross
• Product Spotlight: Journey Toward Creation, 2nd edition (DVD)

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Sunday, October 5

• The media’s steady hype that the basic chemical building blocks for life are readily found throughout the universe seems to strengthen the case that the genesis of life does not require any supernatural intervention. However, a recent experiment by astrochemists meant to test this theory dealt another blow to naturalistic origin-of-life models. Researchers exposed adenine and uracil, two of the building blocks of DNA and RNA, to conditions mimicking the space environment of primordial Earth. This result demonstrates that these compounds could not have been delivered to the primordial earth through extra-terrestrial means, which makes the existence of a prebiotic soup less likely.
  • Z. Peeters, et al., “The Astrobiology of Nucleobases,” Astrophysical Journal Letters 593 (August 20, 2003), L129-L132.
• Related Resource: Origin-of-Life Predictions Face-Off, by Fazale “Fuz” Rana

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Saturday, October 4

• Astronomers have just developed and applied another independent tool for measuring the cosmic expansion rate and age of the universe, and it yields the same results as all the previously employed methods: a cosmic age of 13.7 billion years. This finding adds further confirmation to the idea that the expansion rate of the universe is controlled by multiple factors, and corroborates the “big bang” model, which is consistent with the biblical account that a transcendent Creator is responsible for the creation of the universe.
  • Raul Jimenez, et al., “Constraints on the Equation of State of Dark Energy and the Hubble Constant from Stellar Ages and the Cosmic Microwave Background,” Astrophysical Journal 593 (August 20, 2003), 622-29.
• Related Resource: WMAP Offers Spectacular Proofs of Creation Event, by Hugh Ross
• Product Spotlight: Journey Toward Creation, 2nd edition (DVD)

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Friday, October 3

• The results of this study contradict one of evolution’s key predictions. Given the nature of the evolutionary process, separate evolutionary pathways should not yield identical outcomes. Evolution should not repeat. Yet, when viewed in light of the evolutionary framework, the data from this study indicate that the morphologies and wall types of Foraminifera developed several times independently.
  • Jan Powlowski et al.,”The Evolution of Early Foraminifera,” PNAS, USA 100 (2003), 11494-98.
• Related Resource: Convergence: Evidence for a Single Creator, by Fazale “Fuz” Rana

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Thursday, October 2

• The existence of biological symbiosis seems to contradict the Darwinian ideas of gradualism and the “survival of the fittest.” For example, scientists have known that soybean plants provide root nodules, which protect and feed certain species of rhizobia. The rhizobia in return fix nitrogen from the atmosphere into chemicals that enhance growth and photosynthesis in the plants. Recently, biologists discovered that soybeans ensure that the rhizobia provide high levels of nitrogen fixation not just for the soybeans but for other plants as well. The soybean plants parcel out life-essential oxygen to the rhizobia in direct proportion to the nitrogen fixation that they provide. How could such complex symbiotic relationships develop gradually over time through natural process evolution? This kind of symbiosis and altruism seems much more consistent with a careful, loving Designer than “survival of the fittest.”
  • E. Toby Kiers, Robert A. Rousseau, Stuart A. West, and R. Ford Denision, “Host Sanctions and the Legume-Rhizobium Mutualism,” Nature 425 (2003), 78-81.
• Related Resource: Consider the Ant, Creation Update (airdate 02-04-2003)
• Product Spotlight: The Genesis Question, by Hugh Ross

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Wednesday, October 1

• The popular notion that “life is everywhere” in the cosmos has (again) run into a wall. In a recent survey of distant galaxies, via the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers found a surprisingly small number of large spiral galaxies – the one type of galaxy with even a remote chance of supporting life. Given that only a few large spirals formed early in cosmic history and that fewer still can survive into later cosmic history, galaxies capable of supporting life must be rare.
  • Ivo Labbe et al., “Large Disklike Galaxies at High Redshift,” Astrophysical Journal Letters 591 (2003), L95-L98.
• Related Resource: A Precise Plan for Humanity, by Hugh Ross
• Product Spotlight: Journey Toward Creation, 2nd edition (DVD)