NO EXTRATERRESTRIALS

My latest news from the AIAA:

SETI's First Directed Search Fails To Find Evidence Of Aliens.

Ian O'Neill at Discovery News (2/8) writes, "SETI astronomers have completed their first 'directed' search" of candidate exoplanets found by the Kepler telescope using the Green Bank radio telescope, but "turned up no evidence of transmitting aliens." Former SETI chair Jill Tarter headed the search. While nothing was discovered, it "represents a critical step forward in the detection of intelligent civilizations beyond our solar system" by targeting the search more than in the past. O'Neill believes "the next logical step would be to probe exoplanetary atmospheres for spectroscopic traces of a biosphere, a path Kepler has started to lead us down."

They just can not believe that we are the only people that God created.

ASTRONOMICAL LIES

I saw this post in my AIAA newsletter. I am constantly amazed at the Buck Rogers scenarios that drive the search for extraterrestrial life just because we evolved so someone else out there must have evolved also. These are the stories that drive the funding for our NASA programs.

Closest Earth-Sized Planet May Be Around Red Dwarf Star.

The AP (2/7, Dunn) reports, "Astronomers reported Wednesday that the nearest Earth-like planet may be just 13 light-years away - or some 77 trillion miles. That planet hasn't been found yet, but should be there based on the team's study of red dwarf stars." Using data from the Kepler space telescope, researchers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics led by Courtney Dressing determined that 6% of the galaxies 75 billion red dwarf stars could have Earth-like planets. According to the article, this "should simplify the search for extraterrestrial life."

And this story that would have a different finding if posted by a creation scientist:

Bacteria Found In Antarctica Could Have Implications For Astrobiology.

The New York Times (2/7, A18, Gorman, Subscription Publication) reports, "For the first time, scientists report, they have found bacteria living in the cold and dark deep under the Antarctic ice, a discovery that might advance knowledge of how life could survive on other planets or moons and that offers the first glimpse of a vast ecosystem of microscopic life in underground lakes in Antarctica." John Priscu of Montana State University led the team that made the discovery in Lake Whillans, although the article notes more study is needed to determine exactly what type of bacteria was discovered. NASA's Chris McKay "said in an e-mail that such analysis could determine if the bacteria in Lake Whillans have implications for the possible discovery of extraterrestrial life." He said, "If it was using a local energy source, it would be interesting. ... If it's just consuming organics carried in from elsewhere, it is of much less interest."

It may be that the bacteria was there from before Noah's flood caused the ice caps at the poles.

NEANDERTHALS

My AOL news had a Huffington-Post story about a recent discovery of Neanderthals in Spain that changed the date and supposedly made them older that previously thought. What got my attention was the drawings of the "creatures" that accompanied the story. I have a couple of friends who are married and I have argued that they should sue National Geographic and the Smithsonian museums for their portrayal of neolithic people. The couple look like they stepped out of the drawings. There are people today who look just like the ones portrayed in the drawings that are always someone's idea of what the person would look like when they dig up a skull. My friends are very intelligent, one had a PhD in literature and the other is a journalist but have the facial features that looked just like the drawings.
Today I got a notice from the Creation Research Society that they are trying to fund a new project iDINO that is digging up dinosaur fossils with the purpose of identifying Dinosaur Intact Natural Osteo-tissue using their electron scanning microscope. Preliminary results of examining a Triceratops horn has found what appears to be intact osteo tissue still containing blood cells. Plus some other interesting results. This would prove that dinosaurs could not possibly be millions of years old but could only be a few thousand years old.
Personally I believe that dinosaurs existed before the flood with people and other animals and that after the flood like other animals they began to die at younger ages and become smaller in size with the larger "dragons" becoming extinct fairly recently and some still existing as horned toads and other such animals. I think we have dinosaur fossils from both eras of their existence. The ones found that seemed to eat other animals were those who died in the catastrophic floods that occurred after Noah's flood during the formation of the continents as the world was divided and subjected to large tectonic forces.

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION

I resolved to post to this blog every few days this year and failed until today. I don't think anyone reads this blog even though I have advertised it widely. But it is a very personal for me and I want to continue to to post my thoughts.

I have just finished reading a book that Nancy bought me that she thought supported my belief in Noah's Flood. It was David Montgomery's THE ROCKS DON'T LIE: A Geologist Looks at Noah's Flood. The book is a bashing of creation science but is a very thorough look at the history of the controvery between old ages and a young earth view. He assumes that rocks are billions of years old without questioning that assumption. He does look at the evidence of floods and finds lots of support. He argues that the evidence doesn't support Noah's flood, although he isn't sure. He claims that modern geology has a good understanding of the separation on the continents and argues for catastrophic geology as forming mountains and causing huge local floods like the one that formed the scablands in western Washington and Oregon. He then attacks the Creation Research Society for the thinking that the earth is a young earth.

I still contend that the earth could be only 6000 years old, with a period of time with the canopy. We have no idea of the landscape at that time or whether there were high mountains for the flood to cover. After the flood the atmospheric changes could have contributed to the shortened life spans of both men and animals. Then during the days of Peleg the earth was divided. I argue that could have been when the continents seperated and that in a few days or weeks the continents could have drifted to their present locations. This would have been accomplished by catastrophic geological events including floods, tsunamis, mountain creation, folding, uplifting, volcanic activity that lasted for centuries and has only settled down fairly recently. His book records that cataclysmic geology exists. We just disagree on the time line. He did read Morris and Whitcomb's book THE GENESIS FLOOD. He disagrees with it. He also visited a Creation museum in Kentucky and was amused by their thesis. The book is a good history of the conflict in thinking, but I still question the geological ages that have been created by geological folklorists. They have written an evolutionary script to agree with those who formulated the Big Bang theory out of whole cloth.

DINOSAURS CONFIRM YOUNG EARTH

I failed to post a proper attribution for this article. I copied it from my computer and posted it. You can find the whole article by clicking on the reference at the end.

Imagine watching an interview on television and hearing a bald, blind, deaf, wrinkled, hunched-back, bedridden man claim that he is 130 years old. Although you might doubt such a claim, if ever there was a man in modern times to live 130 years on Earth, he likely would have looked as worn out as this man appeared. Imagine, however, if a quick-witted, muscular, marathon runner with fair skin, thick, dark hair, low blood pressure, and a good memory, claimed to be 130 years old. What reasonable person would believe such a claim? Everyone would doubt the statement, especially the doctors, who had found the man’s overall health to be comparable to that of a 20-year-old.
Now take a step into the world of evolutionary science. According to evolution’s geologic timetable, since dinosaurs supposedly became extinct 65 million years ago, any dinosaur fossil found in the ground must be at least 65 million years old. But what if the fossils don’t “appear” to be that old? What if, when inspected by scientists, various dinosaur bones around the world are discovered with “highly fibrous,” “flexible,” and elastic bone tissue that “when stretched, returns to its original shape”? What if fibrous proteins such as collagen were found, along with “cell-like structures resembling blood and bone cells”? Would evolutionists come to a similar conclusion as most everyone would about a marathon-running, 130-year-old? Apparently not.
In the last few years, scientists have found a variety of dinosaur bones from around the world that are not completely fossilized. They actually contain intact protein fragments, including ones known as collagen and elastin. Amazingly, once the minerals are chemically stripped away from the soft tissue, the researchers were even able to squeeze round, dark red, microscopic structures from what was thought to be dinosaur blood vessels.


Read more: http://creationrevolution.com/2012/11/just-how-old-is-dinosaur-soft-tissue/#ixzz2C3ZioyJ6

GOD IN POLITICS

I watched the Republican convention and they reminded us that our opportunities in the US comes from God. They placed it in their platform and almost every speaker reinforced the concept.

Today the Methodists were prominent at the Democratic convention. Their initial platform had removed all reference to God. A Methodist minister offered an amendment to their platform to recognize God and to declare Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. To approve required 2/3 majority to get it on the ballot. That vote was clear, then when the propositions were voted on, the chair called for the vote at least three times. He finally declared that there was a 2/3 majority but my call was even. At least half the delegates oppose putting God in their platform. Then the opening prayer was given by a black Methodist Bishop woman who gave an impassioned plea to support Democratic values.

I pray that God will direct the voters of the nation in November.

There is no way that belief in a six-day creation would be passed by any political party and that is the real shame of the beliefs in our nation.

CURIOSITY LANDS

NASA had a great accomplishment, landing the Curiosity rover safely on Mars. I was skeptical because the unusual method of landing it by lowering it on cables from a hovering spacecraft looked really complicated. But it worked. For 2.5 billion dollars you can do a lot of computer modeling and testing to make sure it will work. The Russians are looking at why they have not been successful lately with their satellite launches and our accomplishments are again showing the superiority of our free system working.

Unfortunately the reason for the mission is flawed. They are looking for life on Mars. They continue to use the mythological thinking that if you have water, carbon and solar energy that life will spontaneously appear. Life was created here on Earth. The stars and planets were created as signs in the sky and all of our planetary investigations have shown that there are no people, or weird creatures like in Starwars, existing on the moon, or Venus where the temperature is so high that lead would melt. Nor are there any strange creatures on Mars. But we continue to look for bacteria or some other form of life like that here on earth on Mars. Of course if we touch anything we deposit our DNA on the surface. I know that Curiosity was put together in supposedly sterile conditions, but it was put together here on Earth where we have organisms floating around in the air. If we find any trace of organic matter on Mars, I would look at the possibility that it came from Earth.

I am looking forward to the science experiments to see how different the soil and atmosphere are on Mars and I think that using robotic devices is much better than sending people to dig around in the dirt up there. So even if we go for the wrong reasons, we will learn something.