Nothing Becomes Everything

Ars Technica has coverage of a topic I covered earlier in "People will believe anything - except the Bible".

One hundred years ago, the idea that "nothing exploded to become everything" would have been laughed at. Now, it is rapidly becoming the standard atheist cosmology.

ASC and Leukemia

Interesting article at Science Daily.

Here, they are comparing the use of stem cells from the patient (nonallogeneic, or autologous) or from a donor (allogeneic). ESC are effectively always allogeneic.

The findings indicate that allogeneic treatments only benefit medium and high risk patients.

Homosexual Animals

An article I wanted to touch on briefly at Science Daily.

The first point is the interesting tendency towards the argument, "Animals do it, so it's ok!"

The second is an evolutionist / creationist point.

The creationist would say, "Homosexual behavior in animals is a product of the Fall (even leading to genetic changes). It is representative of our rebellion, and refusal to honor the image of God. The animals are simply reflecting that behavior in us."

The atheist would say "Homosexual behavior has evolved over millions of years."

But what about Christian evolutionists? If homosexual behavior is genetic, and is encoded in base pairs from millions of years ago, is it reflective of Creation before the Fall?

Is it part of God's "good" order?

Cosmological Measurements

A very revealing article at Science Daily.

Interesting details:

• A star shrinking by 15% in 15 years, no one knows why


• Changes in methodology in just the past year have moved the star from 430 ly away to 640 ly (an error of 48.9%).

Cosmological Time

Time and distance are used almost interchangeably in cosmology. Measurements pertaining to either can be critical in evaluating truth claims.

The referenced article at Science News is a good case for why we should be skeptical of "computer models" (I know, I used to write models of computer hardware).

"By including in their model previously ignored features such as the maximum possible rate of rotation and subtle shifts in the observed radio frequency due to a pulsar’s motion across the sky, the team finds that some millisecond pulsars are up to 10 times younger or 10 times older than earlier estimates suggest."

Obama, Islam, and Tolerance

I can't help but laugh at modern (or post-modern) man.

Christians are intolerant because they:

1. Proclaim what they believe to be true (the Gospel), and ask other people to consider the repercussions of it (repent and be saved)
2. Proclaim that Jesus is the only way to be saved

But Muslims can invade a territory, set up sharia law, have a special tax just for infidels, deny common freedoms (like proclaiming the truth as you see it, in #1 above) - and they are considered tolerant, because they didn't put the people to the sword (which would be the normal behavior).

Excellent summary at Insight Scoop.

Stellar Distance 2

I previously mentioned a method for measuring distance in space using novae.

There is another method, called cepheid. The Wikipedia article is a good place to start.

It is important to note that this methodology is dependent on the assumption that these stars are behaving the way that we believe they are, and that our estimates of measuring the distance to some of them is correct.