Friday, 15 March 2024
Do not forget JEHOVAH our God.
Deuteronomy Ch.6:10-12 ASV"And it shall be, when JEHOVAH thy God shall bring thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee, great and goodly cities, which thou buildest not, 11and houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and cisterns hewn out, which thou hewedst not, vineyards and olive-trees, which thou plantedst not, and thou shalt eat and be full; 12then beware lest thou forget JEHOVAH, who brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage"
Never forget JEHOVAH our God who freed us from religious confusion and gave us this marvelous estate of spiritual abundance virtually all of which is the work of others.
Design deniers remain gatekeepers of the agrora?
Healthy Debate? No Thanks, Says National Association of Biology Teachers
A recent article here by Wesley J. Smith highlighted how mainstream science seeks to stifle opposition instead of encouraging open and honest debate. The article reminded me of a recent experience I had involving the Board of Directors of the National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT).
Nothing Unscientific About Design
When I attended the annual conference of the NABT in November 2023, I met Amanda Townley, the president-elect of the NABT. During our conversation I mentioned I had a proposal for amending the NABT Position Statement on Teaching Evolution and I asked her what was the procedure for proposing an amendment to a Position Statement. She asked what it concerned and I said it was a clarification that there is nothing unscientific about a theory of design, including in the field of biology. She said only members of the Board of Directors could propose Position Statements or amendments thereto, but she said she would be willing to present my proposal at an upcoming meeting of the Board. She asked me to send her an explanation of the proposal. The explanation I sent to her is set forth below.
Proposal by Herman B. Bouma for Amending NABT Position Statement on Teaching Evolution
I highly recommend that the NABT Position Statement on Teaching Evolution be amended to make clear that there is nothing inherently unscientific about a theory of design, including in the field of biology.
Suppose an American geologist went to England to study its rock formations and happened to come upon Stonehenge. As a scientist, is he precluded from theorizing that Stonehenge is the result of design? If he cannot refer to design, then he might come up with a theory that Stonehenge is the result of a volcanic eruption or the result of deposition by an ancient river. Those are certainly theories, but not very good ones.
As a scientist, the geologist might have a predilection to explain Stonehenge in terms of natural processes. However, given what he knows about natural processes and given the layout of the stones in Stonehenge, and realizing science should not rule out any logical possibility, he would rightly conclude that design is the best explanation.
Many well-known scientists have had no problem theorizing about design in biology:
Darwin himself theorized that the first forms of life (at most, 8-10 forms) were the result of design;
Alfred Russel Wallace, who came up with a theory of natural selection at the same time as Darwin, later abandoned that theory and instead subscribed to a theory of design;
Louis Agassiz, a leading naturalist at Harvard University and “the father of the American scientific tradition,” opposed Darwin’s theory of natural selection and subscribed to a theory of design;
Even Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary atheist, has theorized that DNA might be the result of design (by space aliens);
Dr. Sudip Parikh, the CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, addressed the concept of design when he spoke at the National Press Club on April 5, 2021. A questioner noted that Darwin himself theorized that the very first forms of life were the result of design and asked Dr. Parikh if theorizing about design in nature is unscientific. Instead of stating that it is unscientific, he said we should be teaching our students to follow the evidence, “wherever that evidence takes them.”
Of course, if a theory of design is presented in a science classroom of a public school in the United States, then, given the separation of church and state required by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the theory cannot identify the designer with any particular religion.
Acknowledging that there is nothing unscientific about a theory of design in biology would go a long way toward restoring trust in science, which is now seen by many as ignoring the obvious (design).
In an email to me on February 8, 2024, Ms. Townley (now the president of the NABT) informed me that she presented my proposal for amending the NABT Position Statement on Teaching Evolution at the January 2024 meeting of the Board of Directors. She said, “The board heard the proposal and voted to decline the amendment.”
I replied, “Could the Board give me its reasons for declining the amendment? In particular, could it respond to the arguments set forth in my statement supporting the proposal? That would be much appreciated.”
She replied, “The board declined discussion of the amendment and unanimously declined to amend the statement, therefore there are no counter arguments available to share.”
No Debate, Please; We’re Biology Teachers
In an email on February 9, 2024, I replied that I was “very disappointed the Board wasn’t interested in engaging in a healthy debate on the issue of design, especially since Louis Agassiz and Charles Darwin thought there was nothing unscientific about it.” I stated that scientists and science teachers should be interested in promoting debate, not stifling it. I also noted, “If the NABT is sincerely interested in promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion, it should promote the inclusion of those who share the perspective of Louis Agassiz and Charles Darwin, i.e., that design is a legitimate scientific concept.”
In an email to Ms. Townley on February 22, 2024, I again expressed my disappointment that the Board did not give any reasons for its rejection of my proposal and stated that “I would find it very helpful if you, or someone else at the NCSE [National Center for Science Education], could prepare for me a brief response to the arguments I presented in my proposal.” (I should note that, in addition to being the new president of the NABT, Ms. Townley is now also the new executive director of the NCSE.)
In a response the same day, Ms. Townley thanked me for my email but stated, “As noted previously, the Board deemed that the matter did not warrant discussion or debate and unanimously declined discussion. Your disappointment at that outcome is noted, however, no further discussion or argumentation will be provided.” Like the Board, neither she nor the NCSE had any interest in discussing or debating the question of whether design is a legitimate scientific concept in the field of biology.
It is clear that one way mainstream science seeks to stifle opposition is by simply refusing to discuss or debate opposing views.
The body's war machine vs. Darwin.
Newly Discovered War Machines in the Immune System
An armored terrorist lurks in the city. Suddenly, thousands of pieces of sticky rope fly at him from all directions. They bind together, immobilizing him in a net. The net dissolves the intruder’s armor, and simultaneously signals for miniature robotic snipers who land on the net, using it as a scaffold. They fire armor-penetrating bullets through the net and into the terrorist’s compromised armor. Reinforcements install kill switches inside his body, forcing the terrorist to commit involuntary suicide.
Something like that describes a newly discovered molecular machine that helps fight infectious pathogens in our body cells. The news from Yale University says:
Yale scientists have discovered a family of immune proteins, which they describe as a “massive molecular machine,” that could affect the way our bodies fight infection.
The immune proteins forming the net around the pathogen are called guanylate binding proteins, or GBPs. They have been known for a decade, but their mode of operation was only recently uncovered by Yale researchers. A short video shows these GBP1 proteins (the sticky ropes) as yellow pillar-shaped dimers rushing in, unfolding and linking up, surrounding the outer membrane of a bacterium (its armor). In short order the bacterium is surrounded with an inescapable straitjacket. There can be up to 30,000 of these proteins enclosing the pathogen in a type of body bag.
“What we found is among the most impressive examples of a biological machine in action that I’ve ever seen,” said John MacMicking, a professor of microbial pathogenesis and of immunobiology at Yale, and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. MacMicking is senior author of the study.
The bacterial cell wall armor is no match for the immune system’s armor-piercing bullets. Even bacteria able to modify the lipopolysaccharides (LPS) that comprise the outer membrane (OM) have no chance. GBP1 knows all the configurations.
Human GBP1 still targeted cytosolic Stm [Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium] irrespective of bacterial size, shape, motility, or OM composition; the latter spanned LPS chains of different length, charge, and chemical structure. Such broad ligand promiscuity may help GBP1 combat gram-negative pathogens that modify their LPS moiety in an attempt to evade innate immune recognition and antimicrobial killing.
With the pathogen’s armor covered, the GBP proteins work to disentangle the lipopolysaccharide threads of the outer membrane. Having detected the help signal, reinforcements come in, firing caspase-4 grenades and interferon-γ kill switches into the bacterium, forcing it to commit pyroptosis, a form of programmed cell death.
“We are literally observing Mother Nature at work, looking at how these proteins operate in 3-dimensional space and at a particular location,” said MacMicking. “In just a few minutes they unfold and insert into the bacterial membrane to form a truly remarkable nanomachine and innate immune signaling platform.”
The bacteria coated with GBP straitjackets can be as small as 750 billionths of a meter (nanometers). The scientists found that this body-bag method works on bacteria regardless of shape. It works on viruses, too.
Imaging Design in Detail
This discovery was only made possible by recent advances in imaging technology. With cryo-electron microscopy, the researchers were able to “slice” whole live cells that had been quick-frozen. The resulting slices were assembled into tomograms, giving glimpses of heretofore unseen realities at work inside our body cells.
Our immune system mobilizes numerous proteins to detect viruses and bacteria — and to bring them under control. But until recently, limits to research technology have thwarted scientists’ understanding of how to prevent different pathogens from occupying and replicating within specific parts of our cells in the first place.
Harnessing the latest cryo‐electron microscopy techniques to look inside human cells, researchers at the Yale Systems Biology Institute have identified a family of large immune proteins that assemble into a massive signaling platform directly on the surface of microbial pathogens.
The researchers say they found thousands of GBPs building what amounted to a coat of armor (GBP1 coat complex) around the bacteria, allowing other defense proteins to recognize and kill encapsulated bacteria as well as mobilize immune cells for protection.
This reinforces an ID expectation that the more detail revealed, the more the design evidence becomes apparent. Evolution may look plausible from afar, but the angel is in the details.
How Reinforcements Are Called
After the bacterium is immobilized, the GBP1 straitjacket becomes a scaffold for snipers to dismantle the intruder’s armor. The GBP family of proteins serve not only as the sticky ropes coating the intruder and disrupting its armor; they are also equipped with radios to call in the snipers and bomb squad. These proteins install the kill switches.
Thus, insertion of human GBP1 seems to disrupt lateral LPS-LPS interactions to compromise OM integrity. This not only activates the caspase-4 inflammasome pathway but allows the passage of small antimicrobial proteins such as APOL3 to directly kill pathogenic bacteria.
Human GBP1 was found to be “obligate for initiating the entire signaling cascade,” the scientists found via knockout experiments. It’s the captain in command.
Irreducible Complexity in Peace and War
ID advocates enjoy the examples of irreducible complexity (IC) in peacetime: the ATP synthase motor, kinesin, and the DNA translation mechanism. But when intruders threaten the life of a cell or its host organism, IC can fight with lethal intensity in an “all hands on deck!” war campaign. Its armed forces are always at the ready.
An emerging paradigm for innate immune signaling cascades is the higher-order assembly of repetitive protein units that generate large polymers capable of amplifying signal transduction. Our results identify human GBP1 as the principal repetitive unit, numbering thousands of proteins per bacillus, that undergoes dramatic conformational opening to establish a host defense platform directly on the surface of gram-negative bacteria. This platform enabled the recruitment of other immune partners, including GBP family members and components of the inflammasome pathway, that initiate protective responses downstream of activating cytokines such as interferon-γ. Elucidating this giant molecular structure not only expands our understanding of how human cells recognize and combat infection but may also have implication for antibacterial approaches within the human population.
Isn’t it nice to know that “eukaryotes have evolved compartment-specific immune surveillance mechanisms that alert the host to infection and recruit antimicrobial proteins that help bring microbial replication under control”? Actually, Charles Darwin never proved that his proposed mechanism of natural selection was capable of creating anything beyond simple variation within a species. His use of rhetoric and the analogy of domestic breeding was recognized even by his contemporaries as a mere suggestive hypothesis lacking scientific demonstration.
Robert Shedinger shows this in Darwin’s own words in the new book Darwin’s Bluff. Aware that the Origin of Species was a “mere abstract” falling short scientific standards, Darwin promised a “big book” with the evidence. But he never published one. Why? Shedinger suggests he knew the evidence was lacking, and he was afraid of criticism. Instead, he relied on friends to promote his views. Darwin’s friends ran with “natural selection” as an all-purpose can opener to explain nature without an intelligent designer, using imagination and storytelling instead of hard evidence. In my experience reading the best of neo-Darwinian explanations, that’s still all they have to offer. Demonstration of selection’s alleged creative power is lacking, especially for irreducibly complex “massive molecular machines” like this one.
The discovery of a multi-component system able to mount a coordinated response to a threat speaks instead of Foresight: preparedness for a future eventuality. Darwin’s mechanism has no foresight or goal. At best, it can only preserve what it already has. Our uniform experience with foresight is that it is a capability of designing intelligence. That is Undeniable.
Zechariah 2:10-15 demystified
3a. Zechariah 2:10-15
This is virtually the same ‘proof’ as that of Is. 48:16 above.
Here is how it was presented to me (in blue) and my response.
“So who was the Jehovah that sent Jehovah in Zechariah 2:10, 11...It was Jehovah who declared this...are you saying Jehovah (the only God...the Father) was sent to tabernacle with us, by Jehovah (the only God...the Father)? Please answer this...YHVH declared it. He was being sent by YHVH...which one is the Father or both or is one the Word (who would also be YHVH but not the Father)? Please exegete this passage…”
This is the same as the Trinitarian argument that Is. 48:16 shows two different persons as Jehovah.
Similarly, we may note that various Trinitarian scholars have shown by quotation marks and use of parentheses that the “sent me” passages in Zechariah also do not refer to Yahweh.
The Jerusalem Bible uses parentheses to separate these passages from the words spoken by Yahweh.
The New Jerusalem Bible uses quotations marks to show where Jehovah’s words start and end. The passages in question are not included.
An American Translation (Smith-Goodspeed) also uses quotation marks to show Jehovah’s words. The passages in question are not included in them.
The Good News Bible also uses quotation marks to show that YHWH did not speak the words in the passages including “sent me.”
The Bible: A New Translation (Dr. James Moffatt) uses both quotation marks and Parentheses to separate the words of Yahweh from those of the "sent me" passage.
The Contemporary English Version shows Yahweh speaking in Zech. 2:6-7. The rest of Zechariah 2 are the words of the prophet.
The Easy-to-Read Version also shows Jehovah speaking in Zech. 2:6-7, but all the parts that refer to knowing the prophet was sent by Jehovah are spoken by the prophet.
Remember Young’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible, for example, informs Bible readers:
“The language of the MESSENGER frequently glides into that of the SENDER, e.g. Gen. 16:10 …Zech 2:8-11.” and, “what a SERVANT says or does is ascribed to the MASTER.” - “Hints and Helps to Bible Interpretation” - Preface.
The original manuscripts had no punctuation and this has to be added by the translator as he sees fit.
The point is that these were translated by Trinitarian scholars for a (mostly) Trinitarian readership! They certainly would not have taken a real Trinitarian ‘proof’ and neutralized it!
This was followed by this response (in blue) followed by my answer:
“The absolutely non-Trinitarian Masoretic Text has this in verses 14, 15 and literally reads in English... "14 'Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion; for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the LORD. 15 And many nations shall join themselves to the LORD in that day, and shall be my people, and I will dwell in the midst of thee'; and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto thee.”
This quote is from JPS, 1917 (Margolis). If you are going to quote from a source, you should identify it.
First, the Masoretic Text has YHWH (Yahweh/Jehovah) instead of ‘LORD.’
Second, the JPS, 1917 translation you quote says:
(2:12) For thus saith the LORD of hosts who sent me after glory unto the nations which spoiled you: 'Surely, he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye. (2:13) For, behold, I will shake My hand over them, and they shall be a spoil to those that served them'; and ye shall know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me. (2:14) 'Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion; for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the LORD. (2:15) And many nations shall join themselves to the LORD in that day, and shall be My people, and I will dwell in the midst of thee'; and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto thee.
Notice the quotation marks this translation uses for Yahweh’s words (highlighted in red). They start at the end of verse 12 and end at ‘that served them’ near the end of verse 13. Then again they start at the beginning of verse 14 and end at ‘midst of thee’ in verse 15. The words following these quotes are the words of the prophet.
Posted by Elijah Daniels
Following the politics?
What’s in a Name? Debating the Anthropocene Epoch
Earlier this month, geologists voted down a proposal to give the years since 1950 a geological name, the Anthropocene Epoch. The vote at the subcommission of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) was 12 to 4, with 2 abstentions. Thus, the period in which we now live — which started with the end of the last Ice Age, roughly 11,700 years ago — will continue to be called the Holocene Epoch.
Why Does It Matter?
Assigning names to eras is a way of teaching history. That often includes imparting a message or a value judgment. Think “Dark Ages,” for example, or “Golden Age of Jazz.” Such terms are not mere names.
The geologists were asked by peers to rule that the human impact on Earth in the past 75 years has been so great that it should be an epoch all its own. But committee members pointed to the growth of agriculture over the entire Holocene and the Industrial Revolution that began centuries ago. At least one mentioned the impact of colonization over recent centuries.
Humans are accused of hastening the extinction of the mammoth, last noted about 4,000 years ago, and the mastodon, last noted about 10,000 years ago. We are also accused of extinguishing the giant versions of cave bears, sloths, and armadillos as we spread over the globe, which must have had an environmental effect. So why the sudden focus on the last 75 years?
Nuclear Weapons Drove the Demand for Name Change
From New Scientist, we learn that, for some scientists, the spread of nuclear weapons justifies naming a new epoch. Still, for most committee members, the brevity of the period was a deciding factor:
“The time span of the proposed Anthropocene is no more than 75 years — a single human lifetime,” says [Mike] Walker. “This does not fit comfortably into the geological time scale, where units typically span thousands, tens of thousands or millions of years.”
[Simon] Turner and [Colin] Waters disagree with the decision, arguing that there is ample evidence for the Anthropocene: “All these lines of evidence indicate that the Anthropocene, though currently brief, is — we emphasise — of sufficient scale and importance to be represented on the Geological Time Scale.”
CHEN LY, “SURPRISE DECISION NOT TO DEFINE THE ANTHROPOCENE SHOCKS SCIENTISTS, NEW SCIENTIST, MARCH 5, 2024
Of course, if impact rather than duration is the deciding criterion, surely the period of the total extinction of the dinosaurs — which may have taken a similar amount of time — should also have its own epoch name. Currently, the extinction simply marks the end of the Cretaceous Era (145–66 mya), though it is sometimes called the K–T event, to emphasize the role of the asteroid hit.
In any event, a number of scientists were vocal about their disappointment and efforts are underway to get the vote canceled due to “procedural irregularities.”
Some Underlying Issues
The current impetus for the name change stems from the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG),which, last July, found radioactive isotopes dating from the 1950s preserved in the bed of Crawford Lake (pictured above) in a wilderness in southern Ontario, Canada.
But University of Alberta geologist John Weissenberger thinks that the driving force is current angst over the environment:
The concept of the “Anthropocene” is saturated with society’s current angst about the environment and the belief that we are doing irreparable harm to the planet. If this is true, one might argue, then surely we humans have launched a new geological epoch that will forever stain the earth’s geological record. As with many other parts of these debates, however, this one says as much or more about us and our collective psyche than it does about the planet and its natural history.
JOHN WEISSENBERGER, TINKERING WITH TIME: THE CAMPAIGN TO CONJURE UP AN “ANTHROPOCENE” EPOCH, C2C JOURNAL, FEBRUARY 16, 2024
He contends that, far from our profoundly changing the planet, if human civilization were wiped out, it’s not clear how much would even be left to find after a few million years. True, there are lots of humans — but there were lots of dinosaurs too. The fossils we discover are a depressingly small sample.
Thus, he worries, “Some earth scientists on the Anthropocene bandwagon are surely well-intentioned, but others are likely to be chasing potential research dollars that come from supporting ‘societally relevant’ science and have thus been drawn into this politicized enterprise.”
Getting Off the Bandwagon
University of Maryland geographer Erle C. Ellis, a founding member (2009) of the group pushing the new epoch, agrees that the name change is unwarranted but offers a quite different perspective from Weissberger’s. He resigned in 2023 because he thinks that creating a new epoch for every key development understates the effect of human actions:
I resigned because I was convinced that this proposal defined the Anthropocene so narrowly that it would damage broader scientific and public understanding.
By tying the start of the human age to such a recent and devastating event — nuclear fallout — this proposal risked sowing confusion about the deep history of how humans are transforming the Earth, from climate change and biodiversity losses to pollution by plastics and tropical deforestation.
ERLE C. ELLIS, “THE ANTHROPOCENE IS NOT AN EPOCH — BUT THE AGE OF HUMANS IS MOST DEFINITELY UNDERWAY,” THE CONVERSATION, MARCH 5, 2024
Whether Weissenberger or Ellis proves more correct in the long run, today’s reality is that the Anthropocene bandwagon, broadcasting so much cultural vibe, may not run out of gas any time soon. As in some other disciplines today, science had just better not get in the way.
Genesis 19:24 demystified.
Gen. 19:24 ("Jehovah rained down fire ... from Jehovah")
"Then the LORD rained down upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven." - KJV.
This one seems too ridiculous to even bother with, but some trinitarians appear to be serious about it. It goes this way: when we read Gen. 19:24, we find there are two different persons who have the only personal name of God, "Jehovah," (or "LORD" in some mistranslations). Therefore these two different persons with God's personal name show the "plural personality" of that one God.
Even if we assume this to be a correct translation, it seems obvious that it can be honestly interpreted as a simple repetition of the same person's name. That is, the very same person who produced the brimstone and fire, Jehovah, is also the one who rained it down upon these cities.
The explanatory note by trinitarian Dr. Young in Young's Concise Critical Bible Commentary, Baker Book House, for this verse states: "JEHOVAH...JEHOVAH, i.e. from Himself."
If that is the correct explanation, then this scripture might provide a somewhat parallel example: "And King Solomon gave to the Queen of Sheba all that she desired, whatever she asked besides what was given her by the bounty of King Solomon." - 1 Kings 10:13, RSV. (Cf. KJV.) Even though this is a very literal translation of the original manuscripts and the one personal name of King Solomon is actually used twice, we surely don't believe there were two different persons making up the one King Solomon! Wouldn't we interpret this as Dr. Young (and others) have done with "Jehovah" above? That is obviously how the Living Bible, NIV, MLB, NASB, etc. have interpreted it. ("King Solomon gave her everything she asked him for, besides the presents he had already planned." - LB.)
Another honest explanation for Gen. 19:24 given by trinitarian scholars themselves is that the use of the phrase in question ("from the LORD out of heaven") is in doubt. The very trinitarian New American Bible, 1970 ed. (Catholic) encloses the last part of Gen. 19:24 in brackets: "the LORD rained down sulphurous fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah [from the LORD out of heaven]." And the preface to the NAB tells us: "Doubtful readings ... appear within brackets." - p. 45, St. Joseph Edition.
That is why these trinitarian Bible translations have actually omitted that doubtful portion: NEB, REB, AT, Mo, LB, and GNB. (E.g. "then the LORD rained down fire and brimstone from the skies on Sodom and Gomorrah." - New English Bible.) And others, like the NJB, have rendered it "[Jehovah] rained down on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire of his own sending." Certainly no trinitarian Bible translation would do this if it could possibly be used as honest trinitarian evidence!
Posted by Elijah Daniels
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