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Genesis Reports

Beetles, Bombs, and Design

6/26/2020

 

by Terri Kammerzell

Truth of Genesis Ministry Partner

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This past Monday, June 22, was the 25th annual “World Wide VW Beetle Day,” also known as “Drive Your Beetle to Work Day.” Did you know that the Volkswagen Beetle had a designer? In fact, its designer had a pretty familiar name: Ferdinand Porsche. At the request of Adolf Hitler, Porsche’s directive was to design a car that common people could afford and own: the people’s car (or folks’ wagon).

The Volkswagen Beetle has arguably become one of the most recognized vehicles in all of history. Its first model, the Type 1 made in the 1930s, was meant to be an affordable, mass-produced passenger car for people to drive on Germany’s new roads. The Beetle was originally designed with 25 hp, for a top speed around 62 mph. Over time, engineers upgraded the engine, moved the location of the engine, and added new design features.

Off and on, the VW Beetle was produced for a span of some eighty years, with the final Beetle coming off the factory line in July of 2019. Still, the affinity for the little car carries on. So much so, that on Monday, in the midst of a global pandemic, people around the world who share a common passion and love for the iconic car posted pictures of their own all over social media, and made a point to (safely) drive their little cars, feeling a connection to a worldwide network of like-minded friends.

As Christians, we have a worldwide network of like-minded friends, too! And celebrating the design of little things like the bombardier beetle should be able to connect us in the midst of a global pandemic as well.

How does the bombardier beetle defy evolution?
The beetle has a chemical mixture that creates small explosions to defend itself.


“Bombardier” beetles get their names from the aqueous “bombs” they eject at their predators. They are a member of the family Carabidae, and of the genus Brachinus, which contains 304 species, just in the United States alone. Bombardier beetles are sometimes referred to as dragon-like creatures because of the boiling hot, caustic liquid they fire out at enemies such as birds, frogs, mice, rats, snakes, spiders, toads, and other insects.

The exothermic chemical reaction that happens in this amazing little insect is actually a very sophisticated defense system. The beetle stores two liquids—hydroquinone and hydrogen peroxide—in a larger chamber in its abdomen. When the beetle senses danger, it transfers those liquids to a smaller chamber to mix with the enzyme catalase. The liquids rapidly heat, and the oxygen steam released helps create an explosion. The bombardier has a special swivel nozzle in its backside which it uses to release this boiling hot liquid through a twin set of “spray nozzles” located at the tip of the beetle’s abdomen. The beetle never misses and delivers its bombs—often accompanied by an audible popping sound—with pinpoint accuracy and great force, leaving a foul, yellowish residue on its targets, and sometimes even causing seizures in its would-be predators.

This rapid defense system gives the beetle enough time to get away. But isn’t it amazing that it doesn’t get burned in the process? By pulsing the jet 500 times per second, the beetle keeps its rear end cool enough to not get cooked in the process. Why? Because all the parts work together in beautiful harmony. In fact, it would be dangerous or useless to the beetle if any of these parts of the process came together slowly through chance, time, and natural processes. The system had to work right from the start the first time, or the beetle would not have survived. And, as a pretty good rule of thumb, dead animals cannot evolve.
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Creation scientists point to the bombardier beetle as an icon for design because, like the VW Beetle, its original design had to be all-functioning from the beginning. And not only they, but also combustion engineers study the bombardier beetle to learn how to build more efficient combustion engines. Just like the Volkswagen Beetle had a well-known designer named Ferdinand Porsche, the bombardier beetle had a well-known Designer named God. Both beetles were built by design.

Don’t just take my word for it! Visit YouFormedMe.com/animals/bombardier.html to read, watch, and listen to supporting research and commentary from scientists, doctors, theologians, and more!
This blog is from a special series of “Creation Fun Facts” by Terri Kammerzell, starting from June 10, 2020. Read the introduction at TruthOfGenesis.com/blogs/building-a-biblical-defense-of-creation.

Dads, Grads, and . . . Giraffes?

6/17/2020

 

by Terri Kammerzell

Truth of Genesis Ministry Partner

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With Father’s Day coming this Sunday and graduates being honored this month, how about adding one more reason to celebrate: the giraffe! This Sunday happens to be World Giraffe Day. It’s actually an annual event every June 21, chosen specifically to draw attention to the longest-necked animal (currently living) in the world on the longest day (depending on your hemisphere) of the year.

Although the event, started by the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, was meant to bring attention to the challenges of giraffes in the wild, zoos and other agencies around the world are finding their own ways to celebrate. And it isn’t hard to find a list of things anyone can do to “raise awareness.” But while so many are turning their attention to this beautiful creature, let’s turn our attention to its Maker! Giraffes are amazing animals that defy evolution in a number of ways. But here’s an easy way for you to remember:

What is one of the special design features of the giraffe?
Giraffes have valves in their necks to keep their brains from exploding when they bend down for water and stand back up again.


God provided these majestic creatures, usually standing 14-20 feet tall, with a heart so strong that, pumping against gravity to move blood up the giraffe’s six-foot neck, it generates pressure about twice that of a human heart or of any other large mammal. In fact, a giraffe’s heart is usually up to two feet long and weighs about 25 pounds. But what happens when the giraffe bends its neck all the way to the ground to get a drink of water, and then its heart is pumping with gravity?

God gave the giraffe a pressure-signaling system. The one-way check valves that carry the blood from the giraffe’s heart to its brain close, limiting the amount of pressure. Still, the pressure that does make it that far could be enough to end the giraffe. However, at the base of the brain, God installed a “wonder net” of spongy tissue that expands to absorb the blood and protect the brain.

How about when the giraffe stands back up? Have you ever had that experience of passing out or coming close to it when you stand up too quickly? What if a lion were coming after you, and your head and neck were at least ten times as big? Your chances of survival would be slim, wouldn’t they?

When the giraffe stands back up—even quickly enough to run from a lion—the sponge squeezes, the valves going to the brain open again, and the valves going back down to the heart close. Isn’t that an amazing design process?!

All these parts needed to be in place at once—not evolving one at a time—in order for giraffes to have survived from generation to generation because, as a pretty good rule of thumb, dead animals cannot evolve. If God hadn’t designed them that way from the beginning, how many giraffes would have had to explode, pass out, or become food for prey before their offspring were finally able to “develop” the perfect chance combination of genes necessary to survive these daily tasks? Isn’t it more likely that they were created just that way, right from the beginning?

Incidentally, evolutionists, including Darwin himself, have tried to suggest that giraffes’ necks have become longer over the ages. If that were the case, what would you expect paleontologists to have found? Fossils of short-necked giraffes? How about transitional fossils of medium-necked giraffes? Guess what?! Paleontologists have found none of these. God created giraffes to have long necks, strong hearts, and built-in valves to keep their brains from exploding when they bend down for water and stand back up again. The giraffe is one of many amazing designs from an amazing Designer.

So, if you’re having a hard time picking out something special for that dad or grad in your life, try a trip to your nearby zoo, spend the day watching the San Diego Zoo’s live “giraffe cam,” or find a giraffe plush, book, or mug as a gift. In any event, be sure to share the Fun Fact you learned this week!
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Don’t just take my word for it! Visit YouFormedMe.com/animals/giraffe.html to read, watch, and listen to supporting research and commentary from scientists, doctors, theologians, and more!
This blog is from a special series of “Creation Fun Facts” by Terri Kammerzell, starting from June 10, 2020. Read the introduction at In Defense of Design.

Building a Biblical Defense of Creation

6/10/2020

 

by Terri Kammerzell

Truth of Genesis Ministry Partner

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In 2009, God started me on two new paths in my life: homeschooling my fifth-grade son and working for a large retailer. In regard to the first, right from the start I made the choice to not only forego public charter funding, but to pay tuition and out-of-pocket expenses for curriculum so that we could be part of a Christian homeschool advisory program. To me, it was a no-brainer. I didn’t want to just add a Bible class to teach my son about the Lord. I knew, having been a Christian since I was four years old, that God is not only our Savior but also the author of logic and the source of all reason. To truly give my son a Christian education, I wanted him to study curricula that pointed to God’s role in every aspect of learning: the providential guidance of the forming of the United States, the literary devices woven through the Bible, the fact that math is the way God thinks about numbers, and—especially—the science that supports the truths found in the Bible.

I grew up in a church that taught biblical Creation. On multiple occasions I attended conferences with Ken Ham, Dr. Gish, and Dr. Morris.  I learned about Creation. I took notes about the importance of Genesis. And I submitted those notes to my Christian schoolteachers for extra credit. I knew Whom I had believed: I believed in the Creator of the World. He was my Savior, and someday I would spend eternity with Him.

Throughout my adult life, trials and temptations have come and gone, and I’ve had periods of time when my relationship with the Lord and my commitment to Him have struggled, but I’ve never wavered from my faith in His saving grace.

When I worked for the large retailer, my coworkers knew I was a Christian. My coworkers knew I homeschooled my son. My coworkers knew my faith was strong. But the only questions I ever fielded about any of those was why I would homeschool, and boy, was I armed with answers to those questions!

Over the five years working there, I watched the company and my store slide down a scale of trading traditional biblical values for socially acceptable, but very immoral, ideals. I knew it was not just my company, but the country and the world in general. The longer I kept working there, the more I felt my convictions contradicting with those of the company for which I was driving profitable sales. And the longer I had to reconcile this internal conflict, the more unsettled I was, and the less satisfaction I received from any “job well done” remarks I heard from my bosses.

Finally, in 2014, I felt the Lord calling me away from there, to focus on homeschooling my own son more hands-on, and to ministering to other homeschool families through tutoring and teaching co-op classes.

In my last days at the retail store while training my female replacement, I had a rude awakening. She was very outspoken about her disbelief in God and her acceptance of the company’s unbiblical ideals. One day she challenged my faith. She started asking me questions about why I could believe in the Genesis story as truth, when so much “evidence” that contradicted it existed. She had studied her public-school textbooks. She had learned evolution from her public-school textbooks. She believed her public-school textbooks.

And me? A Christian for some three decades? I had no logical answer to give her. And I had attended Creation conferences. I had learned from Ken Ham, Dr. Gish, and Dr. Morris. But I was totally unarmed in this battle. Because even though I studied, learned, and believed, I never took it to the next level. I never comprehended 1 Peter 3:15—to “always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks [me] a reason for the hope that is in [me], with meekness and fear” (NKJV).

And there lay the challenge. What good were my convictions if I couldn’t defend my belief? How was I bringing glory to God or advancing His kingdom if I couldn’t even answer her questions to defend the Word of God and the science that supports it?

Thus, I’ve made it my mission these past six years to study Creation apologetics. And not only to study, but to teach. It’s my desire to make sure my son and the other homeschool students I am entrusted with learn answers to the questions they will encounter like I did.

If you’ve spent some time studying Creation apologetics, you will understand this next truth. There is a lot to learn, and no way to remember it all!

And so, in 2015 I came up with an idea to help my students remember at least some of the key points of design and biblical Creation: 49 Fundamental Facts. Or, for short- “Fun Facts!” I created seven facts for seven categories. They are simple question-answer building blocks that lay a foundation for being able to give a defense for design.
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Those Fun Facts are now displayed on my website, YouFormedMe.com, and presented with clickable links to resources that expound on the truths. Over the next year, it will be my privilege to share them with you, one per week, and to give you a little insight about how we can know they are true.

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