Darwinism Vs. The real world XVIII

Blood Clotting Requires Four Different Processes Working Together
Howard Glicksman October 26, 2015 4:17 AM

Editor's note: Physicians have a special place among the thinkers who have elaborated the argument for intelligent design. Perhaps that's because, more than evolutionary biologists, they are familiar with the challenges of maintaining a functioning complex system, the human body. With that in mind, Evolution News & Views is delighted to present this series, "The Designed Body." For the complete series, see here. Dr. Glicksman practices palliative medicine for a hospice organization.

Let's review some of the lessons that this series has so far provided about human life. The body is made up of trillions of cells, each of which must control its volume and chemical content while receiving what it needs from the blood to live, grow, and work properly. Since the body is made up of matter, it is subject to the laws of nature, which demand that it have enough energy to do what it needs to do to survive.

The body must constantly take in oxygen through the respiratory system to provide itself with the energy it needs to live because, unlike glucose, oxygen can't be stored for future use. About one-quarter to one-half of the energy the body uses while at rest is just for the sodium-potassium pumps within the plasma membrane of its trillions of cells. These pumps push Na+ ions out of the cell and bring K+ ions back in. This action not only maintains the volume and chemical content of the cell, but also the 2/3:1/3 ratio of water inside and outside the cells.

Combined with the control of its water and sodium content and the production of albumin, this process allows the body to maintain enough blood volume. The sodium-potassium pumps also maintain the electrical resting membrane potential of the cell. This is particularly important for proper heart, nerve, and muscle function.

When the cells in the brainstem die (the ones that tell the body to breathe, control its circulation, and make it conscious of its surroundings) the body is considered dead. However, the commonest cardiopulmonary arrest is the most common cause of death. Without respiration the body can't bring in new supplies of oxygen and get rid of toxic carbon dioxide, and without the heart pumping, there isn't enough blood flow to the brain. Together, this causes it to malfunction.

Since blood has mass, the heart has to pump it throughout the body against natural forces like inertia, friction and gravity that would prevent it from moving. As blood moves through the circulatory system, it applies a pressure against the vessel walls. This represents the energy that is generating its flow.

In clinical practice, the blood pressure is taken in the upper arm and is a measure of the force of blood against the walls of the brachial artery. The blood pressure is dependent on how well the heart pumps, how much blood is in the systemic arteries, and the resistance to blood flow applied by the downstream arterioles that control how much blood enters the capillaries. Blood flow (Q) is directly related to the blood pressure (P) and inversely related to the vascular resistance (R). This law of nature can be expressed as Q = P/R. The more blood pressure the more blood flow and the less blood pressure the less blood flow. The more vascular resistance the less blood flow and the less vascular resistance the more blood flow.

When we stand up and feel momentarily dizzy, our body must inherently know that if Q = P/R, then P = Q x R. In other words, blood pressure is directly related to the blood flow and vascular resistance. More blood flow and vascular resistance increases the blood pressure and less blood flow and vascular resistance decreases the blood pressure.

Standing up allows gravity to prevent blood from returning to the heart from the veins in the chest, abdomen and legs. It also keeps it from going from the heart to the brain, which reduces the blood pressure and blood flow to the brain. That's what makes us feel dizzy. The body detects these changes and reacts by sending out nerve messages to make the heart pump harder and faster, pushes blood from the veins back toward the hear,t and increases the vascular resistance applied by the arterioles by increasing the contraction of their surrounding muscles. The first two actions increase blood flow (Q) and the last one increases the vascular resistance (R), so the blood pressure (P) rises and our dizziness usually resolves in a matter of seconds.

The above demonstrates just some of the ways the body takes control and follows the rules in line with the Goldilocks principle: the real numbers must be "just right." After all, life doesn't take place within a vacuum or the imaginations of evolutionary biologists. As was the case with our earliest ancestors, to survive we must remain active, exposing our body, and our blood vessels, to the random forces of nature.

Experience tell us that when we run, jump, climb, roll, fall, and generally bang into or scrape up against solid or sharp things, natural forces like friction, momentum, pressure, sheer and gravity all contribute to blood vessel damage, bleeding and blood loss. This takes place because, with damage to the blood vessel wall, the pressure that sustains blood flow within it naturally pushes blood out through the opening. Think of it like when a water pipe in your home bursts. The water flowing through it is under pressure and when the walls of the pipe rupture water naturally flows out. Depending on the location and the severity, if the body can't stop the bleeding fast enough it runs the risk of serious problems. So to follow the rules that the laws of nature impose on it, the body must have a mechanism in place to prevent excessive bleeding from its blood vessels when they undergo injury.

Experience teaches that when we cut ourselves, a clot forms at the injured site to stop the bleeding and allow healing to take place over the next several days. This process is called hemostasis (Greek: haima = blood + stasis = halt).

Hemostasis generally involves three actions that occur almost simultaneously. Vasoconstriction is contraction of the muscles surrounding the injured blood vessel, which tries to totally close down the opening in the wall. Platelet aggregation is the formation of a soft plug by the platelets coming together and sticking to each other to fill the gap in the blood vessel wall. And activation of the clotting factors is the formation of thousands of sticky strands of fibrin which wrap around the platelet plug to form a molecular meshwork that entraps red blood cells and plasma to form a fibrin clot which closes off the damage and stops the bleeding.

However, when it comes to preventing blood loss from blood vessel injury through hemostasis, the laws of nature present the body with another dilemma. It's important that the clotting mechanism turn on only when it's needed, not only to not waste the body's supply of platelets and clotting factors, but also to prevent the sudden blockage of blood flow to vital organs. A poorly placed blood clot within an artery supplying blood to the heart muscle can cause a heart attack, or to the brain, a stroke, or to the lungs, a sudden drop in oxygen availability. Any one of these situations can result in serious and permanent debility or sudden death.


So, in addition to being able to turn on at the right time, the body must also have a mechanism in place to take control so that hemostasis will turn off and stay off at the right times. How does the body do it and how does evolutionary biology explain how it works in real life? That's what we'll begin to look at next time.

Is artificial selection analogous to Darwinism?

Animal Breeding as Evolution "In Action"?

Michael Flannery November 5, 2015 12:21 PM

Ann Gauger's post "Is Evolution Random? Answering a Common Challenge" is an excellent answer to those who still today affirm Darwin's contention that domestic breeding offers an example of evolution "in action." But there is more to say. Alfred Russel Wallace wrote in his famous Ternate letter:

Again, in the domesticated animal all variations have an equal chance of continuance; and those which would decidedly render a wild animal unable to compete with its fellows and continue its existence are no disadvantage whatever in a state of domesticity. Our quickly fattening pigs, short-legged sheep, pouter pigeons, and poodle dogs could never have come into existence in a state of nature, because the very first step towards such inferior forms would have led to the rapid extinction of the race; still less could they now exist in competition with their wild allies. The great speed but slight endurance of the race horse, the unwieldy strength of the ploughman's team, would both be useless in a state of nature. If turned wild on the pampas, such animals would probably soon become extinct, or under favourable circumstances might each lose those extreme qualities which would never be called into action, and in a few generations would revert to a common type, which must be that in which the various powers and faculties are so proportioned to each other as to be best adapted to procure food and secure safety, -- that in which by the full exercise of every part of his organization the animal can alone continue to live. Domestic varieties, when turned wild, must return to something near the type of the original wild stock, or become altogether extinct.

Thus, the selection of domestic breeders (artificial selection) is both quantitatively and qualitatively different from natural selection -- quantitatively because breeder selection is much stronger, and qualitatively because breeder selection is more obviously goal-directed toward things unrelated to fitness. This argument from analogy is, therefore, false on its face. Wallace was right in pointing it out in 1858 and it remains true today.

But there's a further problem. As Bert Theunissen points out in his paper "Darwin and his pigeons. The analogy between artificial and natural selection revisited," Darwin didn't even have a full appreciation of what breeders actually did. Selection is only a broad gloss on the subject. Crossing and inbreeding are also important factors used by conscious breeders in creating domestic animals.

Theunissen notes that Darwin believed most breeds were of ancient origin; they are not. Bottom line: Darwin's analogy simply doesn't work. So while his brand of natural selection may not be considered in an entire and literal sense "random," neither does it involve the kind of careful thought and pre-selection planning of the domestic breeder. Nor is it the sort of blind, random, purposeless, wholly natural causes operating to produce speciation that Darwin himself insisted upon. Darwin himself stated in his Autobiography:

The old argument from design in Nature, as given by Paley, which formerly seemed to me so conclusive, fails, now that the law of natural selection has been discovered. . . . There seems to be no more design in the variability of organic beings, and in the action of natural selection, than in the course which the wind blows.

But there are many more design options than that offered by Paley, and more to the point, domestic breeders don't achieve their purposes by the whimsy of the wind either.

This matters for two reasons. First, because the argument from breeding was extremely important to Darwin. His first two chapters inOrigin are devoted to it. As Jean Gayon has argued in Darwin's Struggle for Survival:

The use of the domestic analogy was not a pedagogic device. It was methodological essential, without it, the subtle interrelationship between variation, heredity and modification, so characteristic of the Darwinian hypothesis of selection, would have been nothing more than empty speculation without any empirical content.

Second, it matters because it demonstrates how different the respective evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace really were. Darwin was interested in individual competition leading to variation, while Wallace was concerned more broadly with competition and variation within a biogeographical context of group dynamics. On Darwin's behalf it should be said that such significant differences between the two need to be carefully considered by those leveling charges of plagiarism or a "Darwin conspiracy" theory.

The doubt is still going strong.

Darwin's Doubt Passes 700 Review Mark on Amazon

Andrew McDiarmid November 3, 2015 12:56 PM

Stephen Meyer's book Darwin's Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design has reached 700 customer reviews on Amazon.com. It's the most-reviewed book in the categories of Organic Evolution and Paleontology. It's the 7th most-reviewed non-fiction book in Evolution, a category that includes over 50,000 titles. It's even in the top 200 of most-reviewed books in Science & Math, a top-level category that includes over 1.3 million offerings. Meyer's book now joins Michael Behe's book Darwin's Black Box as the two most-reviewed books on Amazon on the topic of biological origins.

I point this out because, slowly but surely, Darwin's Doubt has taken root in the collective consciousness of Amazon customers, and by extension, the American public at large. According to a 2014 poll from Pew Research, 87 percent of American adults use the Internet. Of those, 61 percent use the Internet to shop, and Amazon attracts business from 86 percent of adults shopping online. So Amazon stats mean something. Darwin's Doubt has regularly been a #1 bestseller in Organic Evolution, Paleontology, and other related Amazon book categories.

Although Amazon reviews are by no means the most critical measure of a book's success, it does reveal one thing of note. Our effort to communicate the arguments for intelligent design through alternative channels, beyond what often seems like the echo chamber of mainstream science media, is paying off. Although the book was reviewed in such notable publications as Science, The New Yorker,National Review, and The American Spectator, most science journals and the mainstream media have maintained a wary distance. Despite this,Darwin's Doubt is a national bestseller and continues to engender intense interest and debate.

And it's not just laypeople who are enjoying it. One recent five-star review comes from a PhD biochemist and former director of the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department at the Southern Research Institute/UAB, Birmingham, AL. He recommends that both critics and proponents of intelligent design read the book. This is to say nothing of the dozens of PhD scientists and other professional scholars who have endorsed the book before or after its publication in 2013.

Not everyone is happy with Darwin's Doubt, and a browse through the Amazon reviews reveals a passionate minority who are critical of Meyer's work (15 percent are one- or two-star reviews). All the usual tired arguments against intelligent design are rehearsed, but a recent detractor broke new ground with a lament for the trees that were used to create the book: "Utter trash. Complete nonsense. I feel sorry for the trees that have lost their life to print these words on the paper made from their sacrifice. Please do not allow your children to read this." It's interesting that this individual would warn against children being exposed to alternative viewpoints on important scientific topics. That is more revealing than the reviewer probably realizes.

Has the enigma of Cambrian explosion been solved? Can scientists now demonstrate how natural processes alone can build an animal? No on both counts. And while the debate over the evidence goes on, Darwin's Doubt continues to have its important impact, making steady, incremental progress just like that of science itself.

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Loved to death?

National Science Standards Reflect a Growing Anxiety on the Part of Evolution Advocates

Sarah Chaffee November 2, 2015 3:46 PM

Teach science critically -- except when it comes to evolution. In discussions of how to improve public school education in the U.S., that's the message that advocates of national science standards typically convey. Yet that wasn't always the case.

An article at Ars Technica recounts the development of the most recent set of proposed standards: the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), finalized in 2013. Ironically, teaching students to engage in scientific inquiry, rather than simply expecting them all to absorb the same "facts," was the main impetus.

NGSS began as separate projects of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and National Academies of Sciences (NAS). Their efforts were eventually merged and became the NGSS. John Timmer at Ars Technica writes:

Inspired by the visit of Halley's comet in the 1980s, the AAAS started Project 2061, an attempt to envision where the organization would like to see science literacy in the year the comet would return. Jo Ellen Roseman, Project 2061's Director, told Ars that the goal was to "characterize what the knowledge, skills, and habits of mind would constitute adult science literacy."

Instead of insisting on a "just the facts" approach, the AAAS focused on training young people to think like scientists. After all, the body of knowledge would change over the decades, but the process of scientific inquiry would not.

"While we had no idea what the world would be like, we could guarantee that it would be shaped by science, mathematics, and technology," Roseman said. "And therefore every citizen of the US, every high school graduate had to be literate in those fields."

... Driven by this concept, AAAS gathered scientists and educators to produce a document called Science for All Americans. This publication, while not a set of education standards, laid out the ideas they should contain. Written in prose, it describes basic facts about the Universe that people should know.But over half the document is focused on the nature of science, technology and math, the historic development of these fields, and the "habits of mind" essential for scientific literacy.

The NAS's National Research Council (NRC), meanwhile, produced itsNational Science Education Standards, with a similar emphasis:

"The NRC document took a very strong position about scientific inquiry," Roseman said. "It went beyond what kids should know and be able to do and really articulated what should be going on in classrooms. Students should be engaged in inquiry."

Exactly! At Discovery Institute, we advocate teaching the controversy about evolution. That is for several reasons. Students should learn the full range of evidence on evolution. Teaching the controversy aids in developing critical thinking. And it trains students to think like scientists. Jo Ellen Roseman's comments highlight a further advantage to this pedagogic strategy: that while the content of science may change, the process of scientific inquiry remains vital and valid.

The documents produced by the AAAS and NAS, Science for All Americans and the National Science Education Standards, are persuasive in explaining the importance of critical thinking. Science for All Americansnotes:

In science classrooms, it should be the normal practice for teachers to raise such questions as: How do we know? What is the evidence? What is the argument that interprets the evidence? Are there alternative explanations or other ways of solving the problem that could be better? The aim should be to get students into the habit of posing such questions and framing answers.

Avoid Dogmatism

Students should experience science as a process for extending understanding, not as unalterable truth. This means that teachers take care not to convey the impression that they themselves or the textbooks are absolute authorities whose conclusions are always correct. By dealing with the credibility of scientific claims, the overturn of accepted scientific beliefs, and what to make out of disagreement among scientists, science teachers can help students to balance the necessity for accepting a great deal of science on faith against the importance of keeping an open mind.

The NAS document, National Science Education Standards, recommends:

Students at all grade levels and in every domain of science should have the opportunity to use scientific inquiry and develop the ability to think and act in ways associated with inquiry, including...thinking critically and logically about relationships between evidence and explanations, constructing and analyzing alternative explanations, and communicating scientific arguments.

Building on this foundation, the set of current national science standards, the NGSS, agrees that critical analysis is important. The NGSS were developed in two phases. First, the National Academy of Sciences laid out the basic scientific information students should learn. Second, states worked together to develop specific grade-level standards. The document produced in the first phase, A Framework for K-12 Science Education, takes a very positive view of critical analysis:

Chief among these features [of science] is a commitment to data and evidence as the foundation for developing claims. The argumentation and analysis that relate evidence and theory are also essential features of science; scientists need to be able to examine, review, and evaluate their own knowledge and ideas and critique those of others. Argumentation and analysis include appraisal of data quality, modeling of theories, development of new testable questions from those models, and modification of theories and models as evidence indicates they are needed.

Major science journals also hold that inquiry is central to quality science education. Yet when it comes to evolution, the NGSS abruptly switch gears, rejecting inquiry-based learning and opting for dogmatism.

In middle school, we read, "students can analyze data from the fossil record to describe evidence of the history of life on Earth and can construct explanations for similarities in organisms. They have a beginning understanding of the role of variation in natural selection and how this leads to speciation."

In high school, students are to "demonstrate understanding of how multiple lines of evidence contribute to the strength of scientific theories of natural selection and evolution." This seems to be nearly the opposite of what Science for All Americans says:

Students should experience science as a process for extending understanding, not as unalterable truth. This means that teachers take care not to convey the impression that they themselves or the textbooks are absolute authorities whose conclusions are always correct.

It is inconsistent to oppose the freedom to critically analyze evolutionary thinking, while proclaiming that inquiry is the cornerstone of quality science education. The inconsistency, though, is not all that surprising. It's plainly defensive, a circling of wagons around a theory under increasing pressure from scientific criticisms. The NGSS reflect the anxious mood on the part of evolution defenders in the larger debate about origins.

Students deserve better. If we really want nationwide scientific literacy by the time Halley's comet returns in 2061, we should teach young people to question and analyze across the board, whether the context is biological origins or any other scientific field.

Civil War II

The Watchtower Society's commentary on biblical manuscripts

MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLE:

The Holy Scriptures have a superhuman origin as to content but a human history as to their writing and preservation. Moses began compiling them under divine inspiration in 1513 B.C.E., and the apostle John wrote the final portion thereof more than 1,600 years later. The Bible was not originally one book, but as time passed, a demand arose for copies of its various books. This was so, for instance, after the Babylonian exile, for not all released Jews returned to the land of Judah. Instead, many settled elsewhere, and synagogues sprang up throughout the vast territory of the resultant Jewish Dispersion. Scribes prepared copies of the Scriptures needed for these synagogues where the Jews gathered to hear the reading of God’s Word. (Ac 15:21) In later times, among Christ’s followers, conscientious copyists labored to reproduce the inspired writings for the benefit of the multiplying Christian congregations so that there might be an interchange and general circulation of these.—Col 4:16.

Before printing from movable type became common (from the 15th century C.E. onward), the original Bible writings and also copies of them were handwritten. Hence, they are called manuscripts (Latin, manu scriptus, “written by hand”). A Bible manuscript is a handwritten copy of the Scriptures, the whole or in part, as distinguished from one that is printed. Bible manuscripts were produced principally in the form of rolls and codices.

Materials. There are leather, papyrus, and vellum manuscripts of the Scriptures. The noted Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah, for instance, is a leather roll. Papyrus, a type of paper made from the fibers of a water plant, was used for Bible manuscripts in the original languages and for translations thereof until about the fourth century C.E. At that time its use for Bible manuscripts began to be superseded by the use of vellum, a fine grade of parchment generally made from calf, lamb, or goat skins, a further development of the earlier use of animal skins as writing material. Such manuscripts as the renowned Codex Sinaiticus (Sinaitic Manuscript) and the Codex Vaticanus (Vatican Manuscript No. 1209) of the fourth century C.E. are parchment, or vellum, codices.

A palimpsest (Lat., palimpsestus; Gr., pa·limʹpse·stos, meaning “scraped again”) is a manuscript from which earlier writing was removed or scraped off to make room for later writing. A noted Bible palimpsest is the Codex Ephraemi Syri rescriptus of the fifth century C.E. If the earlier writing (the writing scraped off) is the important one on the palimpsest, scholars can often read this erased writing by employing technical means that include the use of chemical reagents and photography. Some manuscripts of the Christian Greek Scriptures are lectionaries, selected Bible readings for use at religious services.

Styles of Writing. Bible manuscripts written in Greek (whether translations of the Hebrew Scriptures, or copies of the Christian Greek Scriptures, or both) can be divided, or classified, as to writing style, which is also an aid in dating them. The older style (employed especially down to the ninth century C.E.) is the uncial manuscript, written in large, separated capital letters. In it there is generally no word separation, and punctuation and accent marks are lacking. The Codex Sinaiticus is such an uncial manuscript. Changes in writing style began to develop in the sixth century, eventually leading (in the ninth century C.E.) to the cursive, or minuscule, manuscript, written in smaller letters, many of which were joined in a running or flowing writing style. The majority of extant manuscripts of the Christian Greek Scriptures have a cursive script. Cursive manuscripts remained in vogue until the inception of printing.

Copyists. As far as is known today, no handwritten original, or autograph, manuscripts of the Bible are in existence. Yet the Bible has been preserved in accurate, reliable form because Biblical copyists in general, accepting the Scriptures as being divinely inspired, sought perfection in their arduous labor of producing manuscript copies of God’s Word.

The men who copied the Hebrew Scriptures in the days of Jesus Christ’s ministry on earth and for centuries before that time were called scribes (Heb., soh·pherimʹ). Among the early scribes was Ezra, spoken of in the Scriptures as “a skilled copyist.” (Ezr 7:6) Later scribes made some deliberate alterations of the Hebrew text. But their scribal successors, the Masoretes, detected these and recorded them in the Masora, or notes appearing in the margins of the Hebrew Masoretic text they produced.

Copyists of the Christian Greek Scriptures also made earnest efforts to reproduce faithfully the text of the Scriptures.

What assurance is there that the Bible has not been changed?

Despite the care exercised by copyists of Bible manuscripts, a number of small scribal errors and alterations crept into the text. On the whole, these are insignificant and have no bearing on the Bible’s general integrity. They have been detected and corrected by means of careful scholastic collation or critical comparison of the many extant manuscripts and ancient versions. Critical study of the Hebrew text of the Scriptures commenced toward the end of the 18th century. Benjamin Kennicott published at Oxford (in 1776-1780) the readings of over 600 Masoretic Hebrew manuscripts, and the Italian scholar Giambernardo de Rossi published at Parma comparisons of 731 manuscripts in 1784 to 1798. Master texts of the Hebrew Scriptures were also produced by the German scholar Baer and, more recently, by C. D. Ginsburg. Hebrew scholar Rudolf Kittel released in 1906 the first edition of his Biblia Hebraica (The Hebrew Bible), providing therein a textual study through a footnote service, comparing many Hebrew manuscripts of the Masoretic text. The basic text he used was the Ben Chayyim text. But, when the older and superior Ben Asher Masoretic texts became available, Kittel undertook the production of an entirely new third edition, which was completed by his colleagues after his death.

The 7th, 8th, and 9th editions of the Biblia Hebraica (1951-1955) furnished the basic text used to render the Hebrew Scriptures into English in the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures originally published in 1950-1960. A new edition of the Hebrew text, namely Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, is dated 1977. This edition was used for updating the information presented in the footnotes of the New World Translation published in 1984.

The first printed edition of the Christian Greek Scriptures was that appearing in the Complutensian Polyglott (in Greek and Latin), of 1514-1517. Then in 1516 the Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus published his first edition of a master Greek text of the Christian Greek Scriptures. It contained many errors, but an improved text thereof was made available through four succeeding editions from 1519 to 1535. Later, Paris printer and editor Robert Estienne, or Stephanus, issued several editions of the Greek “New Testament,” based principally on Erasmus’ text, but having corrections according to the Complutensian Polyglott and 15 late manuscripts. The third edition of Stephanus’ Greek text (issued in 1550) became, in effect, the “Received Text” (called textus receptus in Latin), which was used for many early English versions, including the King James Version of 1611.

Quite noteworthy in more recent times is the master Greek text prepared by J. J. Griesbach, who availed himself of materials gathered by others but who also gave attention to Biblical quotations made by early writers such as Origen. Further, Griesbach studied the readings of various versions, such as the Armenian, Gothic, and Philoxenian. He viewed extant manuscripts as comprising three families, or recensions, the Byzantine, the Western, and the Alexandrian, giving preference to readings in the latter. Editions of his master Greek text were issued between 1774 and 1806, his principal edition of the entire Greek text being published in 1796-1806. Griesbach’s text was used for Sharpe’s English translation of 1840 and is the Greek text printed in The Emphatic Diaglott, by Benjamin Wilson, in 1864.

A Greek master text of the Christian Greek Scriptures that attained wide acceptance is that produced in 1881 by Cambridge University scholars B. F. Westcott and F. J. A. Hort. It was the product of 28 years of independent labor, though they compared notes regularly. Like Griesbach, they divided manuscripts into families and leaned heavily on what they termed the “neutral text,” which included the renowned Sinaitic Manuscript and the Vatican Manuscript No. 1209, both of the fourth century C.E. While Westcott and Hort viewed matters as quite conclusive when these manuscripts agreed and especially when they were supported by other ancient uncial manuscripts, they were not bound to that position. They took every conceivable factor into consideration in endeavoring to solve problems presented by conflicting texts; and when two readings were of equal weight, that, too, was indicated in their master text. The Westcott and Hort text was the one used principally in translating the Christian Greek Scriptures into English in the New World Translation. However, the New World Bible Translation Committee also consulted other excellent Greek texts, among them Nestle’s Greek text (1948).

Commenting on the history of the text of the Christian Greek Scriptures and the results of modern textual research, Professor Kurt Aland wrote: “It can be determined, on the basis of 40 years of experience and with the results which have come to light in examining . . . manuscripts at 1,200 test places: The text of the New Testament has been excellently transmitted, better than any other writing from ancient times; the possibility that manuscripts might yet be found that would change its text decisively is zero.”—Das Neue Testament—zuverlässig überliefert (The New Testament—Reliably Transmitted), Stuttgart, 1986, pp. 27, 28.

The extant manuscripts of the Christian Scriptures (in Greek and other languages) show textual variations. Variations are to be expected in view of human imperfection and the copying and recopying of manuscripts, especially by many copyists who were not professionals. If certain manuscripts had a common ancestor manuscript, perhaps came from a particular revision of early texts, or were produced in a particular area, they would probably have at least some variations in common, and hence they are said to belong to the same family, or group. On the basis of similarity in such differences, scholars have sought to classify the texts into groups, or families, the number of which has increased with the passing of time, till reference is now made to the Alexandrian, Western, Eastern (Syriac and Caesarean), and the Byzantine texts, represented in various manuscripts or in different readings scattered throughout numerous manuscripts. But despite the variations peculiar to different manuscript families (and the variations within each group), the Scriptures have come down to us in essentially the same form as that of the original inspired writings. The variations of reading are of no consequence as to Bible teachings in general. And scholastic collations have corrected errors of any importance, so that today we enjoy an authentic and reliable text.

Since Westcott and Hort produced their refined Greek text, a number of critical editions of the Christian Greek Scriptures have been produced. Noteworthy among them is The Greek New Testament published by the United Bible Societies and now in its third edition. Identical in wording is the 26th edition of the so-called Nestle-Aland text, published in 1979 in Stuttgart, Germany.—See CHRISTIAN GREEK SCRIPTURES.

Manuscripts of Hebrew Scriptures. There are possibly 6,000 manuscripts of all or portions of the Hebrew Scriptures extant today in various libraries. The vast majority contain the Masoretic text and are of the tenth century C.E. or thereafter. The Masoretes (of the second half of the first millennium C.E.) sought to transmit the Hebrew text faithfully and made no changes in the wording of the text itself. However, to preserve the traditional pronunciation of the vowelless consonantal text, they devised systems of vowel pointing and accenting. Additionally, in their Masora, or marginal notes, they drew attention to textual peculiarities and gave corrected readings they considered necessary. It is the Masoretic text that appears in printed Hebrew Bibles of the present day.

Damaged Hebrew Scripture manuscripts used in Jewish synagogues were replaced by verified copies, and the defaced or damaged manuscripts were stored in a genizah (a synagogue storeroom or repository). Finally, when it was full, the manuscripts were removed and ceremoniously buried. Doubtless many ancient manuscripts perished in that way. But the contents of the synagogue genizah in Old Cairo were spared, probably because it was walled up and forgotten for centuries. Following the rebuilding of the synagogue in 1890 C.E., the manuscripts in its genizah were reexamined, and from there fairly complete Hebrew Scripture manuscripts and fragments (some said to be of the sixth century C.E.) found their way into various libraries.

One of the oldest extant fragments containing Biblical passages is the Nash Papyrus, found in Egypt and preserved at Cambridge, England. Evidently part of an instructional collection, it is of the second or first century B.C.E. and consists of only four fragments of 24 lines of a pre-Masoretic text of the Ten Commandments and some verses of Deuteronomy, chapters 5 and 6.

Since 1947 many Biblical and non-Biblical scrolls have been found in various areas W of the Dead Sea, and these are referred to generally as the Dead Sea Scrolls. Most significant among them are manuscripts discovered in a number of caves in and about the Wadi Qumran (Nahal Qumeran). These are also known as the Qumran texts and evidently once belonged to a Jewish religious community centered at nearby Khirbet Qumran (Horvat Qumeran). The first discovery was made by a Bedouin in a cave about 15 km (9.5 mi) S of Jericho, where he found a number of earthenware jars containing ancient manuscripts. One of these was the now-renowned Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah (1QIs⁠a), a well-preserved leather roll of the entire book of Isaiah, except for a few gaps. (PICTURE, Vol. 1, p. 322) It contains a pre-Masoretic Hebrew script and has been dated toward the end of the second century B.C.E. Hence, it is about a thousand years older than the oldest extant manuscript of the Masoretic text. However, though showing some differences in spelling and grammatical construction, it does not vary doctrinally from the Masoretic text. Among the documents recovered in the Qumran area are fragments of over 170 scrolls representing parts of all Hebrew Scripture books except Esther, and in the case of some books, more than one copy exists. These manuscript scrolls and fragments are believed to range in date from about 250 B.C.E. to about the middle of the first century C.E., and they exhibit more than one type of Hebrew text, such as a proto-Masoretic text or one underlying the Greek Septuagint. Studies of such materials are still in progress.

Among notable vellum Hebrew manuscripts of the Hebrew Scriptures is the Cairo Karaite Codex of the Prophets. It contains the Masora and vocalization, and its colophon indicates that it was completed in about 895 C.E. by the noted Masorete Moses ben Asher of Tiberias. Another significant manuscript (of 916 C.E.) is the Petersburg Codex of the Latter Prophets. The Aleppo Sephardic Codex, once preserved at Aleppo, Syria, and now in Israel, until recently contained the entire Hebrew Scriptures. Its original consonantal text was corrected, punctuated, and furnished with the Masora about 930 C.E. by Aaron ben Asher, son of Moses ben Asher. The oldest dated manuscript of the complete Hebrew Scriptures in Hebrew is the Leningrad Manuscript No. B 19⁠A, preserved in the Public Library in St. Petersburg, Russia. It was copied in 1008 C.E. “from the corrected books prepared and annotated by Aaron ben Moses ben Asher the teacher.” Another noteworthy Hebrew manuscript is a codex of the Pentateuch preserved in the British Library (Codex Oriental 4445), consisting of Genesis 39:20 to Deuteronomy 1:33 (except for Nu 7:46-73 and 9:12–10:18, which are lacking or have been supplied by a later hand) and probably dating from the tenth century C.E.

Many manuscripts of the Hebrew Scripture portion of the Bible were written in Greek. Among those of particular note is one in the collection of the Fouad Papyri (Inventory Number 266, belonging to the Société Egyptienne de Papyrologie, Cairo), containing portions of Genesis and of the second half of Deuteronomy according to the Septuagint. It is of the first century B.C.E. and shows, in various places, the divine name written in square Hebrew characters within the Greek text. Fragments of Deuteronomy, chapters 23 to 28, are found in Rylands Papyrus iii. 458 of the second century B.C.E., preserved in Manchester, England. Another leading manuscript of the Septuagint contains fragments of Jonah, Micah, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, and Zechariah. In this leather scroll, dated to the end of the first century C.E., the divine name is rendered by the Tetragrammaton written in ancient Hebrew characters.—See NW appendix, pp. 1562-1564.

Manuscripts of Christian Greek Scriptures. The Christian Scriptures were written in Koine. Though no original autograph manuscripts thereof are known to exist today, according to one calculation, there are some 5,000 extant manuscript copies, whole or in part, of these Scriptures in Greek.

Papyrus manuscripts. Biblical papyri of great importance were among papyrus codices found in Egypt about 1930, their purchase being announced in 1931. Some of these Greek codices (dating from the second to the fourth centuries C.E.) consist of parts of eight Hebrew Scripture books (Genesis, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Esther), and three contain portions of 15 books of the Christian Greek Scriptures. Most of these Scriptural papyri were purchased by an American manuscript collector, A. Chester Beatty, and are now preserved in Dublin, Ireland. The rest were acquired by the University of Michigan and by others.

The international designation for Biblical papyri is a capital “P” followed by a small superior number. The Chester Beatty Papyrus No. 1 (P⁠45) consists of parts of 30 leaves from a codex that probably once had about 220 leaves. P⁠45 has portions of the four Gospels and the book of Acts. The Chester Beatty Papyrus No. 3 (P⁠47) is a fragmentary codex of Revelation containing ten somewhat damaged leaves. These two papyri are believed to be from the third century C.E. Quite noteworthy is the Chester Beatty Papyrus No. 2 (P⁠46) believed to be from about 200 C.E. It has 86 somewhat damaged leaves out of a codex that probably had 104 leaves originally, and it still contains nine of Paul’s inspired letters: Romans, Hebrews, First Corinthians, Second Corinthians, Ephesians, Galatians, Philippians, Colossians, and First Thessalonians. It is noteworthy that the letter to the Hebrews is included in this early codex. Since Hebrews does not give its writer’s name, its composition by Paul has frequently been disputed. But this letter’s inclusion in P⁠46, evidently consisting of Paul’s letters exclusively, indicates that in about 200 C.E., Hebrews was accepted by early Christians as an inspired writing of the apostle Paul. The letter to the Ephesians appears in this codex, thus also refuting arguments that Paul did not write this letter.

At the John Rylands Library, Manchester, England, there is a small papyrus fragment of John’s Gospel (some verses of chapter 18) cataloged as Rylands Papyrus 457. It is internationally designated as P⁠52. This is the oldest extant manuscript fragment of the Christian Greek Scriptures, having been written in the first half of the second century, possibly about 125 C.E., and thus only a quarter of a century or so after John’s death. The fact that a copy of John’s Gospel was evidently circulating in Egypt (the place of the fragment’s discovery) by that time shows that the good news according to John was really recorded in the first century C.E. and by John himself, not by some unknown writer well along in the second century C.E., after John’s death, as some critics once claimed.

The most important addition to the collection of Biblical papyri since the discovery of the Chester Beatty Papyri was the acquisition of the Bodmer Papyri, published between 1956 and 1961. Particularly noteworthy are Papyrus Bodmer 2 (P⁠66) and Papyrus Bodmer 14, 15 (P⁠75), both written about 200 C.E. Papyrus Bodmer 2 contains a large part of the Gospel of John, while Papyrus Bodmer 14, 15 has much of Luke and John and is textually very close to Vatican Manuscript No. 1209.

Vellum manuscripts. Bible manuscripts written on vellum sometimes include both the Hebrew and Christian Greek Scripture portions of the Bible, though some are only of the Christian Scriptures.

Codex Bezae, designated by the letter “D,” is a valuable manuscript of the fifth century C.E. Though its actual place of origin is unknown, it was acquired in France in 1562. It contains the Gospels, the book of Acts, and only a few other verses, and is an uncial manuscript, written in Greek on the left-hand pages, with a parallel Latin text appearing on the right-hand pages. This codex is preserved at Cambridge University in England, having been presented to that institution by Theodore Beza in 1581.

Codex Claromontanus (D2) is likewise written in Greek and Latin on opposite pages, Greek on the left and Latin on the right. It contains Paul’s canonical letters, including Hebrews, and is considered to be of the sixth century. It was reportedly found in the monastery at Clermont, France, and was acquired by Theodore Beza, but it is now preserved at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.

Among more recently discovered vellum manuscripts of the Christian Greek Scriptures is Codex Washingtonianus I, containing the Gospels in Greek (in the common Western order: Matthew, John, Luke, and Mark). It was obtained in 1906 in Egypt and is preserved at the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. The international symbol of this codex is “W,” and it is thought to have been written in the fifth century C.E., except that apparently, because of damage, part of John was replaced in the seventh century C.E. Codex Washingtonianus II, having the symbol “I,” is also in the Freer Collection and contains portions of Paul’s canonical letters, including Hebrews. This codex is believed to have been written in the fifth century C.E.

Hebrew and Christian Greek Scriptures. The most important and most complete extant Bible manuscripts in Greek were written on vellum in uncial letters.

Vatican Manuscript No. 1209. The Vatican Manuscript No. 1209 (Codex Vaticanus), designated internationally by the symbol “B,” is an uncial codex of the fourth century C.E., possibly produced in Alexandria, and it originally contained the entire Bible in Greek. A corrector of later date retraced the letters, perhaps because the original writing had faded, except that he skipped letters and words he considered incorrect. Originally this codex probably had approximately 820 leaves, of which 759 remain. Most of Genesis is gone, as well as a part of Psalms, Hebrews 9:14 to 13:25, and all of First and Second Timothy, Titus, Philemon, and Revelation. Codex Vaticanus is preserved at the Vatican Library in Rome, Italy, and is known to have been there as early as the 15th century. However, Vatican Library authorities made access to the manuscript extremely difficult for scholars and did not publish a full photographic facsimile of the entire codex until 1889-1890.

Sinaitic Manuscript. The Sinaitic Manuscript (Codex Sinaiticus) is also of the fourth century C.E., but Codex Vaticanus may be a little older. The Sinaitic Manuscript is designated by the symbol א (ʼaʹleph, first letter in the Hebrew alphabet), and while it evidently once contained the entire Bible in Greek, part of the Hebrew Scriptures has been lost. However, it has all the Christian Greek Scriptures. Likely this codex originally consisted of 730 leaves, at least, though the whole or parts of just 393 are now verified to be extant. It was discovered (one portion in 1844 and another in 1859) by the Bible scholar Konstantin von Tischendorf at the Monastery of St. Catherine at Mount Sinai. Forty-three leaves of this codex are kept in Leipzig, portions of three leaves are at St. Petersburg, Russia, and 347 leaves are preserved at the British Library in London. It has been reported that 8 to 14 more leaves were discovered in the same monastery in 1975.

Alexandrine Manuscript. The Alexandrine Manuscript (Codex Alexandrinus), designated by the letter “A,” is a Greek uncial manuscript containing most of the Bible, including the book of Revelation. Of possibly 820 original leaves, 773 have been preserved. This codex is generally considered to be of the first half of the fifth century C.E., and it is also preserved in the British Library.—PICTURE, Vol. 2, p. 336.

Codex Ephraemi Syri rescriptus. The Codex Ephraemi Syri rescriptus (Codex Ephraemi), designated internationally by the letter “C,” is also generally considered to have originated in the fifth century C.E. It is written in Greek uncials on vellum and is a rewritten codex, a palimpsest manuscript. The original Greek text was removed, and a number of leaves were then written over with discourses of Ephraem Syrus (the Syrian), rendered in Greek. This was done probably during the 12th century, when there was a scarcity of vellum. However, the underlying text has been deciphered. While “C” evidently once contained all the Scriptures in Greek, just 209 leaves remain, 145 being of the Christian Greek Scriptures. Hence, this codex now contains only portions of Hebrew Scripture books and parts of all books of the Christian Greek Scriptures except Second Thessalonians and Second John. It is preserved at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.

Reliability of the Bible Text. Appreciation of the reliability of the Bible is greatly enhanced when it is realized that, by comparison, there are only very few extant manuscripts of the works of classical secular writers and none of these are original, autograph manuscripts. Though they are only copies made centuries after the death of the authors, present-day scholars accept such late copies as sufficient evidence of the authenticity of the text.

Extant Hebrew manuscripts of the Scriptures were prepared with great care. Respecting the text of the Hebrew Scriptures, scholar W. H. Green observed: “It may be safely said that no other work of antiquity has been so accurately transmitted.” (Archaeology and Bible History, by J. P. Free, 1964, p. 5) The late Bible text scholar Sir Frederic Kenyon made this reassuring statement in the introduction to his seven volumes entitled The Chester Beatty Biblical Papyri: “The first and most important conclusion derived from the examination of them [the Papyri] is the satisfactory one that they confirm the essential soundness of the existing texts. No striking or fundamental variation is shown either in the Old or the New Testament. There are no important omissions or additions of passages, and no variations which affect vital facts or doctrines. The variations of text affect minor matters, such as the order of words or the precise words used. . . . But their essential importance is their confirmation, by evidence of an earlier date than was hitherto available, of the integrity of our existing texts. In this respect they are an acquisition of epoch-making value.”—London, 1933, Fasciculus I, p. 15.

Concerning the Christian Greek Scriptures, Sir Frederic Kenyon stated: “The interval then between the dates of original composition and the earliest extant evidence becomes so small as to be in fact negligible, and the last foundation for any doubt that the Scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed. Both the authenticity and the general integrity of the books of the New Testament may be regarded as finally established.”—The Bible and Archæology, 1940, pp. 288, 289.


Centuries ago, Jesus Christ, “the faithful and true witness” (Re 3:14), repeatedly and emphatically confirmed the genuineness of the Hebrew Scriptures, as did his apostles. (Lu 24:27, 44; Ro 15:4) Extant ancient versions, or translations, further bespeak the exactness of the preserved Hebrew Scriptures. Manuscripts and versions of the Christian Greek Scriptures bear unassailable testimony to the marvelous preservation and accurate transmission of that portion of God’s Word. We are therefore now favored with an authentic, thoroughly reliable Bible text. A thoughtful examination of preserved manuscripts of the Holy Scriptures bears eloquent testimony to their faithful preservation and permanence, giving added meaning to the inspired statement: “The green grass has dried up, the blossom has withered; but as for the word of our God, it will last to time indefinite.”—Isa 40:8; 1Pe 1:24, 25.

Exaptation:Darwinian code for spin?

Darwinism's tree of life examined

It's Design all the way down VIII

It's design all the way down VII

UT Southwestern physiologists uncover a new code at the heart of biology
UT SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTER

DALLAS - Sept. 23, 2015 - UT Southwestern physiologists trying to understand the genetic code have found a previously unknown code that helps explain which protein should be created to form a particular type of cell.

The human body is made up of tens of trillions of cells. Each cell contains thousands of proteins, which determine how the cell should form and what functions it needs to perform. Proteins, in turn, are made up of hundreds of amino acids. The blueprint for each protein is specified by genetic codons, which are triplets of nucleotides that can make 20 different types of amino acids. The way in which amino acids are linked together then determines which proteins are eventually produced, and in turn, what functions the cell will have.

What researchers found was that not only does the sequence of the amino acids matter, but so does the speed of the process in which the amino acids are put together into a functional protein.

"Our results uncovered a new 'code' within the genetic code. We feel this is quite important, as the finding uncovers an important regulatory process that impacts all biology," said Dr. Yi Liu, Professor of Physiology.

It was long known that almost every amino acid can be encoded by multiple synonymous codons and that every organism, from humans to fungi, has a preference for certain codons. The researchers found that more frequently used codons ? the "preferred codons" ? speed up the process of producing an amino acid chain, while less frequently produced codons slow the process. The use of either preferred or non-preferred codons is like having speed signs on the protein production highway: some segments need to be made fast and others slow.

 "The genetic code of nucleic acids is central to life, as it specifies the amino acid sequences of proteins," said Dr. Liu, the Louise W. Kahn Scholar in Biomedical Research. "By influencing the speed with which a protein is assembled from amino acid building blocks, the use of "fast" and "slow" codons can affect protein folding, which is the process that allows a protein to form the right shape to perform a specific function. This speed control mechanism makes sure that proteins are assembled and folded properly in different cells. Therefore, the genetic code not only specifies the sequence of amino acids but also the shape of the protein."

The researchers found that proteins with identical amino acid sequences can have different functions if they are assembled at different speeds. This can have important implications for identifying human disease-causing mutations because this study indicates that a mutation does not have to change amino acid identity to cause a disease. In fact, most mutations in human DNA do not result in amino acid change.

"Therefore, our study indicates that the new "code" ? the speed limit of assembly ? within the genetic code can dictate the ultimate function of a given protein," said Dr. Liu.

The findings appear as the cover story of the journal Molecular Cell, one of the top molecular biology, biophysics, and biochemistry journals.

The latest findings extend prior research published by Dr. Liu and colleagues in Nature in 2013 that broke new ground by demonstrating that synonymous codons of a circadian clock protein are not the same in making functional proteins, despite the fact that they encode the same amino acids.  Genes can adapt to different environmental changes by choosing the most optimal codon, which is counterintuitive to natural selection.

Dr. Liu and his team are able to study these systems using a type of bread mold fungus called Neurospora crassa. The use of the mold allows for easy manipulation of its genes and codons in the laboratory that are more difficult to do in animals. Dr. Liu's lab is also trying to unravel the secrets of chronobiology and the molecular mechanisms that underlie an organism's daily biological clock, called the circadian clock. Biological clocks have been described in almost all organisms ranging in complexity from single cell organisms to mammals, and to function in the control of daily rhythms such as sleep-wake and activity cycles, body temperature cycles, endocrine functions, and gene expression.

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Other UT Southwestern researchers involved include postdoctoral researchers Chien-Hung Yu, Yunkun Dang, Zhipeng Zhou, first co-authors, and graduate student researcher Fangzhou Zhao. They collaborated with the lab of Dr. Matthew Sachs, Professor of Biology at Texas A&M University.

The work is supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Welch Foundation.

About UT Southwestern Medical Center


UT Southwestern, one of the premier academic medical centers in the nation, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution's faculty includes many distinguished members, including six who have been awarded Nobel Prizes since 1985. The faculty of more than 2,700 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians provide medical care in 40 specialties to about 92,000 hospitalized patients and oversee approximately 2.1 million outpatient visits a year.

On the Hubris of Scientism?

Human Cloning Advance: Ban Now or Cry Later
Wesley J. Smith November 1, 2015 4:45 AM 


Human cloning used to make big headlines. But "the scientists" got smart, and just started using the scientific term for cloning -- somatic cell nuclear transfer -- as a way of hiding in plain sight.

Thus, when the first human embryos were successfully manufactured via SCNT, the were few headlines and most people yawned -- if they heard about it at all. Of course, I reacted strongly.

Now, the South Koreans have improved the efficiency of cloning, and again, the scientists are keeping mostly mum in the popular media so as to not alert us rubes that Brave New World is approaching. From the KBS World News Radio story:

A group of medical experts has succeeded at improving the efficiency of human somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) by three times.

A research team at Cha Medical Group said Friday that it found ways to enhance the efficiency of SCNT by discovering a correlation between the quality of female eggs and the success rate of SCNT embryo development.,,

The team said it has made five pilot medicine products using the new findings and plans to seek the government's approval for a large-sized clinical test by the end of this year.


Now, add in the jet-speed advance in genetic engineering known as CRSPR. We are coming closer to the day of manufacturing human beings via cloning, genetically engineered for desired traits.

On non-verbal communication

On those still in chains