No Heartbeat? Don't Worry!

Today's Creation Moment: No Heartbeat? Don't Worry!

I Chronicles 16:24

"Declare his glory among the heathen; his marvellous works among all nations."

Evolutionists say that an animal's unique features developed because the unique feature gives the animal some survival benefit. Just what that benefit might be is open to interpretation, and sometimes the explanation is a little fuzzy. Sometimes the explanation just doesn't work.

Such is the case with the marine iguanas of the Galapagos islands. These iguanas are excellent swimmers and search underwater for much of their food. However, when they are underwater they are vulnerable to the marine food chain. Sharks find the marine iguanas very tasty. With their sensitive hearing, these predators can hear the heartbeat of a hiding iguana 12 feet away. So part of the iguana's defense is to stop its heartbeat voluntarily. Amazingly, the iguana can keep its heart stopped for up to 45 minutes without suffering any ill effects.

Evolutionists explain that this ability evolved because it gives the iguana a survival advantage in shark-infested waters. Obviously, a creature's ability to stop its heart for this long requires some major internal modifications. To believe that the iguana knew all the changes it needed to intentionally stop its heart for 45 minutes without death requires quite a leap of faith! However, this evolutionary explanation just doesn't work. The Komodo dragon can also stop its heart. For the Komodo this ability provides no survival advantage, for these huge lizards have no natural enemies.

These lizards received their special abilities from their wise Creator. Their special abilities glorify Him, not mindless evolution.

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Intelligence is Built Into the Creation

Today's Creation Moment: Intelligence is Built Into the Creation

Psalm 104:24a "O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all:"

Those who believe that the universe, the Earth and everything on it are the result of mindless evolution are hard-pressed to explain the origin of intelligence. Some even try to argue that there is no such thing as intelligence, saying that we only think that certain things reflect intelligence. As we learn more about the world, it takes an ever greater faith to believe in evolution.

The incredible structure of DNA and how it works is one example. Scientists have now demonstrated, though they did not intend to do so, that DNA is itself infused with intelligence. In 1994 it was discovered that DNA could be used as a computer. Since then, much has been learned about the computing power of DNA. How can DNA be used to solve the problem of, for example, finding a flight path between seven cities so that each city is visited only once? To solve the problem, researchers assign a numerical value to individual strands of DNA. Through a series of steps, they allow the strands of DNA to interact with each other, saving the results after each step. An electronic computer can solve a math problem with 30 clauses and 50 variables in 1.6 million steps. A DNA computer can solve the same problem in only 91 steps!

DNA computers would not be possible unless intelligence was built into the very fabric of the creation. Only our all-wise Creator could have been responsible for this.

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No, Thanks. I'd Rather Walk.

Today's Creation Moment: "No, Thanks. I'd Rather Walk,"

Deuteronomy 13:4 "Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him."

As everyone knows, most sea creatures get from place to place by swimming. Others – like the octopus – use a form of jet propulsion. But one thing that no one expects to see on the sea floor is a fish that walks! And what makes this creature even more unusual is that the spotted handfish gets about on pectoral fins that look almost like human hands!

This unusual form of locomotion isn't the only almost-human thing about the spotted handfish. According to an article in Science News, they "fish the way people do, with patience and lures." In their words, "The fishes' dorsal fins' front spines have evolved flamboyant deceptions: tendrils that wiggle like worms, a pom-pom on a stick, a lump with stripes and an eyelike spot."

Once these lures bring the fish's lunch within range, in a flash the fish opens its mouth, creating a suction that sucks the prey into the fish's mouth.

Despite its skills at fishing, the spotted handfish has become one of the most endangered creatures on Earth. Efforts are underway to keep them from total extinction. Let me add that our Creator has also made considerable efforts of His own for rescuing another kind of walking creature from a fate even worse than extinction. Humans have disobeyed God and refused to walk in His ways. Thankfully, our Creator entered His creation and died on the cross to rescue us from a fate far worse than death. Oh, what a Savior!

Ncreationmoments.com

Dolphins At Play

Today's Creation Moment: Dolphins At Play

Job 40:20 "Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the field play."

Bottlenose dolphins have a reputation as intelligent, playful creatures. A newly released video shows just how intelligent their play is.

The video shows various dolphins creating rotating bubble rings which seem to hover in the water for a few seconds. The dolphins do this by first creating a water vortex with their dorsal fin. The ends of the vortex then come together into an invisible ring. Then the dolphin injects air from its blowhole into the spinning vortex. The vortex has enough energy to hold the ring from rising too quickly for play. Such a vortex bubble is about two feet across. However, dolphins might play with the vortex to create a smaller ring. Sometimes a dolphin will insert a smaller bubble ring inside a larger ring. They also create rings that flip vertically or even flip completely over. Sometimes a dolphin will create two bubble rings that collide and produce a third ring. The video shows one dolphin creating a large ring and watching it rise through the water. Just before the ring breaks the surface, the dolphin swims through the ring and leaps from the water.

Intelligence and such play as this are linked. Our Creator has not just shared intelligence and creativity with man. He clearly has shared some of His intelligence and creativity with His other creatures as well.

creationmoments.com

What Your Tears Reveal About You

Today's Creation Moment: What Your Tears Reveal About You

Revelation 21:4 "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."

Did you know that your tears, when dried and viewed under a microscope, reveal whether you were crying tears of joy, tears of pain, or just peeling an onion?

Photographer Rose-Lynn Fisher discovered what our tears reveal about us when taking pictures of the dried tears of one hundred subjects for her project called "The Topography of Tears". When viewing her own tears, Fisher said they "looked like an aerial view, almost as if I was looking down at a landscape from a plane."

The Telegraph news website points out that "tears contain oils, antibodies and enzymes and fall into three categories; basal, which are released continuously to keep the eyes lubricated; reflex, which occur in response to irritants such as when chopping onions or when getting poked in the eye; and psychic, triggered by emotions."

The website also noted that "scientists have identified that different types of tears are made up of distinct molecules. For example, those caused by emotions contain hormones which act as a painkiller and are released when we are stressed."

Wasn't that good of our Creator to supply us with tears to help us deal with both emotional and physical pain? Even better, He is always ready to comfort us in times of sorrow. Tears are not the result of mutations over millions of years. They were given to us by a Creator who experienced great emotional pain in the garden of Gethsemane and incredible physical pain when He died on the cross for you and me.

creationmoments.com 

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 A quick note: I wanted to let you all know that the sign up for the 
tea cup and mug exchange is open until Sep. 21st. 
Don't have a blog??? That's not a problem! Everyone is invited 
to participate, blog or no blog.  :)  Visit The Enchanting Rose
to sign up. It's always so much fun, so I hope you'll join in!

In The Blink of An Eye

Today's Creation Moment: In The Blink of An Eye

Psalm 6:6  "I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears."

The miracle takes place in the blink of an eye. Literally.

Every time you blink, you bathe the surface of your eye with a miraculous fluid called tears. Tears are not simply a salty water solution. They are made of water, but also have oils, electrolytes and sticky carbohydrates called mucins. In addition, they contain antibacterial and antiviral substances. One of these substances is called lysozyme. Any bacteria or virus that finds itself in tear fluid has a 95 percent chance of being dead within ten minutes. That blink of an eye keeps the surface of the eye properly moisturized so that our vision remains clear. Without this moisturization, your eyes would become red and painful, and, if untreated, you would probably go blind. Tear fluid also provides needed oxygen to the surface of your eyes.

But perhaps the most amazing property of tears is even more unexpected. Humans are the only creatures that cry emotional tears. Studies have shown that the ability to produce tears and cry actually helps us cope with emotional situations. There are some inherited diseases which make people unable to cry tears. Studies have shown that people with this disease cannot deal well with stress.

Tears are a blessing in many ways. But we also remember that God has promised to wipe away all our tears when we reach heaven.

creationmoments.com 

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At the beginning of last year, Creation Moments started a youtube channel called Creation Moments TV.

  There are so many fascinating creation moment videos on there...I encourage you to take a look around their channel and watch some of the awesome videos. If you have a youtube account, subscribe to their channel so you can receive updates about new videos. I've included a video below. It's the same creation moment that's above, In The Blink of An Eye, just in video form. Enjoy!

Why Do We Sigh?

Today's Creation Moment: Why Do We Sigh? 

Psalm 150:6 "Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD."

As we all know, coughing is a reflex that clears our breathing passages from secretions, irritants, foreign particles and even microbes that might make us sick. We also know that sneezing is a reflex that cleanses our nasal cavity by forcefully expelling foreign particles and irritants. But why do we sigh? Is it just because we're exasperated or surprised?

Well, here's a surprise for you. Though you aren't even aware of it, you take a deep breath – that is, you sigh – about 12 times every hour. As researchers have discovered, we sigh about every five minutes to keep our lungs functioning properly.

In fact, if we didn't sigh, we would die. Researchers from UCLA and Stanford call sighing "a life-sustaining reflex that prevents air sacs located in the lungs, called alveoli, from collapsing." Study co-author Jack Feldman told LiveScience, "A human lung has as much surface area as a tennis court, and so that's all folded inside your chest." If humans didn't sigh about every five minutes, the alveoli would not be able to reinflate, causing the lungs to fail. The only way to pop alveoli open again is to take a deep breath.

Now remember that sighing is just one of thousands if not millions of vital processes going on inside your body all the time. If your body was lacking even one of those vital processes, you'd be in big trouble. So the next time you sigh, thank Your all-wise Creator!

 creationmoments.com

The Lizard That Sneezes Salt

Leviticus 11:30  "And the ferret, and the chameleon, and the lizard, and the snail, and the mole."

In the arid desert regions of the southwestern United States lives a creature with so many astonishing abilities, it speaks loud and clear about God's hand in creation!

Chuckwallas are large lizards that eat desert plants loaded with salt – a diet that would kill most animals. But these lizards are equipped with special glands in their nostrils that remove salt from their bloodstream. When the glands have filled up with salt, the chuckwalla sneezes, shooting crystallized salt out of its nostrils!

Our Creator has also given them the ability to change the color of their skin. Of course, other lizards and sea creatures are able to do this to hide from predators. But chuckwallas change color for a different reason. To survive in desert regions that are freezing cold at night and blazing hot during the day, their skin is dark in color in the morning to quickly absorb the warming rays of the sun. Later in the day, their skin becomes much lighter to reflect the desert heat. How cool is that?

The chuckwalla's skin is also very loose and baggy. Here's why. When a predator approaches, the chuckwalla squeezes itself into a rocky crevice. It then swallows lots of air, blowing itself up like a balloon that's wedged so tightly in the rock, the predator can't pull it out.

Now, I ask you – how can mindless, purposeless evolution account for a creature with so many extraordinary abilities?

creationmoments.com 

Slightly Imperfection Sale

2 Corinthians 5:17  "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

We've all seen advertisements from retail establishments selling merchandise they call "slightly imperfect". Well, if you listen to evolutionists, we humans are more than slightly imperfect. As one writer claims, "From our knees to our eyeballs, our bodies are full of hack solutions."

The writer goes on to list such supposed design flaws as a spine that was ideal when we walked on all fours but fails miserably once we stood upright. Other so-called evolutionary flaws include: meandering arteries, crowded teeth and a retina that's backwards.

But here's our favorite "flaw" of the bunch – a misplaced voice box. "To keep food out of the trachea," he writes, "a leaf-shaped flap called the epiglottis reflexively covers the opening to the larynx whenever you swallow. But sometimes, the epiglottis isn't fast enough. If you're talking and laughing while eating, food may … get lodged in your airway, causing you to choke." Want to hear his solution? Evolution should help us develop blowholes like whales and then move our voice box over there. Of course, he admits, we would lose our ability to talk!

While such "improved" designs from evolutionists are – at best – laughable, the Bible does tell us that we are, indeed, seriously flawed as a result of Adam's disobedience. Thankfully, though, God doesn't just destroy every flawed human being. He sent His flawless Son to take our many sins upon Himself and to pay the penalty that sinful people could never pay.

creationmoments.com

The Tsunami and the Animals

Today's Creation Moment: The Tsunami and the Animals

Job 12:7 "But now ask the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee;"

Almost everyone in the world today knows of the terrible disaster that struck the coasts of South East Asia. The North American news media gave daily body counts, reported human tragedy and inflicted damage yet, as far as is known, none mentioned the animals.

However, Asian reports from the damaged areas comment not only on the ability of trees to withstand the devastating waves but the almost total absence of animal deaths. It appears that the animals, from flamingoes to elephants, took off for the hills long before the humans. The Chinese have done extensive investigations on animals and earthquake detection but are at a loss to explain it. Chinese scientists simply conclude that animals have far greater sensitivity than the best of scientific instruments.

Reuters reported from Thailand that the elephants used in the tourist business at Khao Lak began to "cry" at 9 am, about the time of the quake. Some elephants broke their hefty chains, but they all raced away toward the jungle-clad hills, taking their surprised tourists and guides with them. Some people were even picked up by the elephants using their trunks. They all came to a point on high ground where the waves stopped just short of where they stood. Three thousand, eight hundred people died in that area. God is merciful to those sensitive enough to His warnings.

creationmoments.com