creation Archives

September 22, 2026September 21, 2026

Optical Illusions and the Equinox

As this post goes out, it’s the fall equinox in the Northern Hemisphere (spring in the Southern Hemisphere), arriving at 8:05 pm EDT on September 22 (1205 GMT on September 23). “Equinox” comes from Latin and means “equal night.” However, even today, daylight and darkness are not equal in length. Even more surprising, sunset and sunrise are optical illusions.

Sunrise is the moment the first speck of the Sun becomes visible above the horizon—not the whole Sun or even half of it. Likewise, sunset is when the last speck of the Sun disappears below the horizon, not just part of it. However, when we see the Sun rising, it is still below the horizon, and when we see it set, it is already below the horizon. This discrepancy happens because, when the Sun is near the horizon, Earth’s atmosphere bends the light, creating an optical illusion. As the Sun appears closer to the horizon, refraction increases, making the bottom of the sphere look slightly flattened. The good thing is that sunlight refraction in our atmosphere gives us a little more light at both sunset and sunrise.

Even after the Sun disappears below the horizon, the atmosphere gives us what we call “bright” twilight, so we can enjoy a little more time outdoors until the top edge of the Sun is six degrees below the horizon. Even then, we experience “astronomical” twilight until the Sun’s rim is 18 degrees below the horizon. At that time, the sky in dark-sky areas becomes completely dark. Unfortunately, for those of us who like to observe the night sky, artificial light has given us light pollution in all but a few rural areas.

The bottom line is that when the equinox occurs, we still have more light than total darkness. And we can’t forget that “God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night” (Genesis 1:16). We refer to the Sun rising and setting, even though we know the Sun remains still and Earth rotates. The Bible repeatedly uses the same language as we are earthly observers. In fact, the creation story in Genesis is written from the perspective of an observer on Earth, because that made it easy for even ancient people to understand.

Psalms 19 begins with, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” Poetically, the psalmist David wrote that the Sun is “like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber” and “a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other…” We still speak of the Sun rising, moving across the sky, and setting, even though we could say that is an optical illusion. As the equinox is upon us, we can thank God that we have predictable days and seasons on this planet in a finely tuned system, not an optical illusion.

Reference: space.com HERE and HERE

September 21, 2026September 20, 2026

Sea Turtle Migrations

Leatherback sea turtles are the world’s largest reptiles, weighing up to 1,500 pounds. They are one of only seven sea turtle species alive today, and all seven are endangered. More species existed in the past, but humans are their greatest enemy. Humans threaten them through habitat destruction, poaching for meat and eggs, accidental capture in fishing gear, and plastic pollution. Why do sea turtles migrate, and why do we need sea turtle migrations?

Most people know that sea turtles migrate thousands of miles but don’t understand why. According to Darwinian evolutionary theory, natural selection preserves the creatures that survive best. It’s survival of the fittest without regard for other species. However, migrating thousands of miles does not benefit sea turtles as much as it does other creatures and plants in the ocean environment. That indicates a designed system. Why would sea turtles expend the energy to travel thousands of miles when they could survive in a limited area?

Sea turtle migrations help keep ocean environments healthy. Their migrations move nutrients and sustain food webs across vast areas. As they consume resources and recycle nutrients, sea turtles benefit many species of fish, plus crabs, shrimp, and mollusks. Their grazing on seagrass prevents it from becoming overgrown, benefiting the invertebrates that thrive in healthy seagrass. That, in turn, benefits the fish that feed on the invertebrates, which, in turn, benefits herons, egrets, terns, and gulls that feed on the fish.

Coastal vegetation and dune ecosystems benefit from the nutrients sea turtle migrations leave on widely scattered beaches. Migration between regions transfers nutrients over long distances, supporting plankton and small fish that whales depend on. Sea turtle migrations show a designed system, not evolutionary chance. Furthermore, fossil evidence suggests that sea turtles did not evolve from other creatures. Sea turtles have always been sea turtles, and we can thank the Creator for giving us these keystone creatures that deserve our protection.

References: scienceandculture.com and iere.org

September 15, 2026September 14, 2026

Heart Cancer Is Rare

Heart cancer is rare. Skin cancer is the most common form, occurring in about one in five people during their lifetimes. Liver cancer affects about one in 100. However, heart cancer develops in only about one in 50,000 people. When it does occur, it usually does not begin in the heart but metastasizes from another area of the body.

The fact that heart cancer is rare is connected with the slow regeneration of heart cells. The body maintains itself by regenerating cells. When cells are damaged, the body replaces them automatically with new cells. When new cells are formed, mutations are possible, and sometimes mutations can cause the regeneration process to go beyond what’s necessary. When new cells continue to grow exponentially, they form masses, which we call malignancies.

The uncontrolled growth of these new cells takes over and robs the body of energy needed for other functions. The faster cells regenerate, the greater the chance of mutations, which increases the possibility of uncontrolled cell growth. When a person smokes or uses tobacco, it affects the lungs, throat, and mouth, causing damage to those tissues and prompting those cells to be regenerated. This increased regeneration raises the chance of mutations and cancer in those areas.

Heart cancer is rare, in part because heart cells regenerate very slowly. Less than half of the heart cells you had when you were born will be replaced during your lifetime. However, your skin cells regenerate completely in less than two months. The slow regeneration of heart cells is apparently a major reason why heart cancer is rare. In some animals, such as amphibians, heart cells regenerate much more quickly. In mammals and humans, regeneration is much slower. Instead of making new cells, the heart develops scar tissue. The trade-off is that the heart is durable and functional from birth to natural death in humans.

Skin cells regenerate quickly, which is good because skin is exposed and easily damaged. At the same time, it means there’s a greater danger of skin cancer. Other parts of your body that are mistreated in various ways, such as your lungs from smoking or your liver from alcohol, must regenerate damaged cells, resulting in an increased risk of cancer. God’s design of our bodies is truly amazing. Many of the health problems we face stem from our misuse of the gift God has given us. Being good stewards of God’s gifts benefits us in many ways, including a longer and healthier life.

Reference: popsci.com

September 11, 2026September 10, 2026

Insects Are God’s Tools

One of my neighbors is a mechanical genius – he can fix anything. The secret to his success is that he has a tool for every situation. It is one thing to have a tool, and another to know how to find it. When he needs a screw with a special design, width, and length, he can go to a drawer full of screws and a tool rack full of screwdrivers and have exactly what he needs to do the job. Insects are God’s tools.

Recent studies have shown that scientists have vastly undercounted insect species. Entomologist Laura Melissa Guzman of Cornell University, writing in Science News, says that previous insect species counts of six million are way too low and that the actual count is at least 14 million species and may be as high as 20 million.

The question is why so many species exist, and the reason is that insects are God’s tools to sustain life on planet Earth. Insects serve in many ways. For example, flowers must be pollinated to produce seeds that will grow into new flowers. To pollinate flowers of various sizes and shapes, insects of various sizes and shapes are God’s tools for that purpose. While some insects have particular jobs, others help control insect populations. Scientists have identified over 2,400 species of parasitoid wasps that do this.

Like my neighbor, who has the right tool for every situation, insects are God’s tools for every situation. Guzman writes, “It’s humbling how much we don’t know and how much we have left to know.” Everywhere we look in the world, we see a wonder-working hand has gone before. Insects are another of the things God has created to enable life to exist on our planet.

Reference: Science News, September 2026, page 26

September 10, 2026September 9, 2026

What Are They If Not Insects?

Take this quiz to test your knowledge of living things. What are usually less than 6 mm long, have six legs like an insect, but are not insects? They come in various colors and shapes and live everywhere on Earth, including Antarctica. These tiny creatures can survive on the tallest mountains, in caves, underg r ound, in deserts, grasslands, and forests. The class Collembola includes more than 9,000 species. They can “fly” without wings and provide beneficial services for agriculture. What are they? They are springtails.

They are called “springtails” because they can “spring” into the air so fast that their motion can only be captured at 10,000 frames per second. That helps them quickly escape predators or change locations. Springtails accomplish this Olympic-style feat with a spring-loaded appendage called a furcula on their underside. You could think of it as a lever that stores elastic energy the springtail can release when needed. They keep the furcula tucked under their bodies when not in use, but at any moment they can release it and propel themselves forward and upward.

Springtails thrive in moist locations such as soil, leaves, and rotting wood. They shed their outer shells in warm temperatures, reducing their body size by 30% and giving them a survival advantage. Some springtail species are considered pests; however, most springtails benefit agriculture. Mycorrhizal fungi have a beneficial symbiotic relationship with plant roots. Springtails collect mycorrhizal fungi spores and spread them to other locations, benefiting more plants.

Not only do springtails transport beneficial fungi, but they also eat the spores of pathogenic fungi and the damaging vegetative parts of fungi called mycelia. Through these functions, springtails play a crucial role in controlling plant and fungal diseases. Plant scientists have realized that springtails can be integrated into greenhouses to limit fungal growth. These seemingly insignificant creatures benefit humans.

The next time you see tiny creatures in leaf matter or rotting logs launch themselves into the air, instead of wondering “what are they,” you will know that they are springtails. You will also know they are some of the planet’s most beneficial creatures, playing a role in the marvelous web of life. It is evident that a wise Designer created the system.

Reference: scienceandcultu r e.com

September 8, 2026September 7, 2026

Space Travel Takes Time

With so much talk about space travel, it’s easy to forget how vast the solar system and the universe are. In movies, spacecraft travel faster than light, which is impossible, and reach their destinations in minutes. In real life, space travel takes time.

It’s possible to reach the Moon in a few days; however, a future trip to Mars will take up to nine months. A round trip will take more than 3 years because the alignment of Earth and Mars creates a launch window about once every 26 months. Add nine months, nine months, and 26 months, and you get 44 months. How about traveling to Mercury? Two unmanned spacecraft are on the way and are expected to arrive in a few months.

Mercury is the least explored of our inner planets, but a joint project between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) was launched in 2018. In April of next year, the two probes are scheduled to arrive near Mercury to gather observations. So, after eight years in space, the BepiColombo project will again demonstrate that space travel takes time.

On September 1, 2026, a nonprofit organization called the Fermi Explorer Mission (FEM) announced plans to send a probe toward Alpha Centauri by 2029. Alpha Centauri and Proxima Centauri are the closest stars to our Sun. But “close” is hardly the right word, since they’re actually 4.4 light-years away. Because spacecraft cannot reach light speed, this probe is expected to arrive in 80,000 years. If it launches in 2029, arrives 80,000 years later, gathers information, and sends a strong enough signal to be received on Earth, the signal will take 4.4 years to arrive.

If FEM’s plan works, will anyone be alive to receive the information it gathers? Space travel takes time, and human life spans are short. The Fermi Explorer Mission team is a nonprofit organization, and they’re asking for financial donations to get the mission off the ground. This is definitely a long-term investment.

Knowing that space travel takes time, I think God has given us a beautiful planet where we have been richly blessed. He has also given us a curiosity to want to know what’s out there. What is out there is a massive, incomprehensible universe that we will never fully explore or understand. We can also never fully understand God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—which we can clearly see in the things He has made (Romans 1:20).

Reference: Space.com

August 27, 2026August 18, 2026

Neuron Computing Power

For three decades, experiments have suggested that the dendrites connected to neurons in the brain can compute information on their own. That could explain the amazing neuron computing power that scientists have underestimated.

A team of researchers at the University of Texas Southwest Medical Center used new voltage-imaging technology to record activity in the brains of mice. Each neuron has dendrites that branch out from it. In the past, scientists thought dendrites merely connected neurons, allowing information to move from one neuron to another. This research indicates that individual dendrites compute information. Rather than each neuron acting as a single processor, neurons are more like neural networks, with dendrites computing information on their own. They can serve as memory devices and compute information before it reaches the neuron cell, increasing the neuron computing power.

This new understanding of dendrite architecture as a tree-like network suggests our brains have more processing power than previously understood. Each neuron has more capabilities than previously known, and receiving input from its dendrites and thousands of neighbors allows our brains to achieve much in a relatively small space with minimal power consumption. At a time when people worry about the space and power needed to run huge data centers across the country, we realize we have an amazingly efficient data center in our heads.

Right now, your brain is reading this information, receiving input from your surroundings, generating conscious experience, and piloting your body, including all your internal organs. Your brain’s 86 billion neurons are aided in computation by sprawling branches of dendrites that are also performing computations, storing memory, receiving input, and sending output to the rest of the neural network. The textbook diagrams of neurons with only a few dendrites are not accurate representations of the neuron computing power in your brain.

Humans have not only this amazing, living computer, but we also have a soul at work guiding the computer software. Truly, we can say to God, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

Reference: scientificamerican.com

August 25, 2026August 18, 2026

Notions of Evolution

Ancient insects were often trapped in amber and beautifully preserved. Researchers found ground beetles in the genus Loricera in amber from Myanmar, radiometrically dated to 99 million years old. Both adult beetles and larvae were present. Remarkably, they are indistinguishable from today’s living specimens of Loricera beetles, both adults and larvae. This means these beetles have survived unchanged even through the mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs and the vast majority of life on Earth. According to an article in Wired magazine, “the Loricera beetle’s survival story challenges conventional notions of evolution.”

When evolutionists find that a species has remained unchanged for a long period, they explain it by saying it was because the species lived in a stable environment. However, in this case, these beetles have remained unchanged through changing environments, changing climate, and a worldwide mass extinction. The researchers had to admit that the beetles “have exhibited significant evolutionary stasis, both in terms of individual species morphology and community structure.” In other words, despite massive environmental changes, there has been no evolutionary change.

According to the “notions of evolution,” natural selection causes massive changes in living things over time and can even produce rapid, explosive changes such as the Cambrian Explosion. When species show “stasis” over eons of time through massive ecological changes, biologists call those species “living fossils.” In other words, the doctrine says that unguided evolution through natural selection acting on random mutations can explain anything. Gunther Bechly, writing on scienceandculture.com, accurately stated regarding the theory of Darwinian evolution, “…a theory that is always perfectly consistent with any possible outcome is not explaining anything.”

Reference: scienceandculture.com

August 24, 2026August 17, 2026

The Difference Between Bees and Flies

I was sitting on my deck, enjoying a cool drink on a summer afternoon, when a bee kept buzzing around me and trying to get into my drink. Then, on closer examination, I realized this wasn’t a bee; it was a fly! How can you tell the difference between bees and flies?

Certain flies, especially hoverflies or drone flies, imitate bees. The various species can resemble a bee’s shape, have black-and-yellow stripes and hairy bodies, buzz around like bees, and feed on nectar from flowers. But they are not bees. You could call them fake bees, hoping to fool potential predators–and me. These bee imitators can fool you unless you look closely and know the difference between bees and flies.

One major difference is that flies have only one pair of wings, while bees have two pairs, even though their transparency may make it hard to see both pairs. Another difference is the eyes. The eyes of flies are large and cover most of their heads, but bee eyes are much smaller. Flies also have short, stubby antennae, while bees have long, slender ones. One crucial difference, as far as I’m concerned, is that bees have stingers, but flies don’t.

When one creature imitates another, it’s called Batesian mimicry. It happens among many species. A viceroy butterfly looks similar to a monarch butterfly unless you look closely. What’s the point of Batesian mimicry? Monarch butterflies have a toxic, bitter taste that deters potential predators, while viceroys do not. The monarchs get their unpleasant taste from the milkweeds their larvae feed on. One bite will scare away potential predators. Viceroys benefit by avoiding predators, even though they might make a delicious meal for a bird.

Getting back to the difference between bees and flies, bees are generally avoided because of their potential to sting. By looking like a bee, flies gain protection from their enemies. That shows great cleverness on the part of those hoverflies or drone flies, as well as the viceroy butterflies. Or does it? Actually, I’m sure those flies didn’t choose to look like bees. The cleverness goes back to the Creator who gave the insects that special protection. God provides for his creatures, including us. For that, we can be thankful.

August 19, 2026August 17, 2026

Random DNA Mutations

In the 1960s, Japanese biologist Motoo Kimura introduced the neutral theory of molecular evolution. It advanced the idea that most random DNA mutations are not driven by survival of the fittest but by pure chance. Now a team of scientists at the University of Michigan has published a new study saying that beneficial mutations arise more frequently than Kimura had believed. However, they say that a changing environment often prevents those mutations from spreading through an entire population. In other words, environments change more quickly than mutations can spread through populations.

Random DNA mutations arise by chance, and natural selection removes the unhelpful ones. The new study determined that only 1% of amino acid mutations are beneficial. That doesn’t sound like a very big percentage, but it is larger than what Kimura suggested. Even then, those mutations don’t spread to the entire population of a species.

To conduct this study, researchers at the University of Michigan used yeast cells, which live for only 3 hours. That brief generational time allowed them to study 1320 yeast populations over 800 generations using 100 different growth media to create different environments. Environmental changes effectively erased a mutation’s advantage before it could spread through an entire population. In addition, mutations that are beneficial in one environment are usually harmful in another.

In all research, random DNA mutations have not been shown to create new species or higher orders, but they do change and refine existing species. Even with mutations in yeast populations, whether they were beneficial or otherwise, the result was still yeast. The same could be said in other cases, such as dogs or cattle, where we can see mutations resulting in new variations among those animals, but they still remain dogs or cattle.

As we have said before, microevolution does not prove macroevolution. Even if the uncommon mutations are beneficial, they are often lost because they don’t spread through the entire population. Evolution cannot explain the diversity of life on planet Earth.

Reference: msn.com