Today's New Reason To Believe Archives

December 2003

Today’s New Reason To Believe - Wednesday, December 31, 2003

  • Top 10 Scientific Discoveries of 2003 that Support RTB’s Testable Creation Model
    Number 1     Publication of the WMAP results provides not only strong confirmation for the “big bang” model for the origin of the universe, but also lends support for the accuracy of the Bible. Discussed on Creation Update, airdate 02-18-2003.

Today’s New Reason To Believe - Tuesday, December 30, 2003

  • Top 10 Scientific Discoveries of 2003 that Support RTB’s Testable Creation Model
    Number 2     The discovery of urochordates existing in the fossil record contemporaneously with chordates, hemichordates, cephalochordates, echinoderms, jawless vertebrates, and jawed vertebrates adds to the mounting evidence against the traditional Darwinian explanation for the Cambrian Explosion. Discussed on Creation Update, airdate 07-08-2003.

Today’s New Reason To Believe - Monday, December 29, 2003

  • Top 10 Scientific Discoveries of 2003 that Support RTB’s Testable Creation Model
    Number 3     A new model for the early life for the Sun adds to our understanding of the design of the conditions on the early Earth, which allowed for an abundance and diversity of life. Discussed on Creation Update, airdate 04-29-2003.
    • I.-Juliana Sackmann and Arnold I. Boothroyd, "Our Sun. V. A Bright Young Sun Consistent with Helioseismology and Warm Temperatures on Ancient Earth and Mars," Astrophysical Journal 583 (2003), 1024-39.
    • Related Resource: A Brighter Young Sun, by Hugh Ross
    • Product Spotlight: Top 10 Scientific Discoveries of 2003, Creation Update. Call 800-482-7836 to order.

Today’s New Reason To Believe - Sunday, December 28, 2003

  • Top 10 Scientific Discoveries of 2003 that Support RTB’s Testable Creation Model
    Number 4     New insights into the production of chloromethane add to the mounting evidence for the fine-tuning of the early Earth. Botanists discover that chloromethane, a destroyer of stratospheric ozone, is efficiently produced by rotting plants and fungi that are exposed to the atmosphere. Production goes up with the atmospheric temperature. Thus, life’s survival requires efficient burial mechanisms and temperatures that are not too high. This discovery adds another complex element to the faint sun paradox. Discussed on Creation Update, airdate 07-22-2003.
    • John T. G. Hamilton et al., “Chloride Methylation by Plant Pectin: An Efficient Environmentally Significant Process,” Science 301 (2003), 206-09.
    • Related Resource: The Faint Sun Paradox, by Hugh Ross
    • Product Spotlight: Top 10 Scientific Discoveries of 2003, Creation Update. Call 800-482-7836 to order.

Today’s New Reason To Believe - Saturday, December 27, 2003

Today’s New Reason To Believe - Friday, December 26, 2003

Today’s New Reason To Believe - Thursday, December 25, 2003

Today’s New Reason To Believe - Wednesday, December 24, 2003

  • Top 10 Scientific Discoveries of 2003 that Support RTB’s Testable Creation Model
    Number 8     Confirmation of the biblical date for Hezekiah’s tunnel: Results from radiometric dating provide more evidence for the historical accuracy of the Bible. Discussed on Creation Update, airdate 09-23-2003.
    • Amos Frumkin et al., ”Radiometric Dating of the Siloam Tunnel, Jerusalem,” Nature 425 (2003), 169-71.
    • Helen R. Pilcher, “Radio-Dating Backs Up Biblical Text,” Nature (2003), Science Update.
    • Product Spotlight: Top 10 Scientific Discoveries of 2003, Creation Update. Call 800-482-7836 to order.

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Tuesday, December 23

  • Top 10 Scientific Discoveries of 2003 that Support RTB’s Testable Creation Model
    Number 9.     Parasites Trace the Origin and Spread of Humanity: Scientists use body lice to date the recent appearance of modern humans (descendents of Adam and Eve) and trace early migration patterns. This discovery also confirms RTB’s suggestion that the manufacturing of clothing is a feature of highly intelligent creatures bearing the image of God and also provides evidence that hominids did not wear clothing. Discussed on Creation Update, airdate 09-02-2003.
  • Related Resource: Diseases Follow Human Origin and Spread, by Fazale “Fuz” Rana
  • Product Spotlight: Top 10 Scientific Discoveries of 2003, Creation Update. Call 800-482-7836 to order.

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Monday, December 22

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Sunday, December 21

  • A recent study on primitive languages is consistent with the Bible’s account of the recent origin and spread of human civilization after Noah’s flood. A computer analysis of 87 languages and 2,449 cognate sets (related words descending from a common ancestor word) reveals that Indo-European languages diverged between 7,800 and 9,800 years ago somewhere in southeastern Turkey. This date and location are consistent with the birth of large-scale wheat and goat domestication, pottery technology, and commerce. The timing and location of all these events are in harmony with statements in Genesis regarding the birth and spread of human civilization.
  • Related Resource: Wheat Tells a Story of Beginnings, by Hugh Ross
  • Product Spotlight: The Genesis Question, by Hugh Ross

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Saturday, December 20

  • One of the most critical distinctives separating origin-of-life models is the question: What is the minimum complexity needed for an organism to be considered alive? Evolutionary models predict that life’s minimal complexity should be relatively simple. RTB’s model anticipates that life’s minimal form will display significant chemical complexity. One new approach to probe this question involves the total synthesis of minimal life in the laboratory based on theoretical and experimental understanding of minimum genome size. This report describes improved methodology to synthesize viral genomes from simple biochemical building blocks. The stage is now set to begin work on the total synthesis of a minimum genome. When this is accomplished, a rigorous understanding of life’s minimal complexity will be achieved. This accomplishment will pave the way for more rigorous testing of RTB’s creation model for the origin of life.
  • Related Resource: Virus Self-Assembly? Creation Update (airdate 07-16-2002)

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Friday, December 19

  • Do scientific advances serve to bolster or erode confidence in the big bang creation model? New technology that allows better images of space has helped to resolve another enigma affecting this model for the origin of the universe. The big bang model predicts that depending on the size, type, and age of a galaxy a certain number of globular clusters (groups of stars) should be orbiting around it. A notable exception, however, was galaxy NGC 7814 where one study indicated that it had 3-5 times too many globular clusters. A new study with much higher quality images removes the discrepancy, showing that NGC 7814 has the same number of globular clusters as do the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies. Once again, increased understanding leads to increased confidence in the big bang model, which is consistent with the biblical account that a transcendent Creator is responsible for the creation of the universe.
  • Related Resource: Big Bang - The Bible Taught it First! by John Rea and Hugh Ross
  • Product Spotlight: The Creator and The Cosmos, by Hugh Ross

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Thursday, December 18

  • Astronomers are gaining new insights into the history of our galaxy and its design to hold a life-support planet. By witnessing the beginning of the destruction of a globular cluster (dense group of stars), astronomers can now explain how our galaxy’s globular cluster population was reduced from its primordial 1,000+ to its current number of just over 150. The position of the solar system within our galaxy must be fine-tuned so that tidal destruction of globular clusters does not disturb the existence of advanced life on Earth. Our planet’s safe position seems to be no accident of evolution, but rather the careful, loving design of a Creator.
  • Related Resource: Live Here or Nowhere, by Hugh Ross and Guillermo Gonzalez
  • Product Spotlight: Journey Toward Creation, 2nd edition (DVD)

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Wednesday, December 17

  • Evolutionary biologists claim that “junk” DNA provides incontrovertible evidence for evolution. However, these two review articles describe recent insights into the function of a newly recognized class of noncoding DNA (and RNA) which regulates gene expression. This new class of noncoding DNA/RNA adds to the mounting evidence that noncoding DNA is not “junk”, as evolutionists assert, but rather plays a key functional role. Such function is consistent with the kind of careful planning one would expect from an Intelligent Designer, rather than being the result of undirected, random biochemical events.
  • Related Resource: Small RNA Breakthrough, Creation Update (airdate 01-07-2003)
  • Product Spotlight: MP3 CD-ROM – Receive an entire quarter of Creation Update on one CD-ROM for only $24.95.

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Tuesday, December 16

  • Some astronomers speculate that “habitable zones” around stars are wide and thus, the design needed for life may not be as fine-tuned as RTB has suggested. However, some of the discussion in this review paper actually demonstrates that the window of time in which a planet would be able to sustain life is actually quite narrow. Even a slight change in distance to its nearest star could set off either a runaway freeze-up or runaway heating. The reason why Earth has sustained life for so long is that the “just-right” light forms were created at “just-right” times in “just-right” quantities and diversities so as to remove “just-right” amounts of greenhouse gases from Earth’s atmosphere. So many finely tuned parameters do not make sense within a random, chaotic universe, but make sense if a divine Mind is orchestrating this series of complex events to achieve a particular purpose.
  • Related Resource: The Faint Sun Paradox, by Hugh Ross
  • Product Spotlight: Journey Toward Creation, 2nd edition (DVD)

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Monday, December 15

  • Given its mechanism, evolution should not repeatedly produce the same outcome. Yet, when this data is viewed from an evolutionary perspective, it appears that the same behavior – in this case, fungus farming – emerged independently multiple times. The authors of this research describe fungus farming behavior in the marine snail, Littoraria irrorata. This behavior involves the intentional cultivation of fungus as a food source and requires complex symbiotic relationships among several organisms. This is the first discovery of fungus farming behavior in a non-insect (fungus farming has already been documented as a widespread phenomenon among ants, termites, and beetles). The independent origin of fungus farming in mollusks and the accompanying complex symbiotic interactions challenge the explanatory power of the evolutionary model at a foundational level.
  • Related Resource: Convergence Update: Fungus Farming Ants, Creation Update (airdate 11-26-2002)
  • 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 – Sunday, December 14

  • A new understanding of how stars burn provides evidence for design. Critical for the possible existence of life is for nearly all stars to efficiently expel mass toward the end of their nuclear burning. Thanks to new discoveries astronomers better understand a phase of late stellar burning and mass loss for stars the size of the sun and larger. This new understanding illuminates certain design features in the laws and constants of physics and the gross features of the universe that make efficient stellar mass loss — and hence, life — possible.
  • Related Resource: A Precise Plan for Humanity, by Hugh Ross
  • Product Spotlight: Journey Toward Creation, 2nd edition (DVD)

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Saturday, December 13

  • Xenotransplantation (the use of pig organs in human organ transplant procedures) offers one way around some of the ethical dilemmas associated with embryonic stem cell research (which seeks to use human embryos to generate replacement tissues). Researchers are systematically overcoming many of the significant technical hurdles that prevent this biotechnology from becoming a reality. This report describes successful pig-to-baboon transplants using organs from genetically modified pigs. The way has been paved to attempt this procedure in humans. When xenotransplantation becomes a viable technology, the pressure to use embryonic stem cells for replacement tissues will lessen.  Such scientific advance may eventually allow for the use of exciting new biotechnology without degrading the sanctity and dignity of human life.
  • Related Resource: Advance Holds Potential to Resolve Cloning’s Ethical Challenges, by Fazale “Fuz” Rana
  • Product Spotlight: A Christian Perspective on Biotechnology, by Dr. Fazale “Fuz” Rana

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Friday, December 12

  • 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. The authors of this research report that polydactyly (vertebrates with more than five digits on its hands and feet) emerged independently at least twice. The first land vertebrates were polydactyl and appear in the fossil record between 370 and 354 million years ago. Later on, pentadactyl (five digit) vertebrates appear and the polydactyl adaptation vanished. But then, astonishingly, polydactyl vertebrates reappear during the Early Triassic (242 million years ago). The independent, multiple origins of polydactyly challenge the veracity of the theory of evolution at a foundational level.
  • Related Resource: Convergence: Evidence for a Single Creator, by Fazale “Fuz” Rana

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Thursday, December 11

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Wednesday, December 10

  • Many cases of what philosophers refer to as “natural evil” – in this case natural disasters – might actually be understood as examples of God’s goodness. Scientists have discovered that explosive volcanic eruptions appear to be fine-tuned for humanity’s benefit. A new study shows that explosive volcanic eruptions significantly enhance the triggering of El Nino events. Intermittent El Nino events cause more even rainfall distribution over continental landmasses, which is beneficial for human life. In the present era explosive volcanic eruptions are frequent and violent enough to stimulate adequate El Nino events but not so frequent and violent as to kill large numbers of people and animals or to make El Nino events permanent. The fine-tuning of these geological and meteorological processes working in concert for the benefit of human life points to a loving Creator, and helps to answer a frequent objection from skeptics.
  • Related Resource: Good God, Cruel World? by Krista Bontrager
  • Product Spotlight: The Problem of Evil, Message of the Month series (2004)

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Tuesday, December 9

  • The second most outstanding evidence for supernatural design in the physical sciences (cosmic mass density), has received another confirmation. Astronomers applied hydrodynamic calculations to the entire universe and found that contrary to what previous reports indicated, mass-to-light ratio measurements indeed do yield a cosmic mass density value that agrees with recent WMAP results. This cosmic design feature is unlikely in a naturalistic paradigm, but fits well with a biblical cosmic creation model.
  • 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 – Monday, December 8

  • Evolutionary biologists maintain that "junk" DNA provides incontrovertible evidence for evolution. Recent comparisons of the mouse and human genomes have uncovered numerous regions of “junk” DNA with conserved sequences. Biochemists take the conservation of DNA sequences to indicate function. This study extends this comparison to include a wide range of mammals. It turns out that these conserved “junk” DNA sequences occur widely, and therefore must play a functional role in all the genomes of all mammals. This ongoing discovery of “junk” DNA’s importance lends support to the idea that careful planning by an Intelligent Designer, rather than undirected, random biochemical events, shaped the genomes of organisms.
  • Related Resource: Three Studies Affirm Conservation and Function for “Junk” DNA, Creation Update (airdate 09-09-2003)
  • Product Spotlight: MP3 CD-ROM – Receive an entire quarter of Creation Update on one CD-ROM for only $24.95.

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Sunday, December 7

  • Astronomers have discovered yet another way to measure the cosmic expansion rate of the universe. They have demonstrated that a certain kind of radio galaxy is a good standard candle (light source that helps measure cosmic distances) and, therefore, can be used to measure cosmic expansion rates at great distances where tests for design are most sensitive. Using 20 distant radio galaxies, astronomers for the first time determined, independent of any assumptions about a cosmic model, when the expansion rate of the universe transitioned from slowing down to speeding up. This new measurement places the transition at about 5 billion years ago and definitively establishes that two extremely fine-tuned parameters (space energy density and mass density) are governing the expansion of the universe so that life is possible. These cosmic design features are unlikely in a naturalistic paradigm, but fit well with a biblical cosmic creation model.
  • Related Resource: Einstein Exonerated in Breakthrough Discovery, by Hugh Ross
  • Product Spotlight: Journey Toward Creation, 2nd edition (DVD)

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Saturday, December 6

  • Is there life on Mars? Much interest centers on this question these days.  In 1976, NASA attempted to detect life on Mars through four experiments on board the Viking Lander. No organics were in the Martian soil, but the labeled-release (LR) experiment did respond in a way expected if life was present. NASA has viewed these results as inconclusive, however, and attributed the LR results to chemical reactions catalyzed by the Martian soil. This study provides new insight into the Viking Lander results and clearly shows that the LR results were due to soil chemistry, not biological organisms in the Martian soil. This study indicates that the Viking Mission, indeed, failed to detect life on Mars.
  • Related Resource: Mars Overview
  • Product Spotlight: Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, by Michael Denton

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Friday, December 5

  • For many skeptics the long life spans described in Genesis 5 and 11 seem absurd. Recent advances in the biochemistry of aging, however, make these long life spans scientifically plausible. For some time, scientists have known that caloric restriction can dramatically increase life spans. This study provides a biochemical explanation for how this occurs. This study indicates that the Creator could have used diet and subtle changes in biochemistry to allow for long human life spans and then shorten them at the time of the Flood as described in Genesis.
  • Related Resource: Long Life Spans: Adam lived 930 years and then he died, by Fazale “Fuz” Rana, Hugh Ross and Richard Deem
  • Product Spotlight: The Genesis Question, by Hugh Ross

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Thursday, December 4

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Wednesday, December 3

  • Biochemists made a new molecular design discovery when they mapped for the first time the three-dimensional crystal structure of osteocalcin, the most abundant noncollagenous protein in bone. Their map revealed unique structures in the protein that permit it to recognize, recruit, and bind a key mineral component of bone (hydroxyapatite). Thus, osteocalcin joins a growing host of proteins whose 3-D maps reveal design matching the best efforts seen in humanly manufactured machines. Does it make sense to conclude that such examples of elegant, highly complex designs found in nature are the result of random undirected processes? Such innovation does make sense if an omniscient Mind stands behind them all.
  • Related Resource: Protein Structures Reveal Even More Evidence for Design, by Fazale “Fuz” Rana
  • Product Spotlight: Unlocking the Mystery of Life (DVD)

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Tuesday, December 2

  • Increased understanding of the structure of the black hole at the center of our galaxy is revealing more evidence for Divine design. In order for life to exist, it must reside in a large spiral galaxy where that galaxy’s central black hole is very dim. The Milky Way’s central black hole (Sag A), though massive (3.6 million solar masses) is remarkably faint at all but radio wavelengths. Astronomers have observed that Sag A’s faintness is comprised of intermittent sparks and comes from in-spiralling gas just outside the innermost stable orbit. This design feature establishes that humanity is kept safe today by the fact that Sag A is currently accreting very little gas. Therefore, the timing of humanity’s appearance and the structure of the Milky Way’s core seem no accident of evolution.
  • Related Resource: Super giant black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, Creation Update (airdate 10-29-02).
  • Product Spotlight: Journey Toward Creation, 2nd edition (DVD)

Today’s New Reason To Believe – Monday, December 1

  • Although some Christians are skeptical about the veracity of the big bang model for the origin of the universe, it continues to receive a steady stream of confirmations. A new all-sky survey bolsters the big bang creation model. If the big bang model is correct, the dipole feature in maps of the cosmic background radiation (one side of the universe measures hotter than the opposing side) must be the result of our local group of galaxies being gravitationally tugged by a nearby concentration of mass lying in the same general direction as the dipole feature of the cosmic background radiation. A new all-sky infrared survey indeed confirms that a mass clustering dipole lies just 16° from the cosmic background radiation dipole. This finding adds further confirmation to the “big bang” model, which is consistent with the biblical account that a transcendent Creator is responsible for the creation of the universe.
  • Related Resource: Big Bang - The Bible Taught it First! by John Rea and Hugh Ross
  • Product Spotlight: The Creator and The Cosmos, by Hugh Ross