Tuesday, January 8, 2008

T-Rex find

"Paleobiologist Mary Higby Schweitzer sent shockwaves through the scientific community in 2005 when she announced she had discovered remains of blood cells and soft tissue in a T-rex specimen.
The lack of deterioration in a specimen thought to walk the earth 65 million years ago “raised the profound question of how these specimens could keep their biological integrity over the eons of time without degrading,” said Tom DeRosa, Executive Director of the Creation Studies Institute. Schweitzer’s find strengthens arguments for a young earth, rather than an earth billions of years old, as argued by evolutionists, he said.
“Evolutionists try to excuse this young earth evidence,” he added, “by suggesting perfect conditions existed to preserve these specimens over millions of years, but never come cost to explaining what these ideal conditions were.”

“This past July and August, two teams totaling close to 30 people participated in CSI’s third annual “Dino Dig.” The two teams excavated on a 200-foot hill in the Hell Creek formation near Glendive, Montana. The dig site was 80 miles from where Schweitzer’s T-rex was found.”

“Astonishingly, mixed in with the dinosaur bones in this dry region was an unusual assortment of turtle shells, crocodile teeth, and fish scales, indicating that marine life was present alongside dinosaur bones some time in the past.”

“Such finds indicate that there is much evidence to support the bible’s account of a worldwide flood, as stated in Genesis, with the flood waters giving us this unprecedented and unusual mix,” DeRosa said.”

(“Dinosaur Dig Unearths Biblical Truths,” Impact, Sept. 2007)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mary Higby Schweitzer is a christian, but denounces the young earth theory.

She also observed similarities between the t-rex DNA and chicken DNA supporting the bird-dinosaur connection.

Strange that when this christian went to school, she ended up working to prove evolution!

Why does the idea of evolution bother a christian, anyway? Wouldn't god be wise to enable creatures to adapt? Is it JUST the spontaneous generation part that bothers them?

Jeff said...

Darwinian Evolution runs in direct conflict with the first two chapters of Genesis. The Bible says that God created the universe in 6 days.

Now, there are some Christians who are Theistic Evolutionists, or Long-Day Creationists, who believe that God did create the universe, but that He did not do it in a literal 6 days. They believe that the word "day" in Genesis could mean millions or billions of years.

However, a close study of the surrounding verses and chapters of Genesis show that cannot be the case, in my opinion.

Also, if the first two chapters of Genesis cannot be trusted, then how can you trust the rest of the Bible?

As a Christian, I put my trust in the Bible, and I believe what it says. But its not a blind faith. I have seen my life changed, my family's lives changed, and other people's lives changed by the power of Jesus Christ when they became Christians. I have also experienced things that have confirmed my faith and increased my confidence in knowing without a doubt that there is a God, and that Jesus is the only way to God the Father.

Anonymous said...

I bet you could still gain benefit from the teachings of Christ even if you found out today that Genesis was written as a joke. (not saying it was)

Some say that Moses is Sargon, Noah is Utnapishtim, and that the jews once freed from slavery in Babylon wrote their own religion with themselves as heroes. In any case, the events mentioned while embellished, must be basically true.

A big difference in sumerian mythology is that we weren't created by gods, we were 'made to be unto their image' by crossbreeding with them. Then they put us to work!

In fact genesis has a passage mentioning the sons of god having children with women and bearing them mighty children. These mighty children are all over the place in sumerian myths, in fact Gilgamesh himself is supposed to be a demi-god.

Jeff said...

Sure, some people take the Bible as merely a good morality book, but nothing else. And certainly it does have value as far as teaching good morals.

As far as the idea of Genesis being a joke, an area that many non-Christians often attack is the account of the Flood. Yet, according to the New Testament, Jesus taught that the Flood was real history, and that Noah was a real person:
‘Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the Ark. Then the Flood came and destroyed them all.’ (Luke 17:26–27)

As far as the similarities between Moses and Sargon, the Sargon account has also been compared to Karna, Oedipus, Paris, Telephus, Semiramis, Perseus, Romulus, Gilgamesh, Cyrus, Jesus, and others.
But see this:
http://www.tektonics.org/copycat/sargon.html

As far as Noah and Utnapishtim, there are significant differences between the stories. For example, the story of Utnapishtim (the Gilgamesh Epic) talks about many gods, not just one. It also says that the gods were frightened by the flood. It says they “were cowering like dogs, crouching by the outer wall.” And it says the gods were starving and parched with thirst. In addition, the Gilgamesh Epic says that the Flood lasted 6 days, rather than 40 days.

Another difference is that the shape of Noah’s ark was an oblong box, while the shape of Utnapishtim’s ark was a cube. The shape of Noah’s ark would be almost impossible to tip over, since it was much wider than it was high. Noah’s Ark had ideal dimensions to optimize both stability and economy of material.

“David Collins, who worked as a naval architect, showed that even a 210-knot wind (three times hurricane force) could not overcome the Ark’s righting moment, which would have stopped the Ark tilting much beyond 3°.”
(Collins, D.H., Was Noah’s Ark stable? Creation Research Society quarterly 14(2):83–87, September 1977)

“Korean naval architects have confirmed that a barge with the Ark’s dimensions would have optimal stability. They concluded that if the wood were only 30 cm thick, it could have navigated sea conditions with waves higher than 30 m.”
(Hong, S.W., Safety investigation of Noah’s Ark in a seaway, TJ 8(1):26–36, 1994. All the co-authors are on the staff of the Korea Research Institute of Ships and Ocean Engineering, in Daejeon. They also analyzed other possible threats to the Ark, such as deckwetting frequency, acceleration at various points and slamming frequency.)

Utnapishtim’s ark, being a cube, would roll over at even the slightest disturbance.
The Gilgamesh epic is merely a distortion of the account of Noah's ark. The pagan human authors of the Gilgamesh epic didn’t realize why the real Ark’s dimensions had to be what they were.

As far as the Jews writing their own religion with themselves as the heroes, if that were the case, they made themselves out to be some pretty lousy heroes. In fact, if that were the case, they failed miserably, and instead made themselves look like foolish idiots who constantly complained, constantly disobeyed God and were constantly disciplined by God. Some heroes.

Anonymous said...

Wow... I meant that they made Moses a very heroic character, not that they were all awesome holy warriors or anything...

Also, are you saying that the OT is older than the epic of gilgamesh? I don't think so!

Jeff said...

No, I’m not saying that the Old Testament is older than the Gilgamesh Epic. What I’m basically saying is that the Gilgamesh Epic has little reliability, and it would be unlikely that the author of Genesis would use the Epic as the source for the Flood account.