Today's Creation Moment

How does the brain remember what it learns? What happens when you think? Is your mind the same as your brain? Ref: Paul D. Ackerman. 1990. In God's Image After All: How Psychology Supports Biblical Creationism, pp. 68-73. Image: Brain – Pixabay (PD) © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Scientists have been studying the different ways in which insects move, hoping to discover a better way to design mobile robots. In doing this they have inadvertently recognized the wisdom and creativity of the Creator, even though they may not care to admit His existence. Ref: E. Pennisi. 1991. "Scoot Scramble and Roll." Science News, Vol. 140, Nov. 30, p. 363. Photo: Cockroach shortly after molting. (PD) © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

According to evolution, dinosaurs developed tens of millions of years before horses and were extinct long before the first horse galloped across the countryside. According to the Bible, however, horses and the land dinosaurs were made on the same day. This means that it should be possible to find evidence of horses in the same rocks as we find dinosaurs. Such a discovery would be a challenge to evolution! Ref: Edwin D. McKee. 1982. "The Dupai Groups of the Grand Canyon." Geological Survey Professional Paper, p. 93. Photo: Bhimbetka (India) rock painting showing man riding on horse. Photographer: w:User:LRBurdak and licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2. © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

During the mid-1980s, the residents at the north end of San Francisco Bay began complaining about a strange droning noise coming from the Bay. During the months of July and August, the odd noise started after sunset and continued until sunrise. People living on houseboats found that the noise disrupted their sleep. Ref: John E. McC. 1986. "In Sum, it was Some Hum." Discover, June, pp. 67-71. Photo: Oyster Toadfish NOAA (PD) © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

There is a blind spot where the optic nerve enters the retina of your eye. Yet, we don't see a hole in our field of vision. Scientists always thought that this was because our brain simply ignores the ever-present blind spot. Research has shown that an even more complex system erases that blind spot. Ref: B. Bower. "Vision System Puts Eyesight in Blind Spots." Science News, Vol. 139, p. 262. Photo: Blood vessels of a normal retina. The blind spot would be at the extreme left. © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

All of us learned in school that the fierce Tyrannosaurus Rex was the largest of the meat eaters. He was large enough to reach into a second story window with his five-foot-long head and grab a person with his six-inch-long teeth. Longer than a railroad boxcar, he probably weighed about ten tons! Ref: Richard Monasters Key. 1991. "A Tyrannosaurus' Troubled Past." Science News, November 9, p. 303. Illustration by Nobu Tamura and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

When human beings think that they have found mistakes in the Bible, they are eventually judged by their own words. Beneath old Jerusalem lies a complex, ancient water supply system. However, archaeologists have long considered it to be poorly designed. Worse, they said that the biblical account of David's capture of Jerusalem was in error since it mentioned water tunnels that didn't exist in his time. Now these archaeological and biblical critics have been proven wrong on both counts. Ref: B. Bower. 1991. "Jerusalem Yields 'Natural' Waterworks." Science News, Dec. 7, p. 375. Photo of Warren's Shaft, once thought to be the tunnel David used to conquer Jerusalem. Used by permission of Deror Ari. © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

I remember reading in grade school that the human appendix is a useless organ. My textbook said that scientists thought that the appendix was once used to help digest the tree bark that our supposed ape-like ancestors ate. Does the human body have "extra" parts? Do we have organs that we no longer use because we have evolved away from needing them? Ref: Jerry Bergman, Ph.D. Vestigial Organs – A Brief Summary of the Latest Research, pp. 111-115. Photo: Even today, evolutionists persist in asserting that the appendix is a vestigial structure. According to Wikipedia, "It has lost much of its ancestral function.". © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

We've all been taught that fish are cold-blooded. In many people's thinking, perhaps the most cold-blooded of all is the shark. However, scientists have discovered that four types of sharks can raise their internal body temperatures. Why and how they do this offers a powerful witness to the love and provision of the Creator. Note; "The Fire in the Belly of the Beast." Discover, Feb. 1988, p. 8. Photo: Captures tiger shark. (PD). © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

A large, sophisticated concrete floor has recently been discovered in China. The floor dates to a period that, not long ago, evolutionists called the "Stone Age." Notes: L. Smart. 1986. "Scientists find ancient concrete." The Herald (New Britain, CT), January 25, p. 11. Photo: Boston City Hall, completed in 1968, was constructed largely of concrete. (PD). © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Fireflies in southeast Asia regularly put on a show like that seldom seen from fireflies in the rest of the world. These fireflies have an ability found only among humans. Notes: Ivars Peterson. 1991. "Step in time." Science News, Vol. 140. August 31, pp. 136-137. Photo: Photinus pyralis, common eastern USA firefly by PhotoFramer CC BY SA 2.0. © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

There is no room in the harsh realities of evolution for selflessness. For example, evolution says if I help you, I do so because I'm going to get something for myself. Likewise, what appears to be friendly behavior among animals is said to be only an evolutionary adaptation designed to preserve an animal's genetic code. But research is leading some to question this harsh materialism. Ref: "Ants Can Learn to Favor Friends Over Family." Discover, May 1986. P. 10-13. Painting: Belisarius asking for alms by Jacques-Louis David, 1781. © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Mammoths and mastodons were distant relatives to the elephant. There is a great deal of debate over when they became extinct and why. Ref: "What Is a Fossil?" The Rich, Rich Desert. Student Handout. Photo: Skeleton of Columbian mammoth, Mammuthus columbi, in the George C. Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits, Los Angeles, California. Taken by WolfmanSF and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Many kinds of birds collect and store food for later use. However, scientists recently reported that the female red-cockaded woodpecker collects, stores and appropriately uses a dietary mineral supplement as well. Ref: "Red-cockaded Woodpeckers Stash Bone." Science News, August 31, 1991. P. 143. Painting: Female red-cockaded woodpecker on right. (PD) © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

When talking about a baby's expected time of birth, we have all heard someone say, "The baby will come when it's ready." While that might not sound very scientific, new research shows that the statement is probably scientifically accurate. The infant, not the mother, seems to control the start of the birth process for mother and infant. Ref: Fackelmann, K. "A Fetus Tells Mother: It's Time for Labor." Science News, Vol. 140. P. 182. Diagram: Mother-preborn circulatory system. (PD) © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

In Deuteronomy 27:2-8, we read of how Moses instructed Joshua to build an altar on Mt. Ebal after the Israelites had entered the Promised Land. There, the people were to sacrifice and give thanks to the Lord. Ref: Machlin, Milt. "Joshua and the Archaeologist." Reader's Digest, Sept. p. 135-138. Image: Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal map. (PD) © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

All of us are familiar with using bait to lure prey. Both live and artificial bait are used to catch fish. Stores lure shoppers with sale prices. The use of both bait and camouflage is an even more sophisticated activity. The duck hunter not only hides in a blind, disguised to look like the natural surroundings, but he sets decoys around him to make it look as if the area is safe for ducks. Ref: "Bugs that Use Bait." Science 83. P. 6. Photo: Taken by Fernando Otálora Luna, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

If you are like most people, you may not care whether spiders feel pain. However, because of the way spiders are designed, their ability to feel pain has implications for many other creatures. Ref: "The Sensitive Spider." Science 83. P. 6. Photo: Ambush bug, taken by Iron Chris, licensed under GNU Free Documentation License 1.2. © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Many creatures have complex and beautiful mating rituals. However, few are more wondrous or dramatic than the firefleas' ritual. Ref: "Romantic Lighting." Discover, Feb. 1988. P. 16. See also http://books.google.com/books?id=DNrTfH5PcWoC&pg=PA49. Illustration: Cypridina mediterranea. (PD) © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Ouch! You've just gotten a paper cut on your finger. What's the first thing you do? If you're like most people, you'll probably put your finger in your mouth. If you think about it, you probably have no idea why you put your finger into your mouth. Actually, when a dog licks its wounds or you put your paper cut ravaged finger in your mouth, you are beginning medical treatment. Ref: "An Aid to Healing that Simply Can't Be Licked." Discover, April, 1986. P. 10. Diagram: Protein structure of mouse epidermal growth factor. (PD) © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

The monarch caterpillar feeds on milkweed. Milkweed manufactures a powerful toxin that can, in most cases, stop the heart of any creature who eats enough of it. However, the monarch caterpillar itself is unharmed by this poison. In fact, the caterpillar stores the poison in its body, and this poison remains even after the caterpillar has turned into a butterfly. Ref: Walker, Tim. "Butterflies and Bad Taste." Science News, Vol. 139. P. 348. Photo: Viceroy butterfly. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License. © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Despite modern medical advancements, pain management remains a difficult problem today. Man has used various forms of aspirin to manage pain for thousands of years. While more potent drugs can be used today, our primary approach to pain has changed little over the millennia. Recent advancements now promise to show us how to deal directly with many forms of pain. Ref: McKean, Kevin. "Pain." Discover, October, 1986. P. 82-92. Illustration: Brandykinin (PD) © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

According to the claims of evolutionists, the dawn redwood trees lived from the time of the dinosaurs until about two million years ago. Then they became extinct. At the very same time this was the official scientific teaching, Chinese rice farmers were planting the tree because it was a good indicator of fertile rice fields. Ref: Wolf, Thomas H. "The Object at Hand." Smithsonian, Sept. 1990. P. 26-28. Photo: Dawn redwood on the campus of San Jose State University, taken by John Pozniak and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License. © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

It can be forty feet long. It can have many mouths and just as many stomachs. It swims along in the darkness more than 1,500 feet beneath the sea, reaching out for food with its lethal tentacles. Ref: Discover, February, 1986. Illustration: Siphonophore (PD) © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

How long does it take to petrify wood? Scientists who believe in those millions and billions of years that evolutionists are always talking about have never tested the answer to this question. They simply assumed that it must take hundreds or thousands of years to petrify wood. It wasn't until the 1970s that scientists bothered to explore this question. Ref: Chittick, Donald E. The Controversy. Multnomah Press, 1984. P. 240-241. Photo: Petrified log at Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona. (PD) © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

It is always as dark as night 2,000 feet beneath the ocean's surface. Yet, a rich variety of life thrives in the darkness. The strategies for life, however, are quite different far beneath the waves. Ref: Discover, February, 1986. P. 67. Picture: Jellyfish by Pexel (Pixabay.com) © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Back in the 1990s, new fossil discoveries in China were greeted by evolutionists as among the most spectacular of the century. The fossils, said evolutionists, represented some of the earliest multicelled creatures. Evolutionists publicized these fossils as evidence for evolution. However, it's not difficult to see how these fossils support creation rather than evolution. Evolutionists admit that the fossils show that the first multicelled creatures appeared suddenly. This confirms creationist claims that life appeared suddenly and without evolutionary ancestors. Ref: Wilford, John Noble. "Fast Evolutionary Jump Led to Complex Life, Study Says." Star Tribune, Wednesday, April 24, 1991. P. 4A. Photo: Fossil (PD). © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

The relationships between two or more creatures are sometimes so well-designed and complex that there is no conceivable way that they could have evolved. Sacculina carcini is a microscopic crustacean that begins life as a free-swimming larva. The female first seeks out a crab for a host then she searches for a tiny hole in the crab's leg joint. Finding one, she inserts a hollow tube through the hole and squirts a few cells that are herself into the crab, leaving most of her body behind. As she grows as a large bulge on the underside of the crab, she is also sending tendrils throughout the crab's body. Ref: Discover, 8/00, pp. 80-85, "Do Parasites Rule the World?" Image: A parasitical barnacle on a female swimming crab, from the Belgian coastal waters by Hans Hillewaer CC By SA 4.0. © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Research is showing that we can forget just about everything we ever learned about how we taste food. To begin with, we don't taste with our tongues but with our brains. Remember those tongue maps that we all learned about in school? They show that we taste sweet on the tips of our tongues, salt and sour flavors on the sides, and bitter tastes at the back of our tongues. In truth, research shows that we taste each of these flavors all over our tongue. And, no, those little bumps on your tongue are not taste buds. Rather, each of those bumps contains many taste buds. Ref: Discover, 7/00, pp. 70-75, "Tourist is a taste lab." Photo: Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Evolutionary scientists are often hard‑pressed to explain human or even superhuman-like intelligence in animals. For example, let's say that you last saw your child when she was four months old. It is now four years later. Are you certain you could pick out your child in a room full of a hundred four‑year‑old little girls? Ref: Science News, 7/29/00, p. 69, "Mom, is that you? Seals show family recall." Photo: Northern male fur seal and females. © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

The Bible mentions "the fountains of the deep" several times. During the Flood, we are told, God opened the fountains of the deep, suggesting seismic activity. When God ended the flooding, we are told that God closed the fountains of the deep, suggesting that they continue to exist, albeit with less water than at creation. In 1997, scientists said that they may have found an astonishing reservoir of water deep in the earth. Ref: New Scientist, 8/30/97, pp. 22‑26, "Deep Waters." Painting: The Subsiding of the Waters of the Deluge by Thomas Cole. © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

How big is the largest living organism on Earth? We all know that the giant Redwoods of California grow larger than any whale. However, there are other living organisms that dwarf even the Redwoods. Ref: Minneapolis Star Tribune, 8/5/00, p. A17, "2,400‑year‑old Oregon fungus is largest living organism." Photo: Strawberry Lake in Malheur National Forest, Oregon. (PD) © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

New archaeological evidence supports the factuality of the Greek legend about the prophet, or oracle, of Delphi. Ref: National Post Online, "The oracle of Delphi – high on ethylene?" Photo: View of Delphi, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Tropical passion vines have a unique defense against insects that would nibble on their leaves. Its leaves contain sealed packets of cyanide that are made inactive by being linked with sugar molecules. There are other sealed packets with an enzyme that releases the sugar molecules, activating the cyanide. When an insect chews on the leaves, both packets are broken, the cyanide is activated and another predator is gone. Ref: Science News, 7/22/00, p. 59, "How butterflies can eat cyanide." Photo: Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License - Version 2.0. Copyright 2008, Alex Popovkin. © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Many people have wondered at the abilities of savants. These are people who have very low intelligence, yet they can do seemingly impossible mental tasks. Some savants have been able to instantly name the day of the week when given any date within the last 6,000 years. Others have been able to instantly give a correct solution to tedious mathematical calculations. Could such abilities reflect a throwback to the mental abilities the human race once had? Ref: Nature, 5/11/00, p. 139, "Lie detection and language comprehension." Photo: Polygrahp testing (PD) © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

The fact that they must breathe air would seem to limit sea creatures like whales, dolphins and sea turtles. But these creatures are so well designed that their abilities amaze even the most informed scientists. Ref: "Yertle:1, Orca: 0." Discover, Sept. 1987. p. 14. Photo: Leatherback turtle at Sandy Point National Wildlife Reserve (NWR) (PD) © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

While many people think that the octopus is an ugly creature, the octopus is intelligent. The mother octopus puts a lot of love and effort into the care of her young. Ref: Ruggieri, George D., with Norman David Rosenberg. 1978. "The healing sea." Science Digest, Aug. p. 18. Photo: A Pacific Giant Octopus (PD) © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Bee-eaters are birds whose way of life and behavior are both intelligent and unusual. Bee-eaters make their living catching and eating bees and wasps with stingers. The poison in many of these stinging insects is powerful enough to kill bee-eaters, but the birds are not only skilled at avoiding stings, they know how to remove the poison from the bee when they eat it. Ref: Clanbake. Natural History, Mar. 1990. p. 94. Photo: A male Blue-throated Bee-eater presents his mate with a captured insect. Photo taken by Lip Kee Yap and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Several years ago, Canadian and U.S. papers were filled with the results of polls in both countries that tested members of the public by asking some scientific questions. The problem is, both polls were heavily stacked with questions that resulted in so-called "wrong" answers if the respondent didn't believe in evolution. Since more than 10 percent of the questions dealt with evolution, we can assume that the real purpose of the "poll" was to make belief in evolution look the same as "scientific literacy." Ref: "Read it and weep." The Globe and Mail (Toronto), Mar. 1, 1990. p. A7. Photo: Evolution’s progression of man. (Pixabay) © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Do you and I think? Or do we just think that we think? If you believe that we were created by God, your answer to that question will be that we actually do think. But if you believe that life is just a chemical accident, you might agree with those evolutionists who actually believe that we do not think. We only think we think. Ref: Hoffman, Paul. 1987. "Your mindless brain." Discover, Sept. p. 84. Photo: "The Thinker" by Auguste Rodin, 1902. © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

The aspirin tablet has been hailed as the miracle drug of the twentieth century. Although it took the twentieth century to flavor, coat and stamp little letters on aspirin, people have been using aspirin for centuries. The most common form in which aspirin has been taken is as willow bark tea. Ref: Shodell, Michael. 1983. "The prostaglandin connection." Science 83. p. 78. Photo: Aspirin (Pixabay.com) © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Scientists have found that the usual explanation for lightning is not quite true. School children are taught that as a cloud moves through the air it picks up electrical charge because of turbulence. This eventually causes lightning. Ref: Lampe, David. 1978. "Lightning research strikes a windfall." Science Digest, Apr. p. 25. Photo: Lightning strikes during the eruption of the Galunggung volcano, Indonesia, in 1982. By R. Hadian, U.S. Geological Survey CC BY SA 1.0 © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Inside your body there is a large and amazing family of chemical workers who, although they usually last less than a minute, make life possible. There are so many different kinds of these chemicals, called prostaglandins, that science is just beginning to learn how important they are to life. Ref: Shodell, Michael. 1983. "The prostaglandin connection." Science 83. p. 78. Photo: Scanning electron micrograph of blood cells. From left to right: human erythrocyte, activated thrombocyte (platelet), leukocyte.(PD) © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

The surface of the Earth 50 to 150 feet below the great living canopy of the rainforest is a dark, humid, still world dominated by great columns of tree trunks. Within those trunks and some of the giant hollow branches extending from them lie the secret of the life of the canopy itself. Ref: Perry, Donald. "Life in the treetops." 1978. Science Digest, Oct. p. 26. Photo: Rodrigues fruit bat. Pixbay.com © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Today, lasers do many important jobs in manufacturing and medicine in addition to serving in weapons that once existed only in the minds of science-fiction writers. But if our small imaginations can think of amazing things, we shouldn't be surprised to learn that our Creator's limitless imagination can think of even more incredible things. As science studies the handiwork of the Creator, we are learning about His imagination. Ref: "Fashioning see through metal." Science News, July 8, 1989. p. 31. Photo: Gas giant planets such as Jupiter may contain large amounts of metallic hydrogen. © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Evolutionary scientists have been amazed by the discovery that the very oldest artifacts left by humans indicate written language and mathematical ability. Creationists, on the other hand, are as pleased as can be at the findings, since they predicted that it would be possible to find that humans have had language throughout their history on Earth. After all, they were created by the Word of God – who later took human flesh upon Himself. And before the Fall away from God into sin, humans were able to speak directly with God. Ref: "Ice age artists open doors on early man." Science Digest, May 1978. p. 87. Photo: Middle Babylonian legal tablet is an example of cuneiform script. © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Can ants count? It seems so! When scout ants find an item of food, they take it back to the nest. If the food item is especially good but too big to carry, the scout will return to the nest to get help. Scientists have discovered that ants apparently size up the task ahead before getting help so they can return with enough help, but not too much. Photo: Fire Ants (PD) © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

When an engineer builds a building, a bridge, or some other structure, he must build it so that it can withstand both stretching and compressing forces. In designing the structure to withstand both kinds of these forces, he must anticipate how much of each force the structure might face in its lifetime. Photo: Study of Skeletons, c. 1510, by Leonardo da Vinci. © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

In our rapidly modernizing world, engineers are kept busy solving problems. Take, for example, all of the various kinds of transportation. There are millions of problems in this area alone that keep engineers busy inventing better solutions. Illustration: Sagittal section of right knee joint. (PD) © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.

Ants love to work and live in sunlight. They will spend hours clearing their little backyards of leaves and even plants and shrubs. Ants are also known to wander far from their local area. One scientist from the University of California tagged ants with colored dyes and then watched their meanderings. No matter how far they wandered, they didn't seem to get lost. Photo: Leaf-cutter ant by Charles Sharp CC BY SA 4.0 © 2024 Creation Moments. All rights reserved.