Before microscopic organisms or germs were discovered, God gave the ancient Israelites dietary laws which not only had spiritual significance, but would also protect them and help them to survive as a nation. These laws preserved the sanctity of Israel as God's holy people. Though the idea of uncleanness typified sin and defilement, it also protected the Israelites from diseases they may have otherwise become the victims of. Remember, all of this was given by God to Moses and Aaron thousands of years before infectious diseases were discovered, or the microscope was invented.
Following are a few examples:
"The rabbit, though it chews the cud, does not have a split hoof; it is unclean for you." (Lev. 11:6)
Tularemia (also known as rabbit fever or deerfly fever) is an infectious disease in ticks and rabbits that is caused by a bacterium (Francisella tularensis). The disease was first described in Japan in 1837. Approximately 150-300 tularemia cases are reported in the United States annually, with a majority of those from Alaska, Arkansas, Illinois, Oklahoma, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Virginia. The bacteria F. tularensis is a hazard to laboratory staff that work closely with rabbits. Note: as few as 5-10 bacteria can result in disease.
http://www.beaglesunlimited.net/rabbithunting_tularemia.htm
"And the pig, though it has a split hoof completely divided, does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you. You must not eat their meat or touch their carcasses; they are unclean for you." (Lev. 11:7-8)
In ages past, pork could cause trichinosis. Modern food preparation techniques help prevent this. Pigs are also host to various parasites. In addition, pork is unhealthy since its even higher in fat than beef. For an explanation of trichinosis, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichinosis
"But all creatures in the seas or streams that do not have fins and scales—whether among all the swarming things or among all the other living creatures in the water—you are to detest." (Lev. 11:10)
Unclean 'fish' such as eels generally contain more parasites than fish with scales. Even today, shellfish often causes food poisoning and enteritis. For example, see: http://www.ifremer.fr/docelec/doc/1992/acte-1595.pdf
"These are the birds you are to detest and not eat because they are detestable: the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture, the red kite, any kind of black kite, any kind of raven, the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk, the little owl, the cormorant, the great owl, the white owl, the desert owl, the osprey..." (Lev. 11:13)
Carnivorous animals readily transmitted infection in a warm climate where flesh decayed rapidly. Vermin and predatory birds were likely disease carriers.
Those kosher laws from God were like an ancient version of our Food and Drug Administration, protecting public health by preventing the consumption of unhealthy foods. Yet, their purpose was also to maintain spiritual purity, and served as another way to separate Israel, God's chosen people, from the idolatrous and pagan nations around them.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Archaeoraptor Liaoningensis: Fake Dinosaur-bird ancestor
Today I want to point out another evolution fraud, this time committed in China and published in 1999 in the journal "National Geographic" 196:98-107, November, 1999. Dinosaur bones were put together with the bones of a newer species of bird, and they tried to pass it off as a very important new evolutionary intermediate.
"Feathers For T-Rex?", Christopher P. Sloan, National Geographic Magazine, Vol. 196, No. 5, November, 1999, pp.99,100,105
"National Geographic has reached an all-time low for engaging in sensationalistic, unsubstantiated, tabloid journalism."
(Storrs L. Olson, Smithsonian Institution)
"Feathers For T-Rex?", Christopher P. Sloan, National Geographic Magazine, Vol. 196, No. 5, November, 1999, pp.99,100,105
"National Geographic has reached an all-time low for engaging in sensationalistic, unsubstantiated, tabloid journalism."
(Storrs L. Olson, Smithsonian Institution)
Friday, March 7, 2008
Computer points to one author
“After feeding the 20,000 Hebrew words of Genesis into a computer at Technion University in Israel, researchers found many sentences that ended in verbs and numerous words of six characters or more. Because these idiosyncratic patterns appear again and again, says project director Yehuda Radday, it seems likely that a sole author was responsible. Their exhaustive computer analysis conducted in Israel suggested an 82 percent probability that the book has just one author.” (Omni magazine, August 1982)
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Colored People
Just thought I'd throw in this video of D.C. Talk's "Colored People" from 1995, which speaks against racism. D.C. Talk was my favorite Christian band for years, until they went on hiatus in 2000. Since then, the members of the band have been pursuing solo careers.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Surprising Archaeological Find: Proof of Jesus' Existence?
by Mario Seiglie
"First it was the name of the Roman governor Pontius Pilate found in a monument in Caesarea, Israel, in 1961.
Then came the discovery in 1990 in Jerusalem of an ossuary, a burial box for bones, bearing the name of Caiaphas, the high priest who condemned Jesus. Just recently it appears the most spectacular of all archaeological finds relating to Jesus has surfaced.
Another ossuary has come to light, this one bearing the names of Jesus, James and Joseph, three of the most prominent people in the New Testament. The ancient Aramaic words inscribed on the limestone box state that it belonged to "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus."
Close-up of the inscription. Carved in Aramaic. “Ya'akov bar Yosef akhui di Yeshua.” English translation: “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.”
In late October Andre' Lemaire, a specialist in ancient inscriptions and professor at the Sorbonne in Paris, announced the discovery of the stone container with the extraordinary script. An Israeli collector, Oded Golan, had purchased the box from an Arab antiquities dealer more than a decade ago. Mr. Golan had not thought the artifact important until Professor Lemaire examined it. In fact, although Mr. Golan had read the inscription, he hadn't connected it with the biblical Jesus.
The dealer told Mr. Golan that the box had come from a burial site in southern Jerusalem where a bulldozer had accidentally uncovered a site containing tombs and bone boxes dating to the time of Jesus and James.
Much to the disappointment of archaeologists and scholars, the box was not excavated by a trained archaeologist from the spot where it had rested for the last 2,000 years. Instead it was surreptitiously removed and sold on the antiquities market (as is the case with a high percentage of archaeological finds in the Holy Land). Regrettably, this prevents the examination of the box in its proper archaeological context and the elimination of any possibility of fraud.
Strong evidence for authenticity
Yet fraud seems rather unlikely. Before the announcement of the discovery, the limestone box was subjected to rigorous scientific tests to rule out the possibility. A team of experts from the Geological Survey of Israel examined the box and the inscription under a microscope and found no evidence of modern tools or tampering. Like the rest of the box, the inscription, though wiped clean in parts, has a thin sheen of particulate matter formed on it called a patina. This particular patina shows that it developed in a cave environment and that it is consistent with an age of 2,000 years.
By its very nature the artifact can be dated to within a few decades. Such bone boxes were in use from about 20 B.C. to A.D. 70, when according to Jewish custom the dead were first sealed in caves or rock-cut tombs, then their bones later transferred to a limestone bone box after the body had decayed.
Professor Lemaire further narrowed the dating by verifying that the inscription was in a cursive style used only in the few decades before A.D. 70, when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. Thus the inscription fits the style used around A.D. 62, when James, Jesus' half brother, died.
Hershel Shanks, editor of Biblical Archaeology Review, which announced the discovery, explained that the inscription was reviewed by Joseph Fitzmyer, one of the world's foremost experts on first-century Aramaic and a preeminent Dead Sea Scrolls editor. Professor Fitzmyer was at first troubled by the spelling of the word for brother, because it was a plural form used centuries later. But further research yielded the same form in one of the Dead Sea Scrolls and on another first-century ossuary. "I stand corrected," Professor Fitzmyer said.
A putative forger would have to know Aramaic better than Professor Fitzmyer, which seems rather unlikely. "To my mind," wrote Mr. Shanks, "this is one of the strongest arguments for the authenticity of the James inscription" (Biblical Archaeology Review, November-December 2002, p. 33).
Many factors pointing in one direction
"It seems very probable," Professor Lemaire concludes, "that this is the ossuary of the James in the New Testament" (ibid.).
What makes the case that this is indeed the ossuary of Jesus' half brother so convincing is the combination of factors that point in the same direction. Dr. Lemaire notes that Joseph (Hebrew Yosef) and Jesus (Yeshua, or Joshua) were common names in the A.D. 60s and James (Ya'akov or Jacob) less so, but a brother would not ordinarily be named in an inscription unless he were prominent.
Dr. Lemaire says the likelihood of more than one person named James with a father named Joseph and a prominent brother named Jesus in that precise time period is minuscule.
"It is one thing to have scattered probabilities," explains John Meier, professor of New Testament at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and an authority on first-century Palestinian Judaism; "it's another thing to have lines of probabilities all converging at one point" (UPI report, Oct. 25).
Mr. Shanks stated that the "clincher" for him was the naming of the brother of the deceased. Of some 800 bone boxes discovered, 233 have inscriptions on the outside. Of these, few are inscribed with the name of a brother—only one other in Aramaic. Mr. Shanks said if one accepts the theory that the deceased was a prominent person associated with him—rather than simply associated because the brother presided over the secondary interment—the probability that the inscription refers to Jesus of Nazareth seems overwhelming."
"The death of James
The death of James, the Lord's brother—not to be confused with the two original apostles named James (see Matthew 10:2-3)—is not mentioned in the New Testament. But Josephus, the first-century Jewish historian, does record it.
He writes: "Festus [the Roman procurator] was now dead, and Albinus [his successor] was but upon the road; so he [Ananas II, the high priest] assembled the Sanhedrin of the judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others, and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned" (Antiquities of the Jews, Book 20, chap. 9, sec. 1).
Eusebius, a fourth-century church historian, records even more of the details of James' death: "Conducting him [James] into a public place, they demanded that he should renounce the faith of Christ before all the people; but contrary to the sentiments of all, with a firm voice, and much beyond their expectation, he declared himself fully before the whole multitude, and confessed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, our Savior and Lord.
"Unable to bear any longer the testimony of the man, who, on account of his elevated virtue and piety was deemed the most just of men, they . . . slew him . . . But, as to the manner of James's death, it has been already stated in the words of Clement, that he was thrown from a wing of the temple, [to be stoned] and beaten to death with a club" (Ecclesiastical History, 1995, pp. 75-76).
Names of other biblical figures found
Although the evidence so far points to the listing of Jesus, James and Joseph on the newfound ossuary as being the same persons mentioned in the New Testament, it cannot be proven with absolute certainty. Perhaps testing methods yet to be developed will be carried out that can further confirm the find.
In the meantime, the find nevertheless appears to be powerful evidence for the accuracy of the Gospel accounts and the literal existence of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, and His earthly family.
And by no means is this find unique; the existence of many biblical figures has been proven by archaeological finds. So far biblical names that have been positively confirmed include Herod the Great, Herod Agrippa, Pontius Pilate, Caiaphas, David, many of the kings of Judah and Israel, and even Jeremiah's scribe, Baruch."
http://www.gnmagazine.org/issues/gn44/existence.htm
Have scholars found firm evidence of the existence of Jesus Christ, His earthly father and one of His half brothers? An intriguing find bears their names.
"First it was the name of the Roman governor Pontius Pilate found in a monument in Caesarea, Israel, in 1961.
Then came the discovery in 1990 in Jerusalem of an ossuary, a burial box for bones, bearing the name of Caiaphas, the high priest who condemned Jesus. Just recently it appears the most spectacular of all archaeological finds relating to Jesus has surfaced.
Another ossuary has come to light, this one bearing the names of Jesus, James and Joseph, three of the most prominent people in the New Testament. The ancient Aramaic words inscribed on the limestone box state that it belonged to "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus."
Close-up of the inscription. Carved in Aramaic. “Ya'akov bar Yosef akhui di Yeshua.” English translation: “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.”
In late October Andre' Lemaire, a specialist in ancient inscriptions and professor at the Sorbonne in Paris, announced the discovery of the stone container with the extraordinary script. An Israeli collector, Oded Golan, had purchased the box from an Arab antiquities dealer more than a decade ago. Mr. Golan had not thought the artifact important until Professor Lemaire examined it. In fact, although Mr. Golan had read the inscription, he hadn't connected it with the biblical Jesus.
The dealer told Mr. Golan that the box had come from a burial site in southern Jerusalem where a bulldozer had accidentally uncovered a site containing tombs and bone boxes dating to the time of Jesus and James.
Much to the disappointment of archaeologists and scholars, the box was not excavated by a trained archaeologist from the spot where it had rested for the last 2,000 years. Instead it was surreptitiously removed and sold on the antiquities market (as is the case with a high percentage of archaeological finds in the Holy Land). Regrettably, this prevents the examination of the box in its proper archaeological context and the elimination of any possibility of fraud.
Strong evidence for authenticity
Yet fraud seems rather unlikely. Before the announcement of the discovery, the limestone box was subjected to rigorous scientific tests to rule out the possibility. A team of experts from the Geological Survey of Israel examined the box and the inscription under a microscope and found no evidence of modern tools or tampering. Like the rest of the box, the inscription, though wiped clean in parts, has a thin sheen of particulate matter formed on it called a patina. This particular patina shows that it developed in a cave environment and that it is consistent with an age of 2,000 years.
By its very nature the artifact can be dated to within a few decades. Such bone boxes were in use from about 20 B.C. to A.D. 70, when according to Jewish custom the dead were first sealed in caves or rock-cut tombs, then their bones later transferred to a limestone bone box after the body had decayed.
Professor Lemaire further narrowed the dating by verifying that the inscription was in a cursive style used only in the few decades before A.D. 70, when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. Thus the inscription fits the style used around A.D. 62, when James, Jesus' half brother, died.
Hershel Shanks, editor of Biblical Archaeology Review, which announced the discovery, explained that the inscription was reviewed by Joseph Fitzmyer, one of the world's foremost experts on first-century Aramaic and a preeminent Dead Sea Scrolls editor. Professor Fitzmyer was at first troubled by the spelling of the word for brother, because it was a plural form used centuries later. But further research yielded the same form in one of the Dead Sea Scrolls and on another first-century ossuary. "I stand corrected," Professor Fitzmyer said.
A putative forger would have to know Aramaic better than Professor Fitzmyer, which seems rather unlikely. "To my mind," wrote Mr. Shanks, "this is one of the strongest arguments for the authenticity of the James inscription" (Biblical Archaeology Review, November-December 2002, p. 33).
Many factors pointing in one direction
"It seems very probable," Professor Lemaire concludes, "that this is the ossuary of the James in the New Testament" (ibid.).
What makes the case that this is indeed the ossuary of Jesus' half brother so convincing is the combination of factors that point in the same direction. Dr. Lemaire notes that Joseph (Hebrew Yosef) and Jesus (Yeshua, or Joshua) were common names in the A.D. 60s and James (Ya'akov or Jacob) less so, but a brother would not ordinarily be named in an inscription unless he were prominent.
Dr. Lemaire says the likelihood of more than one person named James with a father named Joseph and a prominent brother named Jesus in that precise time period is minuscule.
"It is one thing to have scattered probabilities," explains John Meier, professor of New Testament at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and an authority on first-century Palestinian Judaism; "it's another thing to have lines of probabilities all converging at one point" (UPI report, Oct. 25).
Mr. Shanks stated that the "clincher" for him was the naming of the brother of the deceased. Of some 800 bone boxes discovered, 233 have inscriptions on the outside. Of these, few are inscribed with the name of a brother—only one other in Aramaic. Mr. Shanks said if one accepts the theory that the deceased was a prominent person associated with him—rather than simply associated because the brother presided over the secondary interment—the probability that the inscription refers to Jesus of Nazareth seems overwhelming."
"The death of James
The death of James, the Lord's brother—not to be confused with the two original apostles named James (see Matthew 10:2-3)—is not mentioned in the New Testament. But Josephus, the first-century Jewish historian, does record it.
He writes: "Festus [the Roman procurator] was now dead, and Albinus [his successor] was but upon the road; so he [Ananas II, the high priest] assembled the Sanhedrin of the judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others, and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned" (Antiquities of the Jews, Book 20, chap. 9, sec. 1).
Eusebius, a fourth-century church historian, records even more of the details of James' death: "Conducting him [James] into a public place, they demanded that he should renounce the faith of Christ before all the people; but contrary to the sentiments of all, with a firm voice, and much beyond their expectation, he declared himself fully before the whole multitude, and confessed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, our Savior and Lord.
"Unable to bear any longer the testimony of the man, who, on account of his elevated virtue and piety was deemed the most just of men, they . . . slew him . . . But, as to the manner of James's death, it has been already stated in the words of Clement, that he was thrown from a wing of the temple, [to be stoned] and beaten to death with a club" (Ecclesiastical History, 1995, pp. 75-76).
Names of other biblical figures found
Although the evidence so far points to the listing of Jesus, James and Joseph on the newfound ossuary as being the same persons mentioned in the New Testament, it cannot be proven with absolute certainty. Perhaps testing methods yet to be developed will be carried out that can further confirm the find.
In the meantime, the find nevertheless appears to be powerful evidence for the accuracy of the Gospel accounts and the literal existence of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, and His earthly family.
And by no means is this find unique; the existence of many biblical figures has been proven by archaeological finds. So far biblical names that have been positively confirmed include Herod the Great, Herod Agrippa, Pontius Pilate, Caiaphas, David, many of the kings of Judah and Israel, and even Jeremiah's scribe, Baruch."
http://www.gnmagazine.org/issues/gn44/existence.htm
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Larry Norman tribute
This is a tribute to Larry Norman, who died 2/24/08 at 60 years of age. He was considered the 'Father of Christian Rock.' He officially retired in 2001, the same year he was inducted into the Gospel Music Association's Hall of Fame along with Elvis Presley and Keith Green. His first two solo albums, "Upon This Rock" (originally released on Capitol in 1969) and "Only Visiting This Planet" (issued by Verve in 1972), are widely considered the first Christian rock albums of any real significance. At the age of nine, Larry began writing and performing original rock and roll songs at school, experimenting and incorporating a spiritual message into his music. In 1959 he performed on Ted Mack's syndicated television show, "The Original Amateur Hour," on CBS. Upon moving to San Jose, California, he began recording for Capitol Records with his band "People!" in 1966 and for the next 2 years performed concerts supporting The Doors, The Who, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix, among others. "People!" scored a Billboard Chart hit in 1968 with a cover of The Zombies' song "I Love You."
Monday, March 3, 2008
Gay Pride outreach, West Hollywood
Notice that (in contrast to, for example, those of the Westboro Baptist Church who hold up signs saying "God Hates Fags") he does not condescendingly tell them, "You homosexuals are all going to Hell!" Instead, he takes them through four of the Ten Commandments, which every single one of us has broken, and shows them that every one of us is a sinner (i.e., every one of us has lied, lusted, gossiped, stolen, cheated, cursed, used God's Name in vain, committed adultery or fornication, gotten drunk, hated, etc.), and that the only hope we have of escaping Hell is through Jesus Christ, Who loved us so much that He died for our sins. If we repent (not just regret, but turn away) of our sins and surrender to Christ Jesus, we can then have eternal life in Paradise.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Asking the Forbidden Questions
According to Darwin, the absence of intermediate fossil forms “is the most obvious and gravest objection which can be urged against my theory.” What new fossil finds, if any, have occurred since Darwin wrote these words nearly 150 years ago? Do they overturn Darwin’s bleak assessment of evolutionary theory? If the absence of intermediate fossil forms holds as much today as it did back then, why should anyone accept evolution?
Progressions invariably come from organisms with the same basic body plan. In the “evolution” of the horse, we are always dealing with horse-like organisms. And even with the “evolution” of reptiles into mammals, we are dealing with land-dwelling vertebrates sharing many common structures. What we don’t see in the fossil record is animals with fundamentally different body plans evolving from a common ancestor. For instance, there is no fossil evidence whatsoever that insects and vertebrates share a common evolutionary ancestor.
The challenge that here confronts evolution is not isolated but pervasive, and comes up most flagrantly in what’s called the Cambrian Explosion. In a very brief window of time during the geological period known as the Cambrian, virtually all the basic animal types appeared suddenly in the fossil record with no trace of evolutionary ancestors. The Cambrian Explosion so flies in the face of evolution that paleontologist Peter Ward wrote, “If ever there was evidence suggesting Divine Creation, surely the Precambrian and Cambrian transition, known from numerous localities across the face of the earth, is it.” Note that Ward is not a creationist.
The challenge of the fossil record that Darwin identified 150 years ago has not gone away. To his credit, the late evolutionist Stephen Jay Gould conceded this point: “The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persists as the trade secret of paleontology. The evolutionary trees that adorn our textbooks have data only at the tips and nodes of their branches; the rest is inference, however reasonable, not the evidence of fossils.
But IS this inference actually reasonable?
According to evolutionist Richard Dawkins, the “evidence of evolution reveals a universe without design.” Yet he also states, “Biology is the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose.” How does Dawkins know that living things only appear to be designed but are not actually designed?
The great fallacy of evolution is that it claims all the benefits of design without the need for actual design. In particular, evolution attributes intelligence, the power of choice, to a fundamentally irrational process, namely, natural selection. But nature has no power to choose. Real choices involve deliberation, that is, some consideration of future possibilities and consequences.
But natural selection is incapable of looking to the future. Instead, it acts on the spur of the moment, based solely on what the environment right now deems fit. It cannot plan for the future. It is incapable of deferring success or gratification. And yet, so limited a process is supposed to produce marvels of biological complexity and diversity that far exceed the capacities of the best human designers.
There’s no evidence that natural selection is up to the task. Natural selection is fine for explaining certain small-scale changes in organisms, like the beaks of birds adapting to environmental changes. It can take existing structures and hone them. But it can’t explain how you get complex structures in the first place. That’s why cell biologist Franklin Harold writes, “there are presently no detailed Darwinian accounts of the evolution of any biochemical or cellular system, only a variety of wishful speculations.
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) is a scientific research program that looks for signs of intelligence from distant space. Should biologists likewise be looking for signs of intelligence in biological systems? Why or why not? Could actual intelligent design in biological systems be scientifically detectable?
After all, “intelligent design is scientifically detectable in many areas of science, such as archeology, forensics, and cryptography.” And “nonhuman intelligence could be scientifically detectable, as with SETI.”
Do any structures in the cell resemble highly intricate machines designed by humans?
Evolutionists claim that these structures evolved. But if so, how? Could such machines have features that place them beyond the reach of evolution?
There are structures in the cell that don’t just resemble humanly built machines—they actually are machines in every sense of the word.
Take, for instance, the bacterial flagellum, which is now referred to as the “Icon of Intelligent Design” by some evolutionists because it has been so effectively used to criticize evolution. The bacterial flagellum is a marvel of nano-engineering.
Biologist Howard Berg at Harvard refers to it as “the most efficient machine in the universe.” The flagellum is a little bi-directional motor-driven propeller that sits on the backs of certain bacteria and drives them through their watery environment. It spins at 20,000 rpm and can change direction in a quarter turn. It requires approximately 40 protein parts for its construction. If any of the parts are missing or not available in the right proportions, no functional flagellum will form. So, how did it evolve?
Despite thousands of research articles that have been written about the structure and function of the flagellum, biologists don’t have a clue how it could have evolved. Evolutionists have only one straw at which they continually grasp when trying to explain how the flagellum might have evolved, namely, that the flagellum contains within it a structure similar to a microsyringe found in some bacteria. Having found this sub-structure, evolutionists merrily conclude that the microsyringe must have evolved into the flagellum.
Such pathetic lapses in logic are everywhere in the evolutionary literature. The challenge for evolutionary theory is not to find components of such systems that could be grist of natural selection’s mill. Rather, it is to provide detailed, testable, step-by-step scenarios whereby such components could reasonably have come together to bring about the marvels of nano-engineering that we find in systems like the flagellum.
What evidence would convince you that evolution is false? If no such evidence exists, or indeed could exist, how can evolution be a testable scientific theory?
"The burden is on Darwin and his defenders to demonstrate that at least some complex organs we find in nature really can possibly be formed in this way, that is, by some specific, fully articulated series of slight modifications.” (University of Texas philosopher Robert Koons)
The evolutionist J. B. S. Haldane, when asked what would convince him that evolution was false, replied that finding a rabbit fossil in pre-Cambrian rocks would do quite nicely. Such a fossil would, by standard geological dating, be out of sequence by several hundreds of millions of years. Certainly such a finding, if rigorously confirmed, would overturn the current understanding of the history of life. But it would not overturn evolution.
Haldane’s rabbit is easily enough explained as an evolutionary convergence, in which essentially the same structure or life form evolves twice. In place of a common underlying intelligent design, evolutionists invoke evolutionary convergence whenever confronted with similar biological structures that cannot reasonably be traced back to a common evolutionary ancestor.
So long as some unknown or unexplored evolutionary pathway might have led to the formation of some biological structure or organism, evolutionists prefer it over alternative explanations such as intelligent design. And since the unknown and unexplored allow for an infinity of loopholes, the committed evolutionist regards Darwinian and other materialist explanations of life’s origin and subsequent development as always trumping alternative explanations, regardless of the evidence.
Richard Halvorson, writing for the “Harvard Crimson,” has aptly remarked, “We must refuse to bow to our culture’s false idols. Science will not benefit from canonizing Darwin or making evolution an article of secular faith. We must reject intellectual excommunication as a valid form of dealing with criticism: the most important question for any society to ask is the one that is forbidden.
Evolution has become an ideology, and the one thing that ideologies fear is exposure.
That’s why evolution forbids certain lines of questioning. But the questions need to be asked. Too much is riding on evolution for it to escape proper scrutiny.
http://www.designinference.com/documents/2004.04.Five_Questions_Ev.pdf
Progressions invariably come from organisms with the same basic body plan. In the “evolution” of the horse, we are always dealing with horse-like organisms. And even with the “evolution” of reptiles into mammals, we are dealing with land-dwelling vertebrates sharing many common structures. What we don’t see in the fossil record is animals with fundamentally different body plans evolving from a common ancestor. For instance, there is no fossil evidence whatsoever that insects and vertebrates share a common evolutionary ancestor.
The challenge that here confronts evolution is not isolated but pervasive, and comes up most flagrantly in what’s called the Cambrian Explosion. In a very brief window of time during the geological period known as the Cambrian, virtually all the basic animal types appeared suddenly in the fossil record with no trace of evolutionary ancestors. The Cambrian Explosion so flies in the face of evolution that paleontologist Peter Ward wrote, “If ever there was evidence suggesting Divine Creation, surely the Precambrian and Cambrian transition, known from numerous localities across the face of the earth, is it.” Note that Ward is not a creationist.
The challenge of the fossil record that Darwin identified 150 years ago has not gone away. To his credit, the late evolutionist Stephen Jay Gould conceded this point: “The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persists as the trade secret of paleontology. The evolutionary trees that adorn our textbooks have data only at the tips and nodes of their branches; the rest is inference, however reasonable, not the evidence of fossils.
But IS this inference actually reasonable?
According to evolutionist Richard Dawkins, the “evidence of evolution reveals a universe without design.” Yet he also states, “Biology is the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose.” How does Dawkins know that living things only appear to be designed but are not actually designed?
The great fallacy of evolution is that it claims all the benefits of design without the need for actual design. In particular, evolution attributes intelligence, the power of choice, to a fundamentally irrational process, namely, natural selection. But nature has no power to choose. Real choices involve deliberation, that is, some consideration of future possibilities and consequences.
But natural selection is incapable of looking to the future. Instead, it acts on the spur of the moment, based solely on what the environment right now deems fit. It cannot plan for the future. It is incapable of deferring success or gratification. And yet, so limited a process is supposed to produce marvels of biological complexity and diversity that far exceed the capacities of the best human designers.
There’s no evidence that natural selection is up to the task. Natural selection is fine for explaining certain small-scale changes in organisms, like the beaks of birds adapting to environmental changes. It can take existing structures and hone them. But it can’t explain how you get complex structures in the first place. That’s why cell biologist Franklin Harold writes, “there are presently no detailed Darwinian accounts of the evolution of any biochemical or cellular system, only a variety of wishful speculations.
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) is a scientific research program that looks for signs of intelligence from distant space. Should biologists likewise be looking for signs of intelligence in biological systems? Why or why not? Could actual intelligent design in biological systems be scientifically detectable?
After all, “intelligent design is scientifically detectable in many areas of science, such as archeology, forensics, and cryptography.” And “nonhuman intelligence could be scientifically detectable, as with SETI.”
Do any structures in the cell resemble highly intricate machines designed by humans?
Evolutionists claim that these structures evolved. But if so, how? Could such machines have features that place them beyond the reach of evolution?
There are structures in the cell that don’t just resemble humanly built machines—they actually are machines in every sense of the word.
Take, for instance, the bacterial flagellum, which is now referred to as the “Icon of Intelligent Design” by some evolutionists because it has been so effectively used to criticize evolution. The bacterial flagellum is a marvel of nano-engineering.
Biologist Howard Berg at Harvard refers to it as “the most efficient machine in the universe.” The flagellum is a little bi-directional motor-driven propeller that sits on the backs of certain bacteria and drives them through their watery environment. It spins at 20,000 rpm and can change direction in a quarter turn. It requires approximately 40 protein parts for its construction. If any of the parts are missing or not available in the right proportions, no functional flagellum will form. So, how did it evolve?
Despite thousands of research articles that have been written about the structure and function of the flagellum, biologists don’t have a clue how it could have evolved. Evolutionists have only one straw at which they continually grasp when trying to explain how the flagellum might have evolved, namely, that the flagellum contains within it a structure similar to a microsyringe found in some bacteria. Having found this sub-structure, evolutionists merrily conclude that the microsyringe must have evolved into the flagellum.
Such pathetic lapses in logic are everywhere in the evolutionary literature. The challenge for evolutionary theory is not to find components of such systems that could be grist of natural selection’s mill. Rather, it is to provide detailed, testable, step-by-step scenarios whereby such components could reasonably have come together to bring about the marvels of nano-engineering that we find in systems like the flagellum.
What evidence would convince you that evolution is false? If no such evidence exists, or indeed could exist, how can evolution be a testable scientific theory?
"The burden is on Darwin and his defenders to demonstrate that at least some complex organs we find in nature really can possibly be formed in this way, that is, by some specific, fully articulated series of slight modifications.” (University of Texas philosopher Robert Koons)
The evolutionist J. B. S. Haldane, when asked what would convince him that evolution was false, replied that finding a rabbit fossil in pre-Cambrian rocks would do quite nicely. Such a fossil would, by standard geological dating, be out of sequence by several hundreds of millions of years. Certainly such a finding, if rigorously confirmed, would overturn the current understanding of the history of life. But it would not overturn evolution.
Haldane’s rabbit is easily enough explained as an evolutionary convergence, in which essentially the same structure or life form evolves twice. In place of a common underlying intelligent design, evolutionists invoke evolutionary convergence whenever confronted with similar biological structures that cannot reasonably be traced back to a common evolutionary ancestor.
So long as some unknown or unexplored evolutionary pathway might have led to the formation of some biological structure or organism, evolutionists prefer it over alternative explanations such as intelligent design. And since the unknown and unexplored allow for an infinity of loopholes, the committed evolutionist regards Darwinian and other materialist explanations of life’s origin and subsequent development as always trumping alternative explanations, regardless of the evidence.
Richard Halvorson, writing for the “Harvard Crimson,” has aptly remarked, “We must refuse to bow to our culture’s false idols. Science will not benefit from canonizing Darwin or making evolution an article of secular faith. We must reject intellectual excommunication as a valid form of dealing with criticism: the most important question for any society to ask is the one that is forbidden.
Evolution has become an ideology, and the one thing that ideologies fear is exposure.
That’s why evolution forbids certain lines of questioning. But the questions need to be asked. Too much is riding on evolution for it to escape proper scrutiny.
http://www.designinference.com/documents/2004.04.Five_Questions_Ev.pdf
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Adam, the Flood & the Tower of Babel
Turning just a few pages into the Bible, we
read about the first cities known to man after the
global flood of Noah’s day.
One of Noah’s descendants was a man by
the name of Nimrod, whose kingdom included the
cities of Babel, Erech, Akkad, and Calneh, in the
land of Shinar. Asshur went forth and built
Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah and Resen in the
land of Assyria.
These first cities lay in a land modern historians
call ancient Mesopotamia, which means “the
land between two rivers.” The two rivers it refers to
are the Tigris and the Euphrates. This land would later
be the staging ground for two of the world’s most
feared Empires: Assyria and Babylon. That
land is what we refer to today as Iraq.
I remember during my college days taking a
class in Western Civilization, and the very first cultures
mentioned in the history book we were assigned,
was that of the ancient Akkadians and
Sumerians who lived in Mesopotamia. This
should come as no surprise, since the city-state
of Akkad, as well as the cities of Sumer, were mentioned
in Genesis 10:10-12, long ago.
One of the most amazing finds uncovered in
Akkad was that of a seal, which possibly shows that
the Akkadians knew of the story of the temptation
of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. George
Smith, of the British Museum, who lived during the
middle 1800's, wrote: “One striking and important
specimen of early type in the British Museum has
two figures, sitting one on each side of a tree, holding
out their hands to the fruit, while at the back of
one (the woman) is stretched a serpent. We know
well that in these early sculptures none of these
figures were chance devices, but all represented
events or supposed events, and figures ... , thus it
is evident that a form of the story of the Fall, similar
to that of Genesis, was known from early times
in Babylonia.”
Akkadian “Temptation Seal”
From 2,300-2,200 B.C.
The first city mentioned in the Bible as being
among the cities of Nimrod is Babel. And in fact,
the city’s name, as well as the Tower of Babel account,
is recorded outside of the Bible.
Fragments of an Assyrian tablet were discovered
at Nineveh by Austen Henry Layard, during the
middle of the 18th century, that closely parallel the
Biblical Tower of Babel account. The artifacts now
reside in the British Museum (registration number
K.3657) and reads as follows: “his heart was evil
against the father of all the gods . . . Babylon was
brought into subjection, small and great alike. He
confounded their speech . . . their strong palace
(tower) all the days they built; to their
strong place in the night He completely made an
end . . . In His anger His word was poured out . . .
to scatter aboard He set his face, He gave this
command, and their counsel was confused . . .
He saw them and the earth. . . of stopping not . . .
Bitterly they wept at Babi.”
Sumer’s oldest and most important capital
city was Uruk (biblical 'Erech'). Present day Iraq
possibly derived its name from this ancient city.
Uruk is recorded on an artifact known as the
‘Sumerian Kings List’ which also mentions the
Elamites. These are the same Elamites who descended
from Elam, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, as
listed in Genesis 10:22.
Sumer’s capital was later moved from Erech
to UR, the same city which Abraham later left to
go to the land of Canaan. The Bible calls this city
"Ur of the Chaldeans" in Genesis 11:31. An Inscription
from Argistis near Van verifies this title. It
states, “This is the spoil of the cities I obtained for
the people of the Khaldis (Chaldeans) in one
year.”
One fascinating archeological find at Ur is
that of a temple tower which the Akkadians called a
ziggurat. This tower found at UR was later rebuilt
by king Nabonidus of Babylon, who reigned between
555-539 B.C."
Ziggurat ruins at Ur
On inscriptions found at this ziggurat,
Nabonidus states that he had rebuilt the structure,
which he learned was originally constructed by two
kings who lived 1,500 years prior to himself. One
inscription also bears the name of another Biblical
Babylonian prince by the name of Belshazzar, who
would live to see God’s handwriting on the walls of
Babylon as recorded in Daniel chapter 5.
The ziggurat, which resembled a four-sided
stepped pyramid, was probably similar to that of the
Biblical tower built at Babel. Other towers in Mesopotamia,
such as the one at Ur, have been found at
Calah (Nimrud), Assur, Akkad (Sippar), Uruk,
Cush (Kish), Borsippa, Aqarquf, Khorabad and
Eridu, a city near Ur.
Inscriptions from various Babylonian kings
also record the construction of these temple towers,
which they say reached to the sky, with similar
wording to that found in the Bible’s 'tower of Babel'
account.
Hammurabi, who ruled nearly 2,000 years
before Christ, states: “He restored the temple
Emeteursag ... and built the temple tower
...whose top is sky high.”
Much later in the sixth century B.C.,
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, wrote: “I raised
the summit of the Tower of stages at Etemenanki
so that its top rivaled the heavens.”
We also know from Babylonian inscriptions
that these towers reached heights of up to 300
feet."
Archaeology in this region has also uncovered
one of the earliest accounts of the flood. It is
listed on an artifact known as the 'Sumerian Kings
List,' dating back to 2,170 B.C. The inscription
reads: “The flood swept over (the earth). After
the flood had swept over (the earth) (and)
when the kingship was lowered (again) from
heaven, kingship was (first) at Kish (Cush).”
What is interesting about this statement is
not only that the flood is mentioned, but it also mentions a
city founded by Cush (who was "the son of Ham, the
son of Noah"). The Bible, in Genesis 10:8, states that
Nimrod descended from Cush. The city of Kish
(Cush) was located in the area very close to Babylon.
Another artifact from the Sumerians was
found at Nippur (biblical 'Calneh') which states: “A
flood came over the cities to destroy the seed
of all mankind . . . all the wind-storms,
exceedingly powerful attacked as one. At the
same time, the flood swept over the culture
centers. For seven days and seven nights, the
flood had swept over the land. The huge boat
had been tossed about by the windstorms on
the great waters.”
Another fascinating artifact was found at
Nineveh, which was one of the cities of Asshur mentioned in
Genesis 10:11. It gives an account of the flood,
somewhat similar to the Bible’s account, showing
they also had a knowledge of the great flood of
Noah’s day:
“...build a ship, seek thou life . . . aboard the
ship take thou the seed of all living things . . . All
my family and kin I made go aboard the ship. The
beasts of the field, the wild creatures of the field . . .
I made go aboard . . .”Board thou ship and batten
up thy entrance!” That stated time had arrived: He
who orders unease at night, showers down a rain of
blight. I watched the appearance of the weather.
The weather was awesome to behold. I boarded the
ship and battened up the entrance. With the first
glow of dawn, a black cloud rose up from the horizon.
. . . Consternation over Adad reaches the
heavens, Who turned to darkness all that had been
light . . . For one day the south storm gathered
speed as it blew, overtaking the [people] like a battle.
No one can see his fellow . . . Six days and six
nights blows the flood winds, as the south-storm
sweeps over the land . . . On the seventh day the
flood subsided in battle . . . the flood ceased.
I looked at the weather; stillness had set in. And all
of mankind had returned to clay. . . . On mount
Nisir the ship came to a halt. . . . When the seventh
day arrived, I set forth a dove. The dove went back
and forth, but came back; since no resting place for
it was visible. Then I sent forth a swallow. The
swallow went forth, but came back; since no resting
place for it was visible. Then I sent forth and
set free a raven. The raven went forth and, seeing
the waters diminished, he eats, circles, caws and
turns not around. Then I let out (all) to the four
winds and offered a sacrifice. I poured out a libation
on the top of the mountains.”
Tablet number 11 of the Gilgamesh
Epic, dated to the 7th century B.C.,
found at Nineveh, gives an account of
a flood, with some similarities to that
of the Bible.
Another of Nimrod’s cities was Calneh which,
according to the Talmud, is associated with the site
of Nippur. According to Genesis 11:1-9, Nimrod’s cities,
which included the region of Babel, Erech, Akkad
and Calneh, was known as the land of Shinar.
The name 'Shinar' is found in Egyptian records
from Pharaoh Amenhotep II, who wrote: “Now
when the prince of the land of Naharin, the Prince
of Hatti, and the prince of Shinar heard of my
great victory, . . . they asked me to spare their
lives.”
To the Northwest of Shinar lies the cities
founded by Asshur, who was a descendant of
Noah’s son, Shem. His first city was named after
himself: Assur. And just like the ruins from Akkad
and Sumer, a ziggurat has also been uncovered at
Assur.
Another one of his cities mentioned in Genesis
10:11 is Calah. The existence of this city has
been found on a royal inscription from Assurnasirpal
II, an early king of Assyria, who states “I
took over again the city of Calah.”
The Biblical city of Resen, mentioned in Genesis
10:12, is believed to be the city known as Larissa
(Al-Resen or 'City of Resen'). In Hebrew, 'Resen'
means “fortified place." The historian Xenophon
recorded that Larissa was a great fortress located
between the cities of Nineveh and Calneh.
The city Rehoboth Ir is associated today
with the Assyrian city of Khorsabad.
And of course, last but not least is the great
city of Nineveh, which later became the capital of
the Assyrian empire.
http://www.biblehistory.net/Flood_Tower_Babel.pdf
read about the first cities known to man after the
global flood of Noah’s day.
One of Noah’s descendants was a man by
the name of Nimrod, whose kingdom included the
cities of Babel, Erech, Akkad, and Calneh, in the
land of Shinar. Asshur went forth and built
Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah and Resen in the
land of Assyria.
These first cities lay in a land modern historians
call ancient Mesopotamia, which means “the
land between two rivers.” The two rivers it refers to
are the Tigris and the Euphrates. This land would later
be the staging ground for two of the world’s most
feared Empires: Assyria and Babylon. That
land is what we refer to today as Iraq.
I remember during my college days taking a
class in Western Civilization, and the very first cultures
mentioned in the history book we were assigned,
was that of the ancient Akkadians and
Sumerians who lived in Mesopotamia. This
should come as no surprise, since the city-state
of Akkad, as well as the cities of Sumer, were mentioned
in Genesis 10:10-12, long ago.
One of the most amazing finds uncovered in
Akkad was that of a seal, which possibly shows that
the Akkadians knew of the story of the temptation
of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. George
Smith, of the British Museum, who lived during the
middle 1800's, wrote: “One striking and important
specimen of early type in the British Museum has
two figures, sitting one on each side of a tree, holding
out their hands to the fruit, while at the back of
one (the woman) is stretched a serpent. We know
well that in these early sculptures none of these
figures were chance devices, but all represented
events or supposed events, and figures ... , thus it
is evident that a form of the story of the Fall, similar
to that of Genesis, was known from early times
in Babylonia.”
Akkadian “Temptation Seal”
From 2,300-2,200 B.C.
The first city mentioned in the Bible as being
among the cities of Nimrod is Babel. And in fact,
the city’s name, as well as the Tower of Babel account,
is recorded outside of the Bible.
Fragments of an Assyrian tablet were discovered
at Nineveh by Austen Henry Layard, during the
middle of the 18th century, that closely parallel the
Biblical Tower of Babel account. The artifacts now
reside in the British Museum (registration number
K.3657) and reads as follows: “his heart was evil
against the father of all the gods . . . Babylon was
brought into subjection, small and great alike. He
confounded their speech . . . their strong palace
(tower) all the days they built; to their
strong place in the night He completely made an
end . . . In His anger His word was poured out . . .
to scatter aboard He set his face, He gave this
command, and their counsel was confused . . .
He saw them and the earth. . . of stopping not . . .
Bitterly they wept at Babi.”
Sumer’s oldest and most important capital
city was Uruk (biblical 'Erech'). Present day Iraq
possibly derived its name from this ancient city.
Uruk is recorded on an artifact known as the
‘Sumerian Kings List’ which also mentions the
Elamites. These are the same Elamites who descended
from Elam, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, as
listed in Genesis 10:22.
Sumer’s capital was later moved from Erech
to UR, the same city which Abraham later left to
go to the land of Canaan. The Bible calls this city
"Ur of the Chaldeans" in Genesis 11:31. An Inscription
from Argistis near Van verifies this title. It
states, “This is the spoil of the cities I obtained for
the people of the Khaldis (Chaldeans) in one
year.”
One fascinating archeological find at Ur is
that of a temple tower which the Akkadians called a
ziggurat. This tower found at UR was later rebuilt
by king Nabonidus of Babylon, who reigned between
555-539 B.C."
Ziggurat ruins at Ur
On inscriptions found at this ziggurat,
Nabonidus states that he had rebuilt the structure,
which he learned was originally constructed by two
kings who lived 1,500 years prior to himself. One
inscription also bears the name of another Biblical
Babylonian prince by the name of Belshazzar, who
would live to see God’s handwriting on the walls of
Babylon as recorded in Daniel chapter 5.
The ziggurat, which resembled a four-sided
stepped pyramid, was probably similar to that of the
Biblical tower built at Babel. Other towers in Mesopotamia,
such as the one at Ur, have been found at
Calah (Nimrud), Assur, Akkad (Sippar), Uruk,
Cush (Kish), Borsippa, Aqarquf, Khorabad and
Eridu, a city near Ur.
Inscriptions from various Babylonian kings
also record the construction of these temple towers,
which they say reached to the sky, with similar
wording to that found in the Bible’s 'tower of Babel'
account.
Hammurabi, who ruled nearly 2,000 years
before Christ, states: “He restored the temple
Emeteursag ... and built the temple tower
...whose top is sky high.”
Much later in the sixth century B.C.,
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, wrote: “I raised
the summit of the Tower of stages at Etemenanki
so that its top rivaled the heavens.”
We also know from Babylonian inscriptions
that these towers reached heights of up to 300
feet."
Archaeology in this region has also uncovered
one of the earliest accounts of the flood. It is
listed on an artifact known as the 'Sumerian Kings
List,' dating back to 2,170 B.C. The inscription
reads: “The flood swept over (the earth). After
the flood had swept over (the earth) (and)
when the kingship was lowered (again) from
heaven, kingship was (first) at Kish (Cush).”
What is interesting about this statement is
not only that the flood is mentioned, but it also mentions a
city founded by Cush (who was "the son of Ham, the
son of Noah"). The Bible, in Genesis 10:8, states that
Nimrod descended from Cush. The city of Kish
(Cush) was located in the area very close to Babylon.
Another artifact from the Sumerians was
found at Nippur (biblical 'Calneh') which states: “A
flood came over the cities to destroy the seed
of all mankind . . . all the wind-storms,
exceedingly powerful attacked as one. At the
same time, the flood swept over the culture
centers. For seven days and seven nights, the
flood had swept over the land. The huge boat
had been tossed about by the windstorms on
the great waters.”
Another fascinating artifact was found at
Nineveh, which was one of the cities of Asshur mentioned in
Genesis 10:11. It gives an account of the flood,
somewhat similar to the Bible’s account, showing
they also had a knowledge of the great flood of
Noah’s day:
“...build a ship, seek thou life . . . aboard the
ship take thou the seed of all living things . . . All
my family and kin I made go aboard the ship. The
beasts of the field, the wild creatures of the field . . .
I made go aboard . . .”Board thou ship and batten
up thy entrance!” That stated time had arrived: He
who orders unease at night, showers down a rain of
blight. I watched the appearance of the weather.
The weather was awesome to behold. I boarded the
ship and battened up the entrance. With the first
glow of dawn, a black cloud rose up from the horizon.
. . . Consternation over Adad reaches the
heavens, Who turned to darkness all that had been
light . . . For one day the south storm gathered
speed as it blew, overtaking the [people] like a battle.
No one can see his fellow . . . Six days and six
nights blows the flood winds, as the south-storm
sweeps over the land . . . On the seventh day the
flood subsided in battle . . . the flood ceased.
I looked at the weather; stillness had set in. And all
of mankind had returned to clay. . . . On mount
Nisir the ship came to a halt. . . . When the seventh
day arrived, I set forth a dove. The dove went back
and forth, but came back; since no resting place for
it was visible. Then I sent forth a swallow. The
swallow went forth, but came back; since no resting
place for it was visible. Then I sent forth and
set free a raven. The raven went forth and, seeing
the waters diminished, he eats, circles, caws and
turns not around. Then I let out (all) to the four
winds and offered a sacrifice. I poured out a libation
on the top of the mountains.”
Epic, dated to the 7th century B.C.,
found at Nineveh, gives an account of
a flood, with some similarities to that
of the Bible.
Another of Nimrod’s cities was Calneh which,
according to the Talmud, is associated with the site
of Nippur. According to Genesis 11:1-9, Nimrod’s cities,
which included the region of Babel, Erech, Akkad
and Calneh, was known as the land of Shinar.
The name 'Shinar' is found in Egyptian records
from Pharaoh Amenhotep II, who wrote: “Now
when the prince of the land of Naharin, the Prince
of Hatti, and the prince of Shinar heard of my
great victory, . . . they asked me to spare their
lives.”
To the Northwest of Shinar lies the cities
founded by Asshur, who was a descendant of
Noah’s son, Shem. His first city was named after
himself: Assur. And just like the ruins from Akkad
and Sumer, a ziggurat has also been uncovered at
Assur.
Another one of his cities mentioned in Genesis
10:11 is Calah. The existence of this city has
been found on a royal inscription from Assurnasirpal
II, an early king of Assyria, who states “I
took over again the city of Calah.”
The Biblical city of Resen, mentioned in Genesis
10:12, is believed to be the city known as Larissa
(Al-Resen or 'City of Resen'). In Hebrew, 'Resen'
means “fortified place." The historian Xenophon
recorded that Larissa was a great fortress located
between the cities of Nineveh and Calneh.
The city Rehoboth Ir is associated today
with the Assyrian city of Khorsabad.
And of course, last but not least is the great
city of Nineveh, which later became the capital of
the Assyrian empire.
http://www.biblehistory.net/Flood_Tower_Babel.pdf
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