Roland Earnst Archives

October 3, 2025October 3, 2025

To Explain the Existence of Life

Biogenesis is the process of reproduction—life giving birth to new life through natural means. Abiogenesis is the origin of life from non-living matter, the concept that life originated from non-life. It’s an undisputed fact that life began to exist. Equally undeniable is the fact that the universe also began to exist. Therefore, we are presented with two scientifically accepted facts: 1-The non-living matter in the universe came into existence. 2-Life began to exist. Explaining the existence of life remains a challenge that science has yet to overcome.

Since we know the universe had a beginning, life on Earth cannot be explained simply by claiming it was seeded by aliens from another galaxy (panspermia). Their galaxy would have had a beginning too, so how did their life originate? The theory of panspermia merely pushes the question farther back.

The idea that non-living elements spontaneously combined into organic molecules, which then organized into living cells by random chance, is hard to believe and even harder to prove. Many brilliant minds have tried to explain life in this way. Evolution does not account for the origin of life; it only attempts to explain the development and diversity of life that already existed.

It is not a “god-of-the-gaps” argument when we suggest that the best explanation for abiogenesis is that an Intelligence acted upon non-living matter, imparting information (DNA) and organization beyond human understanding. This Intelligence would have to exist outside of the time dimension we live in—without beginning or end and without physical limitations—to explain the existence of life and the creation of time, space, matter, and energy. Such an intelligent Being could also take the form of a man to enter time and space and restore lost creatures to Himself. That is clearly what the Bible describes. (See John 1:1-17.)

October 2, 2025October 2, 2025

Shark-Skin Biomimicry

Human engineers often draw inspiration from the natural world. When they adapt these designs for human use, it’s called biomimicry. Shark-skin biomimicry utilizes the design principles that enable sharks to move smoothly and quickly through water, applying them for industrial and practical purposes.

In addition to its body shape, a shark’s ability to swim swiftly and quietly through the water is largely due to the design of their skin. Shark skin has a textured pattern, known as riblets, that helps reduce water drag. Researchers at U.C. Berkeley and MIT explored ways to adapt this shark skin design to reduce the water’s drag on towed sonar arrays (TSAs) used by ships and submarines. They discovered that rectangular riblets could cut drag by 5% or more and reduce noise by 14%. Noise reduction is very important for sonar, which depends on detecting sound echoes. Less noise also benefits marine wildlife.

Another application of shark-skin design is in water distribution systems. Biomimetic riblets inside water pipes can lessen turbulence as water flows through. Reducing turbulence and drag decreases the energy needed to pump water to its destination. This means lower costs for supplying water to homes. Researchers found that, under ideal conditions, drag can be cut by up to 10%.

According to another study, shark-skin biomimicry can also improve the efficiency of microchannel heat sinks. Microelectronic components in computers and other devices can be damaged by heat. The researchers reported that “the shark-skin based bionic structure had higher heat transfer capacity and lower friction loss.”

Looking at nature’s designs reveals wisdom at work. Shark-skin biomimicry offers benefits in aviation, marine transportation, water systems, and the cooling of microelectronics. What other new applications of biomimicry are still to be discovered? God’s wisdom shows in what He has made. Humans have no excuse for failing to recognize His eternal power and divine nature (Romans 1:20).

References: sciencedirect.com HERE and HERE, and popsci.com

Some other examples of biomimicry: Salvinia, Kingfishers, Harriers, Cacti, Beetles, Sponges, Cicada Wings

October 1, 2025September 30, 2025

Atlantic Salmon Migration: An Impressive Life Story

Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) can grow up to 30 inches (76 cm) and weigh about 12 pounds (5.5 kg) after spending two years at sea. In four or more years, they can grow much larger, with a record caught in 1960 weighing 109 pounds (49.44 kg). Atlantic salmon migration is an impressive life story.

For four years or more, juvenile Atlantic salmon live in freshwater rivers or streams where they hatched. When the time is right, they undergo a process called smoltification, a complex series of physiological changes that prepare them for life in saltwater. During smoltification, their skin turns silvery and reflective, and their body shape changes. Their gills produce an enzyme that removes sodium from their cells, and various mechanisms are activated to regulate body fluids in the seawater environment.

The first stage of Atlantic salmon migration begins with their journey to the Atlantic Ocean. In the ocean, their diet shifts from primarily insects to larger foods, such as shrimp, eels, squid, and small fish. While in the ocean, they grow faster than in freshwater. After two, four, or more years at sea, something triggers the fish to return to the river where they hatched.

When the salmon reach the river’s mouth, they stop eating and swim upstream. Their primary goal at this point is to return to where their life began. There, they spawn, reproducing to pass on their genes to the next generation. Unlike Pacific salmon, which die after spawning, Atlantic salmon can sometimes recondition themselves to return to the sea and repeat this cycle of migration and spawning. The fact that Atlantic salmon stay in the ocean for varying lengths of time means that a drought in their native river or stream for a year may not halt the reproduction of that year’s salmon.

This impressive life story prompts several questions. How does the Atlantic salmon return to the stream where it hatched? Apparently, they can detect the precise chemical signature of their stream by odor. Another question is why this fish undergoes such a demanding process. Many other creatures in the ecosystems benefit from the salmon’s migration. As predators, Atlantic salmon help control populations of insects in the rivers and smaller fish and other creatures in the ocean. As prey, they serve as food for larger fish, seals, and sharks. They are also valued as a delicious and nutritious food source for humans.

A more challenging question is, how could the impressive life story of the Atlantic salmon migration have happened by chance? We believe it is not by chance. This is more than survival of the fittest; it is a complex system where one animal benefits many others, including humans. Once again, we observe the Creator’s design at work.

September 29, 2025September 28, 2025

Cancer Is a Darwinian Evolutionary Process

Most people today are or will be affected by cancer. If they don’t experience it firsthand, they probably have friends or family members who will. Billions of dollars and countless hours have been dedicated to finding a cure. So far, the ultimate cure remains elusive. One challenge is that cancer is, in a sense, many diseases because it affects different parts of the body in various ways. A cancer tumor is a cluster of cells growing uncontrollably. Various factors can cause this, but a cancer expert explains that cancer is a Darwinian evolutionary process.

Karl Krueger, a former senior manager of cancer research at the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health, has authored two peer-reviewed papers describing cancer in Darwinian terms. Our cells have fail-safe mechanisms to prevent them from entering a state of runaway replication. If these mechanisms are disrupted, cells can begin to reproduce through cell division, similar to bacteria, resulting in what we call a cancer tumor.

The human body is a multicellular organism in which all components, down to the cellular level, must cooperate for the body’s health. When normal regulatory controls fail, tumor cells become selfish, cloning themselves without regard for the host. Darwin’s concept of natural selection and survival of the fittest, when applied to cancer cells, becomes out-of-control growth.

At the cellular level, according to Krueger, “Those cells which proliferate at faster rates and maintain this growth process at their site of origin, or beyond in the case of metastasis, supersede the role of natural selection. In this game, it is not survival of the fittest but rather the fastest proliferating cells that present themselves most prominently in tumors…” In other words, cancer progression is an evolutionary process.

Krueger’s insights align with Michael Behe’s 2019 book, Darwin Devolves. Behe argued that at the molecular level, the Darwinian mechanism more often breaks features rather than creating new ones. The bottom line is that cancer is a Darwinian evolutionary process, and natural selection is not a creative force because, in all biological systems, there is a natural tendency toward disorder. We refer to this as entropy, or simply aging.

Reference: scienceandculture.com

September 26, 2025September 24, 2025

How Would You Want to Be Remembered?

Only two weeks ago, people around the world were shaken by the assassination of Charlie Kirk. At only 31 years of age, he had made a dramatic impact on the lives of many people. Less than three months before he was fatally shot, Kirk was interviewed on a podcast, and the host asked him, “If you could be associated with one thing, how would you want to be remembered?” Of course, he did not know that his life would end soon, but he answered that question boldly and clearly.

The answer Kirk gave is one I wish more Christians could give, including myself. He replied, “I want to be remembered for courage for my faith. That would be the most important thing; most important thing is my faith.” Over the past two weeks, I’ve seen many negative comments about Charlie Kirk, most of which are wildly false. However, one thing I’ve noticed among some Christians since Kirk’s death is that they have gained new courage to speak up for their faith. Some have openly admitted that they’ve been quiet about their Christian faith but now feel more courageous because of Charlie Kirk’s boldness.

Someone very dear to me is currently facing a terminal illness with only a short time to live. Her Christian faith assures her that when she leaves this life, something much better awaits her. That was the faith Charlie Kirk had, but he expected to have many more years to live. The woman I love, knowing her time is limited, wants to be remembered for sharing her faith with everyone she meets, including nurses, neighbors, friends, and family. She knows where she’s headed, and she wants others to share that hope as well. If you knew you had only a short time to live, would you be more courageous in sharing your faith?

The question everyone should consider is, “How would you want to be remembered?” If you’re a Christian, are you boldly sharing your faith with those you encounter? If you love them, you’ll want them to have the same hope you have. You will want to do everything you can to see that they will be with you in heaven.

Reference: foxnews.com

September 25, 2025September 23, 2025

Hermit Crabs Stealing Homes

Hermit crabs might be accused of stealing their homes. Maybe “stealing” is a bit strong. Perhaps we should say they are “scavenging” or “recycling.” There are over 800 species of of these crabs, and most of them find an abandoned shell of a gastropod (snail) and move in.

The fact that hermit crabs (superfamily Paguroidea) live alone in shells is why we call them “hermits.” For a gastropod such as a snail, the shell is part of its body—an exoskeleton that offers protection. When the owner dies, the hermit takes over the abandoned shell. You might call it a mobile home because hermit crabs, like the original owners, carry the shells with them as they move.

Outside the shell, a hermit crab is vulnerable to predators because of its soft abdomen. Inside the shell, the crab is protected and can retract its entire body if needed. It has a curved abdomen to fit the shell, and the tip is designed to grip the shell tightly. Because they depend on shells for protection, sometimes two of them will fight over one they both like.

Marine hermit crabs spend most of their time underwater, breathing through gills. As long as their gills stay wet, they can stay on land briefly. There are about 15 species of land hermit crabs, but they still need access to water. People sometimes keep them as pets.

As a hermit crab grows, it needs larger shells, so they compete to find new homes. Some have observed them lining up in a queue from largest to smallest. When the largest moves to a bigger shell, each of the others moves up to the next size. Having shells available requires a balance between the number and size of the crabs and the gastropods that die. Sometimes, they are forced to find shelter in hollow pieces of wood or rock. Sadly, they may even take refuge in plastic trash from which they cannot escape.

Some larger hermit crabs support sea anemones on their shells. The venomous anemones protect the crabs from predators, and they benefit by eating food fragments that escape the crab’s grasp. Once again, we see how the web of life is designed to work together for survival. We believe this is no accident but the work of a Master Designer.

September 24, 2025September 23, 2025

The Song Sparrow’s Success

Many sparrows visit my feeders regularly. Looking at my copy of the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, I see that 19 pages are dedicated to various sparrow species. While many are limited to specific areas of North America, some are widespread across the continent. One such species is the song sparrow (Melospiza melodia). Some scientists have been researching the reason for the song sparrow’s success.

Song sparrows are divided into 25 subspecies spread from the East Coast to the West Coast, from Alaska’s remote islands to the Mexican volcanic plateau. These birds may seem quite ordinary, but they are extraordinarily successful at surviving and thriving in boreal forests, coastal wetlands, and even deserts. The secret of the song sparrow’s success is that each subspecies has unique traits that help it survive in its specific habitat.

In the Alaskan Aleutian Islands, the maxima subspecies has larger bodies to better conserve body heat. The fallax subspecies, found in the Sonoran and Mohave deserts, has lighter plumage to blend into the desert’s brown landscape. The caurina subspecies of the Pacific Northwest has darker feathers to resist moisture-related microbes. In Atlantic Coast salt marshes, the atlantica subspecies has larger bills to assist in evaporative cooling.

Scientists from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the University of British Columbia sequenced the DNA of nearly every subspecies to understand the song sparrow’s success. They found that genes and the environment work together to enable variations among subspecies, allowing them to thrive in diverse ecosystems.

This new research confirms what we have previously stated. God has given each species the ability to adapt and change over time to fit changing environments. That adaptability is key to the song sparrow’s success. Sparrows can evolve and adapt, yet they remain sparrows. This ability to change highlights God’s divine power in His creations (Romans 1:20). Jesus affirmed God’s love for even the sparrows, and much more for every human being. (See Matthew 10:29-31.)

Reference: National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America and allaboutbirds.org

September 23, 2025September 22, 2025

First Responders in the Body

David Coppedge wrote a very interesting article about the body’s “first responders.” He described four instances where the body has its own superheroes ready in advance to handle and prevent crises that could lead to life-threatening diseases, such as cancer. These first responders in the body had to be present before they were needed. They are like police or firefighters who need the skill and training to come to the rescue when necessary. Planning and preparation indicate design.

One line of defense against infections is provided by cilia, which sweep the airways clean with wave-like motions. These hair-like structures are familiar, but recent research has shown that they provide upward as well as lateral flow to push fluids away from the airway surface. This action helps prevent bacteria, viruses, and harmful particles from reaching the cells of the airways and causing infections.

Another first responder removes toxic waste called reactive oxygen species (ROS) that develop in the cell’s mitochondria. Since these are toxic substances, ROS must be handled carefully. Organelles called peroxisomes detoxify these dangerous chemicals, sparing mitochondria from oxidative stress. This process requires two proteins that are resistant to toxins and produce a bridge that allows ROS to move safely between organelles.

This line of defense has been compared to the comic superhero, the Incredible Hulk. Dendritic cells that are part of the immune system travel through tissues looking for problems to solve, like cops on a beat. Usually, they slip through tissues, removing “bad guys” one at a time. However, when they come across a “mob” in their way, these narrow and flexible immune cells expand like the Incredible Hulk, with bulging muscles to push obstacles out of the way.

One of the first responders in the body is compared to Spartan warriors. It is the critical enzyme SPRTN. Before a cell divides, its DNA must be copied for the new cell. Unwanted proteins can latch onto the DNA strand and clog the copying machinery with cross-links called DPCs. That can lead to premature aging, cancer, or other problems. The SPRTN enzyme finds and repairs the clogs by degrading the proteins that cause them. SPRTN must degrade the clog without harming the surrounding tissue, and it does that by detecting ubiquitin tags that the DPCs carry. Understanding how SPRTN works enables scientists to develop strategies to enhance defense against age-related diseases and tissue damage caused by cancer therapies.

All of these discoveries were made through empirical observation by competent and respected scientists and reported in science journals. The first responders in the body are ready and prepared to serve and protect the human body. Like first responders to natural disasters, they are not there by accident but by a designed plan for defense and protection.

Reference: evolutionnews.org

September 22, 2025September 21, 2025

Glowing Birds-of-Paradise

Some of the most colorful and fascinating birds are the more than 40 species in the Paradisaeidae family, known as birds-of-paradise. They are more than just colorful; they are extravagant in their ornamentation and in their mating rituals. We have previously looked at the King of Saxony bird-of-paradise and Wilson’s bird-of-paradise. Studying these birds always reveals something new. In February 2025, a team of researchers published a new study about glowing birds-of-paradise.

Birds-of-paradise inhabit the rainforests of New Guinea and Australia, where they showcase their dazzling colors and remarkable features. Rene Martin, a University of Nebraska ichthyologist (a scientist who studies fish), specializes in deep-sea glow-in-the-dark fish. Some of her colleagues mentioned birds that seem to gleam, which led her to expose some specimens of birds-of-paradise at the American Museum of Natural History to UV light.

What Martin discovered was glowing birds-of-paradise. Thirty-seven species showed biofluorescence under ultraviolet light. Seeing them with human eyes was impressive, but for the specialized eyes of birds, it must be even more dramatic. Unsurprisingly, the males glow the most. For example, the entire belly of the male king bird-of-paradise seems to glow under UV light. Females exhibit some scattered and subdued glowing areas, which might help them camouflage in the sun-dappled rainforest. Meanwhile, the biofluorescence of the males could enhance their brilliant colors in the dark rainforest.

The discovery of these glowing birds-of-paradise reminds us that it’s easy to overlook what is right in front of us. Edwin Scholes, founder and director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Birds-of-Paradise Project, said, “Just when people think, ‘Oh, we must know everything there is to know about birds-of-paradise,’ we find something completely mind-blowing. There’s still a lot to be discovered.”

What new insights will science uncover about God’s creation in the coming days and years? The more we learn, the more we realize the truth of Romans 1:20, which tells us we can know there is a God by the things He has made.

Reference: allaboutbirds.org

September 19, 2025September 18, 2025

The Homochirality of Organic Molecules

Yesterday, we discussed the chirality, or handedness, of molecules, especially amino acids and proteins. The homochirality of organic molecules refers to their requirement for the same handedness, a mystery that has puzzled scientists since 1848, when Louis Pasteur first observed that some life-essential molecules had mirror-image forms. Amino acids used by living cells and the proteins they build have left-handed chirality, while DNA, RNA, and the sugars forming their building blocks are all right-handed. These facts raise a question for those who believe life arose spontaneously.

Left-handed proteins and right-handed DNA are found in all living organisms. The spiral structure of DNA needs to twist in a specific direction to function properly, but what caused the right-handed sugar molecules to come together? When half of all amino acid molecules in nature exhibit right chirality and the other half left, what force could have gathered only the left-handed ones to form the first proteins?

Scientists have speculated that cosmic rays or polarized light might have triggered this process. However, even if such forces created an initial bias for the same-handedness, they could not sustain and amplify it enough to produce a significant number of homochiral molecules to form the first living cells. In 1999, researchers proposed that electron spin created magnetism, causing left-handed peptides (short chains of amino acids) to bind to magnetic surfaces like magnetite. But this still did not explain how the homochirality of organic molecules could be amplified sufficiently to generate living cells.

Some scientists consider RNA to be the key to the origin of life. In 2009, a group of researchers studying RNA molecules suggested that a crystal called RAO could react to produce two of RNA’s four nucleotides. In 2023, other researchers used magnetism to produce RAO crystals with homochirality. However, this process required a magnetic field 6,500 times stronger than Earth’s magnetic field. Additionally, RAO has only been shown to produce two of RNA’s four nucleotides, still falling short of generating the complete homochirality of molecules needed for life.

As 2024 ended, NASA-funded research identified a problem with the so-called “RNA world” hypothesis. Simulating early Earth conditions, they found that RNA did not show a chemical bias toward selecting homochiral amino acids. The current thinking is that the homochirality of organic molecules “could have emerged through later evolutionary pressures.” In other words, we have the “evolution-of-the-gaps” theory because, of course, evolution can do anything you can imagine.

Currently, NASA scientists are analyzing samples brought back from asteroid Bennu, hoping that molecular evidence from meteorites and asteroids will demonstrate that the building blocks for life came from beyond Earth. I suspect that the force responsible for bringing life to Earth did originate outside our planet, and even beyond the universe.

References: science.org and nasa.gov