Today's New Reason To Believe Archives

April 2005

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Saturday, April 30, 2005
Biochemical Design: Life’s Molecular Machinery

  • New insight into the operation of a molecular electrical rotary motor buttresses the argument for design. Biochemists have discovered that many biochemical systems function as molecular-level machines and they often resemble man-made machines. One is F1-F0 ATP synthase, a literal rotary motor replete with rotor, stator, drive shaft, and turbine. Remarkably, this motor rotates in response to the flow of electrical current through the cell membrane, making F1-F0 ATP synthase an electrical rotary motor. Researchers learned more about this motor’s operation when they successfully used mechanical forces to rotate the motor. The machine-like behavior and elegant design of F1-F0 ATP synthase indicates that this biomolecular machine is the work of a divine "Motor Maker."
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Friday, April 29, 2005
Design of Ocean Microseisms

  • Some cyclones may be devastating but Earth could be much worse off without them. Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists have found another design feature for the earth’s oceans. They discovered that ocean wave-wave interactions generate seismic energy roughly equivalent to that produced by earthquakes. Both the level and the vibration frequency of ocean microseisms allow scientists to measure and analyze ocean wave-wave interactions. Such analysis helps to reveal how cyclones, the position, size, and shape of islands and continental land masses, and the slope of coastline land masses  must be fine-tuned to produce the ideal 1) rainfall and storm features for advanced life, 2) conditions to allow for abundant and diverse life forms on and in the continental shelves, and 3) rate of decrease in Earth’s rotation rate. Since the primary generator of ocean microseisms are cyclones and the slope of coastline land masses, these two factors, at least, must be fine-tuned for advanced life to be possible.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Thursday, April 28, 2005
Origin of Life: Time for a New Model?

  • What is the explanation for life’s origin? Most in the scientific community insist that life resulted from strictly natural processes. Naturalistic origin-of-life mechanisms fall into two categories: chance or necessity. A recent analysis, utilizing information theory, demonstrates that neither chance nor necessity explains the origin of the genetic algorithms (instructions) contained in DNA¾instructions that fundamentally under gird life’s chemistry. The researchers point out that the current approach to the origin-of-life problem is to make "the argument that simply says it happened. As such, it is nothing more than blind belief." Along with this provocative statement, the team called for a new approach to the origin-of-life question. Could RTB’s testable creation model be that approach?
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Effect of Moderately Eccentric Giant Planets

  • Planetary scientists at the University of Colorado have confirmed an important design feature for the solar system. They note that all of the Jupiter-sized extrasolar planets that have been discovered so far with orbits more distant from their stars than Earth is from the Sun (a total of 72) possess moderately elliptical orbits. Their detailed computer modeling demonstrates that such planets typically will eject most of the planets and planetesimals within the "habitable zone" and leave the surviving bodies with a wide enough dispersion of eccentricity and inclination so as to make them uninhabitable. It appears, therefore, that potentially habitable planetary systems, in addition to not possessing any gas giants (like Jupiter) that closely orbit their stars, cannot possess any gas giant planets with moderately elliptical orbits. This conclusion indicates that the solar system may be specially designed for life since, so far, it remains the only known planetary system that possesses life-friendly gas giant planets.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Tuesday, April 26, 2005
Biochemistry Supports Bible’s Long Life Spans

  • For many skeptics the long life spans recorded in Genesis 5 and 11 seem absurd. Recent advances in the biochemistry of aging, however, make these long life spans scientifically plausible. In this study, researchers demonstrate that administering anticonvulsant drugs to the nematode, C. elegans (a worm), increases life spans from 17% to 60%, depending on the drug and growth conditions. Presumably, these compounds would have comparable age-delaying effects in humans. If scientists can significantly manipulate life spans by pharmaceutical intervention, it is not unreasonable for a Creator to adjust human biochemistry to permit long life spans and then shorten them after the Flood. In light of this work, long human life spans described in Genesis are scientifically reasonable.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Monday, April 25, 2005
Rapid Natural Speciation of Arthropods?

  • Two American biologists, in claiming evidence for rapid natural speciation, actually establish natural speciation limits that severely challenge any naturalistic explanation for life’s history on Earth. Based on the relatively young age for Hawaii Island and the current number of cricket species on the island, the biologists infer a speciation rate for the crickets of 4.17 new species appearing every million years. They note that this rate greatly exceeds the inferred normal arthropod speciation rate of 0.16 new species per million years-higher than any other inferred animal species rate except for African cichlid fish, which is slightly higher. The "new" cricket species, however, are indistinguishable from one another except for the pulse rate of their courtship songs. The new species of cichlid fish are indistinguishable from one another also except for the coloration differences used to attract mates. That is, the claimed new species are not new in any morphological sense, only new in that certain subpopulations within the species exhibit different preferences for sexual partners. Biologists, thus, are left with an inferred arthropod speciation rate of 0.16 new species per million years (which may be much greater than the actual natural speciation rate). This rate is much too low, in light of the actual extinction rates, to sustain a naturalistic evolutionary model.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Sunday, April 24, 2005
New Evidence for Earth’s Antiquity

  • Detection of a short-lived radioactive isotope provides new evidence for an old Earth. One of the most compelling evidences for an ancient Earth is the absence today of short-lived radioactive isotopes in the earth’s crust and in primitive meteorites left over from the time of the solar system’s formation. From a young-earth perspective, if Earth is only 6,000 -10,000 years old, then these short-lived radioactive isotopes should still be present on Earth and in meteorites, but because of their short half-lives (of perhaps hundreds or thousands of years) they have completely decayed. This new report provides evidence that short-lived radioactive isotopes were indeed present in primitive meteorites. Researchers detected the sulfur-36 isotope produced by chlorine-36 decay in the Ningqiang carbonaceous chondrite meteorite that dates to 4.560 billion years in age, close to the time that the solar system formed. Chlorine-36 (which has a half-life of 0.3 million years) would have become extinct within 6 million years after the solar system’s formation. Thus, Earth must be at least 6 million years old. This direct evidence for a short-lived radioactive isotope, and its absence in primitive meteorites today, compels the conclusion that the solar system, and hence the earth, is indeed old.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Saturday, April 23, 2005
Design of Earth’s Early Ocean

  • Two Japanese planetary physicists have found more evidence that supports the supernatural design of Earth for life. They discovered that the presence of a large ubiquitous liquid water ocean on the early Earth explains why Earth has fifty times less argon-36 in its atmosphere than does Venus. It also explains how Earth lost nearly its entire primordial atmosphere when another body struck the planet and formed the Moon. Without a large liquid water ocean, the only way the Moon-forming collider would have forced the ejection of Earth’s primordial atmosphere is if the collider hit with enough force to destroy the Earth. However, with a large universal ocean, even a slow collision would have turned the liquid water into super-charged steam. Such steam would have powerfully ejected the atmosphere above into the interplanetary medium. Therefore, the depth of liquid water on the primordial Earth would need to be fine-tuned so both the just-right sized Moon would form and the just-right amount of Earth’s primordial atmosphere would be removed. In addition, the presence of a primordial large universal liquid water ocean is consistent with the Bible’s claim that one of Earth’s initial conditions is that its surface was covered with water.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Friday, April 22, 2005
Biochemical Design: Molecular Fine-Tuning

  • Evidence of fine-tuning in yet another biochemical system points to intelligent design. One defining feature of the cell’s chemistry is the fine-tuning required for biomolecules to effectively carry out life’s necessary operations. New research on the regulation of the activity of arylalkylamine N-acetyltransferase (AAA-N-AT), an enzyme involved in the production of melatonin, illustrates this feature. Researchers have demonstrated the importance that the addition and removal of a phosphate group on a single amino acid (serine) residue plays in activating and inhibiting the activity of AAA-N-AT. Such fine-tuning of intricate biochemical systems signifies that life originated from the Creator’s hand.
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    • "Fine-Tuning of Aquaporin Membrane", Creation Update (6-04-2002)
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Thursday, April 21, 2005
Another Extrasolar Comet Cloud

  • New measurements by astronomers provide yet another refutation of a recent young-earth creationist prediction that large distant reservoirs of comets do not orbit about the Sun or about any other neighboring star. A team of British and American astronomers has determined that the star eta Corvi possesses a relatively dense ring of collisional dust located some 14 billion miles from the star. Such dust is the unmistakable signature of a vast and distant cloud of comets around eta Corvi. This discovery, along with other recent discoveries of reservoirs orbiting about the Sun (the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud) and a comet cloud around the star epsilon Eridani, confirms an important prediction of the old-earth creationist model while refuting the corresponding young-earth creationist prediction.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Human Brain Is Unique

  • Recent analysis of Neanderthal brain structure provides yet another reason to distinguish these hominids from humans. Researchers demonstrated that the brain structure of Neanderthals was qualitatively distinct from modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens). They also detected that Neanderthal brain structure was no different, except for size, from that of the "archaic" Homo sapiens-a group that includes Homo erectus, Homo antecessor, Homo heidelbergensis, and Homo rhodesiensis. The find comports with the recognized absence of language, artistic expression, and sophisticated use of tools in Neanderthals and "archaic" Homo sapiens. This discovery buttresses the mounting scientific evidence indicating that modern humans were clearly distinct from Neanderthals and other hominids, and resonates with RTB’s explanation for the hominid fossil record.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Silicon Cycle Design

  • French geochemists have found a new design feature for sustaining advanced life on Earth. They discovered that quartz re-precipitation plays an important role in the maintenance of the biogeochemical cycling of silicon. Silicon cycling is vital for sustaining advanced life since silicon is an important nutrient for phytoplankton (the base of the marine food chain and the dominant producer of oxygen), and the weathering of silicates removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (critical for maintaining an ideal climate). The team found that if the rate of quartz re-precipitation is either too low or too high, the cycling of silicon will be so disturbed as to damage the planet’s capability of supporting advanced life. The necessary fine-tuning of quartz re-precipitation provides additional evidence for a supernatural, super-intelligent Creator.
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    • Journey Toward Creation, 2nd ed., by Hugh Ross (DVD)

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Monday, April 18, 2005
Biochemical Design: Quality Control

  • Biochemical researchers have discovered quality assurance systems in bacteria that provide evidence for design. Well-designed man-made systems include quality control checkpoints at critical junctures to ensure efficient production of high quality products. Many biochemical operations inside the cell also employ such quality control procedures, and hence appear to be designed. This new research characterizes the catastrophic effect on cell growth when one of the quality assurance systems (the editing function of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases) used by bacteria during protein synthesis is nonoperational. It seems the cell’s health depends on this system’s design. 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.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Sunday, April 17, 2005
ExtrasolarComet Cloud

  • New measurements by astronomers provide yet another refutation of a recent prediction made by young-earth creationists that large distant reservoirs of comets do not orbit about the Sun or about any other neighboring star. In addition to recently finding evidence for such reservoirs orbiting about the Sun (the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud) a team of European and American astronomers now has confirmed that the distribution of dust and debris orbiting about the star, epsilon Eridani, matches the profile one would expect to be generated by a vast number of comet collisions. The team determined that the mass of colliding comets is between five and nine Earth masses and that the comets reside between about 3 and 10 billion miles from its star. This discovery that epsilon Eridani also possesses a large reservoir of distant comets confirms an important prediction of the old-earth creationist model while refuting the corresponding young-earth creationist prediction.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Saturday, April 16, 2005
Alternative to Stem Cell Research: Pig Organs

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Friday, April 15, 2005
Missing Baryons Found

  • A North American team of astronomers has confirmed strong evidence for both the anthropic principle (that the universe manifests fine-tuned design parameters for the support of humanity) and for consistency of the biblically predicted big bang creation model. The strong evidence consists of accurate measurements of the three components of the universe; namely that 73 percent of the universe is made up of dark energy, 23 percent is exotic dark matter, and 4.5 percent is ordinary matter. For ordinary matter (protons, neutrons, and electrons) astronomers possess several different accurate measurements of the total amount but have been able to identify the location of only about 60 percent of the total. Using the Chandra and Newton x-ray telescopes, the team found that the missing 40 percent resides as very hot gas in the intergalactic medium. Identifying the form and finding the location of the missing 40 percent boosts astronomers’ confidence in the consistency of the big bang creation model and confirms the extraordinary fine-tuning of the cosmic density parameters for the benefit of life.
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    • Journey Toward Creation, 2nd ed., by Hugh Ross (DVD)

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Thursday, April 14, 2005
Challenge to Biological Evolution: Convergence

  • The frequency of biological convergence, in which unrelated organisms possess nearly identical characteristics, confounds the evolutionary paradigm. Given its mechanism (chance), evolution should not produce the same outcome repeatedly. But that’s exactly what occurs in nature. In this example, researchers describe the repeated, independent origin of bird species. According to this work, Neoaves consists of two sister groups (Metaves and Coronaves) that appear to have originated independently of one another in parallel radiations. Each group consists of numerous bird species that are nearly indistinguishable from one another and occupy identical ecological niches. It seems highly improbable that chance events leading to disparate evolutionary pathways produced the independent, multiple origins of numerous, virtually identical bird species. On the other hand, convergence finds 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-Wednesday, April 13, 2005
No Interstellar Glycine

  • A rigorous analysis by a team of American and Russian astronomers has put a damper on the naturalistic model for the origin of life. A year ago, a different team of radio astronomers sparked hope in the origin-of-life research camp when they announced that they had detected glycine, the simplest of the amino acids, in three different interstellar clouds. (Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, and most astrobiologists believe Earth received its prebiotic material from interstellar material.) The American-Russian team used new laboratory measurements of the spectral lines of glycine and a particularly rigorous analysis of the other team’s results to conclude that the "key [spectral] lines necessary for an interstellar glycine identification have not yet been found." The fact that no amino acids, not even the simplest one, have ever been found in interstellar clouds, in spite of diligent search attempts, is a serious blow to a naturalistic explanation for the origin of life.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Biochemical Design: Organization of Simplest Life

  • A new discovery of a protein’s role in segregating bacterial chromosomes has provided evidence for biochemical design. Only 10 years ago, microbiologists viewed bacteria as a "container" of haphazardly arranged molecules. Recent advances, however, now show that these simplest of life forms possess a remarkable degree of internal organization at the molecular level. Microbiologists have learned more about the MreB protein’s role in segregating the bacterial chromosome. They discovered that the precise orientation and localization of the bacterial chromosome is critical for the process. Far from haphazard, this internal organization serves as a marker for biochemical design and would be expected if a Creator is responsible for life.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Monday, April 11, 2005
No Interstellar Pyrimidine

  • A team of radio astronomers has put another damper on the naturalistic model for the origin of life. They performed the highest sensitivity search to date for pyrimidine (pyrimidines make up much of the nucleobase building blocks for RNA and DNA molecules). They found that the abundance of pyrimidines in three of the densest molecular clouds, at most, cannot exceed 0.03-0.3 parts per billion. With maximum abundances as low as what the team measured, interstellar molecular clouds cannot be the source of prebiotics that led to the origin of life.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Sunday, April 10, 2005
Human and Chimpanzee Genetic Differences

  • Although often taken as evidence for evolution, the 99% "genetic similarity" between humans and chimpanzees requires further scrutiny. Studies continue to demonstate that while a high degree of genetic similarity exists, substantial differences in the genomes also are apparent. In a new report, investigators have learned that gene control regions in humans and chimpanzees differ dramatically from one another. This explains, in part, the differences in gene expression patterns between humans and chimpanzees. The comparison is significant because differences in gene expression are ultimately responsible for the anatomical, physiological, and behavioral distinctives of humans and chimpanzees. Thus, a high degree of genetic similarity doesn’t necessarily mean that humans and chimpanzees are closely related organisms. From a creation model perspective, the Creator could have used the same raw materials (genes/proteins) to construct both humans and chimpanzees in ways that yielded radically different organisms.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Saturday, April 9, 2005
Damocloid Test for Creation Models

  • New measurements in a special class of comets by an American astronomer provide another test for competing creation models. Young-earth creationist organizations have published claims that the current existence of short-period comets stands as proof that the solar system cannot be more than several thousand years old. The astronomer conducted the first-ever systematic measurements on a class of comets known as the Damocloids. The Damocloids are comets of the Halley-type family, for which there is no evidence of outgassing-a sign that their gas reservoirs have been exhausted. The researcher determined that whereas the surfaces of comets (e.g., Kuiper Belt objects) that never get close to the Sun possess ultrared matter, all the Damocloids lack such matter. He concluded that since the Damocloids do reach temperatures sufficient to cause water sublimation, the lack of ultrared matter results from repeated episodes of outgassing. The time necessary to explain such complete outgassing far exceeds the maximum time frame of the young-earth creationist model. Thus, the existence of the Damocloids confirms an important prediction of the old-earth creationist model while refuting the corresponding young-earth creationist prediction.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Friday, April 8, 1005
Biochemical Design: Organization of Simplest Life

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Thursday, April 7, 2005
Kuiper Belt Test for Creation Models

  • New measurements by astronomers provide a test for competing creation model predictions. Young-earth creationist organizations have published a prediction that distant reservoirs of comets in the solar system either do not exist or will prove inadequate to explain how short-period comets could still exist in a billions-of-years-old solar system. In analyzing the Deep Ecliptic Survey the astronomers discovered 436 new objects in the Kuiper Belt (the belt of icy bodies that exist beyond the orbit of Neptune). These discoveries bring the total of detected and measured bodies in the Kuiper Belt to 1,000. These objects include only the largest and brightest and they follow a power law distribution where the number of detected objects rises sharply with declining brightness. Also, astronomers have detected dust in the Kuiper Belt that is indicative of collisional grinding (the grinding up of larger objects into smaller objects through collisions). Therefore, the total number of Kuiper Belt objects must be in the millions. These millions, along with the known Oort Cloud comets, easily account for all the observed short-period comets in an old-earth model. Thus, the 436 newly-discovered objects help confirm an important prediction of the old-earth creationist model while refuting the corresponding young-earth creationist prediction.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Wednesday, April 6, 2005
Challenge to Biological Evolution: Convergence

  • With chance as its mechanism, evolution should not produce the same outcome repeatedly. Yet study after study shows that, from an evolutionary perspective, this must be the case. In this new research, scientists discovered the repeated, independent origin of the inner ear bones in monotremes (mammals like the duck-billed platypus) and therians (mammals that include the marsupials and placentals). Such unpredicted outcomes (known as convergence) challenge the veracity of the theory of evolution, but resonate with the idea of a Creator repeatedly using the same good designs as He brought life into existence.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Tuesday, April 5, 2005
Galaxy Mass Design

  • An international team of 26 astronomers has found more evidence that the value of the mass of a galaxy must be fine-tuned for the galaxy to be able to support life. The team analyzed the spectra of 6,472 galaxies observed by both the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Galaxy Evolution Explorer. They noted that the fraction of galaxies that have undergone a large starburst episode within the past billion years declines steeply with mass. For a galaxy not to have a significant probability for such a life-destroying episode, its mass would need to be as great or greater than one hundred billion solar masses. Thus, astronomers now possess an additional reason for why life requires that a galaxy’s mass be fine-tuned to a value not much different from that of the Milky Way Galaxy.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Monday, April 4, 2005
Human and Chimpanzee Genetic Differences

  • The 99% "genetic similarity" between humans and chimpanzees is often cited as evidence for evolution. However, this report demonstrates that while a high degree of genetic similarity exists, substantial differences in the genomes are also apparent. Researchers found that about 80% of the proteins in the human and chimpanzee genomes are different. This comparison is significant because proteins are ultimately responsible for an organism’s anatomical, physiological, and behavioral characteristics. Therefore, a high degree of genetic similarity doesn’t necessarily mean that humans and chimpanzees are closely related organisms. From a creation model perspective, the Creator may have subtly but significantly altered the raw materials (genes/proteins) used to construct both humans and chimpanzees in ways that resulted in radically different organisms.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Sunday, April 3, 2005
New Relativistic Pulsars

  • A team of American and Canadian radio astronomers has discovered 21 rapidly pulsing pulsars that will provide new tests for the biblically predicted big bang creation model. Of the 21 newly discovered pulsars (neutron stars that emit radio waves which pulse on and off), 13 are in binary systems where a companion star orbits the pulsar. Of the 13 pulsars in binary systems, two show eclipses and two have highly eccentric orbits. For the two with highly eccentric orbits, the team measured a periastron advance (advance of the point where the two stars come closest together in their orbit) of 0.225 and 0.327 degrees per year respectively. Such large periastron advances will provide a definitive test of Einstein’s theory of general relativity (GR)-potentially confirming the reliability of GR to better than one part in a hundred trillion. Such a confirmation would strengthen the already very high confidence in the spacetime theorems of GR. These theorems conclude, based on the reliability of GR, that a causal Agent created all the spacetime dimensions associated with the universe. Such a conclusion establishes the existence and the creative work of the God of the Bible.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Saturday, April 2, 2005
Biochemical Design: Cell Membrane Organization

  • A new study supports the view that cell membranes display remarkable complexity and organization. Biochemists have traditionally regarded the cell membrane to be a chaotic system that lacked order beyond the phospholipid bilayer structure. A new picture, however, is emerging. Researchers have learned that some of the enzyme complexes that constitute the electron transport chain found in the mitochondrial inner membrane are organized into higher order super-complexes. The electron transport chain displays an elegant organization that promotes efficiency of operation. Such organization is an indicator of Intelligent Design.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Friday, April 1, 2005
New Trigonometric Distances to Galaxies

  • A team of American and German radio astronomers has discovered several masers (Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) in galaxies with implications for design. These microwave amplifiers will soon dramatically improve the capacity of astronomers to uncover more evidence for the supernatural creation of the universe and for the supernatural design of the universe for the benefit of life. Accurate, direct distance measurements to galaxies provide a foundational step for astronomers. These measurements help determine the manner in which the universe was created and the quality of design in the density parameters that govern cosmic expansion so as to make life possible. Measurements of the orbits of the newly discovered masers about the centers of their galaxies will provide astronomers with accurate trigonometric distances to galaxies as far away as about 330 million light years. Such measurements would extend by a factor of 14 times the greatest distance for which astronomers have accurate trigonometric distances. This factor-of-14 improvement potentially will deliver even more impressive evidence for a superintelligent, supernatural Creator than we possess today.
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