Articles » Intermediate

In Nova Scotia, on the shores of Chignecto Bay (near the head of the Bay of Fundy) lies the village of Joggins. Like many communities in Nova Scotia, this one first made a living by mining coal. As early as 1720, coal was exported from there to Boston. At its peak, the mine yielded about 91,000 tonnes of coal per year. The Joggins mine finally closed in the late 1950s, but in recent years, interest in this area has continued greater than ever. The 150 foot high cliff on the shore of the bay, reveals layers of sandstone, mudstone and fossilized plants. These have a story to tell. Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes the good old days look so appealing. Wouldn’t it be nice to return to the optimistic and traditional 1950s, for example? Alternatively a nice isolated cottage in the woods somewhere would be fine. We could spend our days far from the terrors of technology and pure science. Obviously however, such visions are unrealistic. Christians were placed in this world to be the salt of the earth. There is no escape from the dilemmas of this life. Read the rest of this entry »

Why secular scientists seek answers they don’t want and don’t expect to find

It scarcely sounds upbeat! Yet John Horgan’s 1996 book The End of Science was a runaway best seller. How could a book on the status of science at the end of the 20th century be hugely entertaining, wonderful, provocative and intellectually bracing as various reviewers proclaimed? For a start, the author is thoroughly familiar with his subject. John Horgan is a senior writer for Scientific American and has won several prestigious awards for his work. In addition, his position enabled him to secure interviews with many of the most influential scientists of our day. His list is a veritable who’s who of famous individuals including astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle, palaeontologist Stephen Jay Gould, cosmologist Stephen Hawking, evolutionary linguist Noam Chomsky, evolutionist Sir Richard Dawkins, cosmologist Andrei Linde, biologist Lynn Margulis, sociobiologist E. O. Wilson, DNA discoverer Francis Crick and mathematician Claude Shannon (who developed information theory). In some cases Mr. Horgan’s interviews came just in time since scientific philosophers Sir Karl Popper, Paul Feyerabend and David Bohm died within a few months of their interviews in the early 1990s. Read the rest of this entry »

It goes without saying that all living creatures are interesting. Some, however, possess an extra mystique. These are organisms which have closely similar counterparts preserved in stone. Obviously a long history has been enjoyed by living examples of such fossil specimens. The living populations are called living fossils. But what about the rest of living creatures, whose preserved remains we do not find in low lying rock? Is their past any different? Let’s delve into the story of the living fossils in order to find out if they are really special and what is their real claim to fame. Read the rest of this entry »

A myth, one might imagine, is a story or explanation that is widely believed, but has no basis in fact. While there were numerous myths in the past, modern man believes that he has no need for such fabrications. Science, after all, undertakes to explain everything, and it is empirical and objective, so the saying goes. But even in science, some myths do creep into the public consciousness. It is interesting to notice how popular misunderstandings of scientific information appear and are propagated. An example springs to mind. Consider the recent studies on the “age” of the human race, for example. The conclusions and some headlines were actually misleading. One wonders how many readers obtained an inaccurate understanding of the issue. Let us investigate that case. Read the rest of this entry »

If you have followed the adventures of scientists who collect fossils for a living, you may have noticed that travel to distant lands is often part of their profession. One such account by Derek Ager, published posthumously in 1993 (The New Catastrophism.Cambridge University Press) contains insights garnered from his travels and experiences during the course of a long career in palaeontology. Read the rest of this entry »

Every young person in school must study science. Most people would agree that a basic understanding of the workings of the human body, or disease organisms, of weather patterns, of plant biology, local ecology, of electricity, etc. are essential to anyone’s functioning successfully in modern society. Despite the relevance of these topics, many people are uninterested or afraid of studying science. As a result, in the United States, for example, we see a relatively low proficiency in this discipline in the general population. An article in the August 15, 1997 issue of the journal Science, considers why this is so. (Gregg Easterbrook. 1997. “Science and God: A Warming Trend?” Science 277 pp. 890-893) According to the article, influential scientists themselves admit two sources of the problem. firstly many students fear that science teachers will attempt to destroy their religious faith. And secondly, science, as taught seems pointless and devoid of meaning, Who would want to pursue such uninspiring material? Not too surprisingly many Christians elect to avoid it as much as possible. The scientists quoted in Easterbrook’s article, for the most part, suggested that students can have their cake and eat it too. They can retain their religious faith while at the same time adopting the views of modern secular science. In this these scientists are wrong. Many of the conclusions of secular science are incompatible with our Christian faith. This does not however mean that Christians should avoid the study of science. Far from it. It merely means that Christians must actively develop critical thinking skills. They must learn to ask probing questions. Read the rest of this entry »

Special eyes

Horseshoe crabs don’t look mysterious and enigmatic, but they are. Normally one would not expect any very deep questions to be evoked concerning creatures which resemble miniature tanks, moving with ponderous dignity across the beach. But these marine creatures with shells, these “crabs”, are not actually miniature when compared to other animals of the seashore. These animals weigh as much as 4.5 kg (10 lbs) and they may grow to be 60 cm (2 ft) long. To find one such specimen would be memorable enough – but where there is one, there are generally thousands or hundreds of thousands. At the appropriate time in the spring, some beaches along the Atlantic seaboard from Maine to Yucatan Peninsula, are invaded by thousands or even millions of these apparitions. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s fun to go to a museum to view the mounted dinosaur skeletons. In the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta, the poses suggest tension. There are running dinosaurs, fighting dinosaurs, carnivorous dinosaurs about to kill herbivore victims, and others caught in the act of raiding dinosaur nests. The displays are actually stories without words. At a glance they communicate current scientific interpretations about dinosaur lifestyles. But these are not the really dramatic displays. It is the dinosaur skeletons still entombed in rock, which should rivet our interest. These artifacts cry out with information. Read the rest of this entry »

Symbols are powerful tools for communication. Is there anyone who does not know what the golden arches stand for, or the Nike “swoosh”? The Canadian maple leaf for example, and the Olympic five intertwined circles convey images in our minds of completely different institutions – the one a country situated just north of the United States, and the other an international body regulating competitions in amateur sport. In Canada the “crown” refers in symbolic terms to the authority of federal or provincial governments. In the 1960s a circle with an inverted Y inside conjured in everyone’s minds anti-nuclear messages typified by the “Ban-the-Bomb” slogan. In science, a circle with an arrow attached, borrows from Greek mythology. It is supposed to depict Mars (the war god’s) shield and by inference, the male gender. Similarly a circle with a handle was chosen to represent Minerva’s mirror, and by inference, the female gender. Most people recognize these symbols for male and female. Read the rest of this entry »

Evolutionists have long had a difficult time trying to account for the development of cells with nuclei. The first step, of course, is to agree on a suitable ancestor. The popular choice is bacteria (prokaryotes) which typically have only a single circular chromosome lying free in the cell. Unfortunately there are numerous structural and metabolic differences between the assumed ancestors and presumed descendants. Various theories have been proposed to explain how this new cell type might have developed, but none has proved extremely satisfactory. Thus the old theories tend to get recycled. An explanation is accepted for a while and later falls into disfavour as another old theory is retrieved from mothballs. The problem is that none of these theories fits the observed facts very well at all. Read the rest of this entry »

With sparkling eyes, the baby on the cover of TIME magazine’s 1997 Special Issue “The Age of Discovery”, is ready to reach out for some fascinating object. The theme is a “celebration of mankind’s exploration of the unknown.” However the issue seems most noteworthy for its atheistic and evolutionary bias. For example, one British author, in describing his boyhood enthusiasm for collecting insects, at the same time confides to us: “The life of those Wiltshire woods and rivers and ponds became, as the comfort of God’s presence drained away, so very much more complex than their romantic and theological past suggested. But at 14, this secular revelation was wildly exciting, a liberation from faith.” (p. 41) For author Redmond O’Hanlon, the joys of observing nature were closely connected to his new found enthusiasm for Darwin, which he began to read at that time. Read the rest of this entry »

According to astronomer/author Timothy Ferris in his new book The Whole Shebang: A State of the Universe(s) Report, cosmologist Andrei Linde considers speculation on ultimate origins an excitingly “dangerous” subject. (1997 published by Simon and Schuster see p. 260) Apparently Dr. Linde sometimes wakes up wracked by doubt. Maybe all the speculations in cosmology are simply myths, with no foundation in reality at all. Author Ferris quotes Linde as remarking “Maybe actually the solution is quite aside from what we’re thinking about. It is a very dangerous feeling, this feeling that you’re not totally secure in what you’re doing.” It is one thing to have tentative views, but why should this scientist consider his to be dangerous? What or whom does he fear? Certainly fellow cosmologists have no similar scruples. A review of Dr. Ferris’ book in Astronomy magazine July 1997 p. 108 claims “His work is a tour de force, a spiral galaxy of thoughts recounted in eloquent and vibrant prose.” We are advised to “Relish its prose, ponder its implications.” Well then let’s do it. Let’s see what the implications of cosmology are for us today. Read the rest of this entry »

History is full of sad stories. Nobody needs to tell us that. Nevertheless many tragic events have been obscured by the mists of time. It sometimes seems that we scarcely know or care any more about the crusades, European wars or treaties during the Middle Ages or events before or after that time. Eighty years ago however, the assassination of the Romanovs, the Russian czar and his family took place in the Siberian town of Yekaterinburg. The events were so shrouded in mystery, and the victims so interesting (particularly the four beautiful daughters), that public interest in the story has never faded. Now, thanks to some remarkable espionage carried out in Russia during the final years of the Communist regime, and to some recently developed skills in forensic science, the final chapter on the Romanov saga will be written during the summer of 1998. If all goes according to plan, the Romanovs will be buried in the family sepulchre in St. Peter and St. Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg. The funeral service with appropriate imperial grandeur is scheduled for July 17 — 80 years to the day after their untimely deaths. Read the rest of this entry »

We all like to communicate, don’t we – at the very least to tell others what to do. Indeed a slang expression has been coined about this “Communication is the name of the game!” People, of course, are able to communicate in words. However there are other sorts of communication which do not involve words, but which nevertheless involve information. Some scientists, especially in their study of biology, have become very interested in information and its source. Dr. A. E. Wilder-Smith, for example, discussed the genesis of biological information in his 1981 book The Natural Sciences Know Nothing of Evolution. Moreover this fall two new books on this subject (by Dr. William A. Dembski) are scheduled to be released. Dr. Dembski is an associate editor of Origins and Design (www.arn.org) and the titles of these new books are The Design Inference (Cambridge) and Mere Creation: Reclaiming the Book of Nature (InterVarsity). Dr. Dembski’s interest in information theory is in its implications for origins theory. This also was Dr. Wilder-Smith’s concern. In addition there is another book recently translated from German, which provides fascinating insights on this topic. The title of Dr. Werner Gitt’s book is In the Beginning was Information. Read the rest of this entry »