Microbes Vs.Darwin

How Microbes Make Earth Habitable:
Evolution News &Views February 10, 2016 3:36 AM

Several recent discoveries point to amazing connections between global forces and Earth's tiniest creatures that maintain the habitability of our planet. Consider some examples and think about the implications.

Atmospheric Requirements

First, let's talk about the atmosphere. As David Klinghoffer reported here last month at Evolution News, it appears we can dispense with the notion that a rise in oxygen caused the Cambrian explosion. That paper in PNAS suggests that "O2 levels capable of supporting animal physiology were present more than 500 million years before the appearance of animals." We know that oxygen is necessary for complex life. This paper says it was already here long before complex multicellular animals appeared.

Less recognized is nitrogen. Elizabeth Howell wrote in NASA's Astrobiology Magazine back in 2014 that oxygen could fool the search for life, but this year she wrote in the same Astrobiology Magazine that nitrogen "may be a sign of habitability."

We might commonly think of Earth as having an oxygen-dominated atmosphere, but in reality the molecule makes up only a fifth of our air. Most of what surrounds us is nitrogen, at 78 percent. Astrobiologists are beginning to see nitrogen -- and not just oxygen -- as a key indicator of a planet's habitability. Nitrogen is essential for life on Earth and could signal an atmosphere thick enough to stabilize liquid water on a planet's surface, fundamental to creating habitable conditions. [Emphasis added.]

Nitrogen and oxygen may not be sufficient for life (Saturn's moon Titan, for instance, has plentiful nitrogen), but they are both necessary. A leading source of free oxygen is photosynthesis in autotrophic microbes; and only microbes have the know-how to "fix" nitrogen by dismantling the triple bonds of atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia and other useful compounds. As we will see, microbes play a major role in maintaining the balance other essential atmospheric elements, too. Without that balance, complex life could not exist.

Nitrogen-Fixing Bacterium Does Solo Performance

Since we reported about the anammox process last fall, a major discovery has been made about nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Nature reported the discovery of a bacterium that can do complete nitrification.

Nitrification, the oxidation of ammonia via nitrite to nitrate, has always been considered to be a two-step process catalysed by chemolithoautotrophic microorganisms oxidizing either ammonia or nitrite. No known nitrifier carries out both steps, although complete nitrification should be energetically advantageous. This functional separation has puzzled microbiologists for a century. Here we report on the discovery and cultivation of a completely nitrifying bacterium from the genus Nitrospira, a globally distributed group of nitrite oxidizers. The genome of this chemolithoautotrophic organism encodes the pathways both for ammonia and nitrite oxidation, which are concomitantly activated during growth by ammonia oxidation to nitrate. Genes affiliated with the phylogenetically distinct ammonia monooxygenase and hydroxylamine dehydrogenase genes of Nitrospira are present in many environments and were retrieved on Nitrospira-contigs in new metagenomes from engineered systems. These findings fundamentally change our picture of nitrification and point to completely nitrifying Nitrospira as key components of nitrogen-cycling microbial communities.

We'll have to add a new term to our vocabulary now: comammox or "complete ammonia oxidizer"; see the summary from the University of Vienna. An article from from the same source describes the "incredibly exciting moment" when they found the "long-sought comammox organism" 1,200 meters deep in a Russian oil exploration well. A bigger surprise came when they realized "comammox was everywhere but was overlooked."

Electric Sediment Buffers Ocean

Life began in the oceans, but without bacteria, it might not survive. According to surprising findings announced in Current Biology:

Animals at the bottom of the sea survive oxygen depletion surprisingly often, and a new study identifies cable bacteria in the sediment as the saviors. The bacterial electrical activity creates an iron 'carpet', trapping toxic hydrogen sulfide.

The paper's title is, "Electrical cable bacteria save marine life." These "key organisms" link up into electrical "wires" in the top layers of ocean sediment, carrying electrons from sulfide oxidation up into the ocean water, where further reactions form an "iron firewall" that protects the ocean from a buildup of toxic hydrogen sulfide. This buffering of the ocean against harmful conditions even undergoes a seasonal cycle:

Essentially, the cable bacteria manage a sulfide storage facility made of reactive iron, where sulfide is stowed away during oxygen-poor periods and regained for efficient energy metabolism when oxygen returns. Seitaj et al. propose that the control of sulfide mediated by cable bacteria, which they observed at Grevelingen, could be widespread and may explain many cases where oxygen depletions are not followed by release of hydrogen sulfide and mass mortality of marine life.

Plankton Maintain Carbon Cycle

Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are an important concern to climate scientists. It's been known for a long time that plankton in the surface ocean waters play a big role in the carbon and oxygen cycles. Researchers at MIT took a closer look at certain members of the plankton community called "mixotrophs" -- those that can feed by photosynthesis and by consuming prey. They realized that "these microscopic, mixotrophic organisms may have a large impact on the ocean's food web and the global carbon cycle."

The MIT scientists note that mixotrophs have been overlooked in climate models. As these heavier plankton die, they take their carbon down into the seafloor sediments with them. Consequently, "mixotrophic organisms may make the ocean more efficient in storing carbon, which in turn enhances the efficiency with which the oceans sequester carbon dioxide." Without mixotrophs, there would likely be more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere -- and we all know what that means. One wonders if the earth would become less habitable over time if it were not for the planet-wide function performed by these tiny organisms.

Diatoms Promote Diatomic Oxygen

One fifth of the oxygen in our atmosphere comes from one-celled algae called diatoms. These incredible organisms, known for the variety of their beautiful silica houses (called tests) inhabit the oceans and fresh waters of the planet in vast numbers. Although Michael Denton doesn't discuss them in his new book Evolution: Still a Theory in Crisis, he well could have pointed to their beautiful shells as non-adaptive forms inexplicable by natural selection. Why would an organism need to create triangles, rods, and five-pointed stars with intricate etched patterns on transparent glass? Every time a diatom divides, the daughter cells recreate the elegant shells of their particular species.

To do their important work for the global atmosphere, they need to find silicon. An exciting new discovery was announced by Friedrich Schiller University Jena. Diatoms can apparently "smell" silicate minerals, and migrate to where they are plentiful. In a petri dish, scientists watched biofilms of diatoms move two micrometers a second toward silicate sources, but away from toxic minerals. How they do this is unknown, but it was clear to them that "The algae have to search their environment for the building material" (italics in original). The results of their study are published in Nature Communications.

If diatoms lacked the ability to seek out and find what they need, the planet might have reduced oxygen, decreasing its ability to support complex life. Thus our pun on "diatoms" (Greek "cut in two") and "diatomic oxygen" ("two atoms," O2) -- two unrelated words about pairs of things that interact in a surprising way.

Microbes make earth a nice place to live. There's more to say on that theme, and we'll do so in an additional post coming up.

From the multiverse did it to little green men from apha centauri did it?

Peace Through ETs? John Zmirak’s Puckish Proposal
David Klinghoffer | @d_klinghoffer

Interested in a resolution of the dispute between scientific atheists and intelligent design? In the context of a thoughtful review of Stephen Meyer’s book  Darwin’s Doubt, John Zmirak at The Stream  has an enjoyably mischievous suggestion.

In “At Last, Common Ground for Atheists and Intelligent Design Advocates,”he proposes a plan for peace: Let both sides admit the evidence of design, the evidence that life did not spring up by unguided, purposeless processes alone. But grant the possibility — or even for the sake of argument, stipulate the certainty — that the evidence is of natural alien origin. 

This, he says, would defuse the personal reasons many people have for preferring to see life as un-designed. There are many such motivations. Darwin himself sought an “alternate explanation…after his daughter’s death drowned his Christian faith in grief.” Zmirak writes:

So I have a suggestion. It might help find common ground between the advocates of Intelligent Design, and committed scientific materialists. Here goes:

How about we stipulate this? All the evidence piling up that random mutations couldn’t possibly have planted and grown the Tree of Life does not point to the God of the Christians and the Jews.

Instead, it points to the design of some higher, alien species. Say, a race of brilliant beings who live in Alpha Centauri, who have learned how to travel by wormholes. No, there’s no evidence for that, but there’s equally little evidence for the “Multiverse.” That’s a favorite fiction of atheists eager to escape the religious implications of the Big Bang. But that didn’t stop Stephen Hawking from touting it.

Okay? It’s not the “Divine Foot” [in Richard Lewontin’s famous formulation] we’re letting in the door. It’s a mysterious alien green foot of a purely natural being. One who doesn’t impose morality on us. Or care if we sleep with our much younger lab assistants.

You can relax. Life is still meaningless. Our ethics are still completely arbitrary. The Green Men in Alpha Centauri don’t care what we do. They haven’t built us a heaven or dug for us a hell. We’re still free to dig that ourselves, right here on earth. Will that do, Professor Lewontin?

Perhaps if intelligent design advocates stipulated such alien designers, they’d hit much less resistance. Biologists wouldn’t work so desperately hard to avoid the evidence of their eyes.

“Famously Slow”

It’s an interesting suggestion. But as Michael Behe noted the other day, Darwinists “are famously slow to recognize problems for their theory.” Why so slow? You have to understand how many careers, and how much of personal image and other factors, are wrapped up with the theory that nature on Earth created itself, only giving the illusory appearance of design.

Stipulating actual design by Little Green Men would still be an affront, requiring Darwinists to admit they were wrong, and not about a small matter. This may not be the way forward after all, John.

Why our homeworld remains previleged.

Exoplanets and the Fermi Paradox
Guillermo Gonzalez

We are living during a golden age of discovery in astronomy. Arguably, it began with the dawning of the space age in 1957. By 1989 our probes had visited every planet in the Solar System (in 2015 New Horizons visited the former planet Pluto). Then, in 1995 we discovered the first planet around another star (an exoplanet). The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia listed 3,986 exoplanets as of February 15, 2019! The Keplerspacecraft has discovered the most, but it was retired last fall after running out of the fuel needed to do science observations. Its timely replacement, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), began its science observations last summer. It is expected to discover over 20,000 planets. The ongoing Gaiamission is expected to yield about 20,000 giant planet discoveries by the time its nominal 5-year mission is completed later this year.

    Believers in extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) have been encouraged by these discoveries (see here and here). But the number of stars with planets is only one of the seven factors in the Drake Equation, which is an attempt to estimate the number of communicating civilizations in the galaxy. One also needs to consider the many Rare Earth factors needed to make a planet habitable to complex life  (see here and here).  It could be that these factors more than compensate for the large numbers of planets, resulting in a very small chance of ETI. We just don’t know yet.

The Great Silence

Do these discoveries help resolve the Fermi Paradox, which asks, Why the Great Silence? Not really, but they do show that mere rarity of planets by itself is not the solution.There is one important, albeit indirect, way that exoplanet discoveries do influence the Fermi Paradox. To understand it, we need to think “backwards.” Consider not our detection of exoplanets but, rather, the detection of our Solar System from afar. Now that we know how to find exoplanets, we can turn the problem around and ask how easy would it be for an ETI to detect the planets in our Solar System.

Right away we can offer some obvious answers. For example, you don’t actually have to send a probe to another star to check if it has planets. The technology required for long-range detection has been available for decades. There are multiple ways to detect exoplanets, but the two most productive primary ones are the spectroscopic Doppler and photometric transit methods.In 1995 the first exoplanet around an ordinary star was discovered, using the Doppler method. Planets could have been discovered using this method one or two decades prior. In principle, exoplanets could have been discovered a century ago using the simpler transit method. 

Notable Properties of the Sun

The Sun possesses a couple of properties that make it an excellent target for planet searches from afar. First, it is an old star and, as such, exhibits slow rotation and small fluctuations in brightness. These qualities are beneficial for both primary planet detection methods. Jupiter would be the easiest Solar System planet to detect using the Doppler method, while Venus would be the easiest one to detect with the transit method, given its relatively short orbital period. One qualification regarding the transit method is that the observer would have to be looking  looking near the ecliptic plane of the Solar System. We have already found several Jupiter and Venus analogs, proving that we could detect at least a few planets around a nearby Solar System twin.Second, the Sun is a relatively rare early-G spectral type main sequence star, making it brighter than about 90 percent of all main sequence stars. ETI conducting a magnitude-limited survey could see the Sun from farther away than they could an intrinsically fainter but more common red dwarf. Or, for a given distance, better quality data could be gathered on the Sun, making it more likely that its planets would be detected.

A Rare Jewel Sure to Enthrall!

All this is interesting from the perspective of a space-faring ETI searching for other habitable or inhabited worlds. An advanced ETI just starting to go boldly out into interstellar space would very likely have mapped out all the planetary systems within the nearest few hundred light years of their home system. It seems likely that our Solar System would be included in their catalog of planetary systems (assuming they start out in our sector of the Milky Way galaxy). 

If all planetary systems were created equal, then the Solar System would not stand out. ETIs might eventually visit it, but it wouldn’t be a high priority. But all planetary systems are not created equal. The many Rare Earth factors show that the Solar System is anything but typical and that only a small subset of planetary systems are likely to be habitable (and far fewer actually inhabited). 

Just knowing that our Sun is a rare early-G spectral type main sequence single star orbiting far from the dangerous galactic center would substantially increase the Solar System’s ranking in the ETI’s travel itinerary. Knowing further that the orbits of the planets in the Solar System are nearly circular would boost its rank more. Of course, a space-faring ETI would probably know more about exoplanets than we do, given their more advanced technology.

Still, the technology we use to study exoplanets is advancing rapidly. For example, the James Webb Space Telescope, due to be launched in 2021, should be able to detect whether nearby exoplanets have oceans and ozone. Knowing that the Earth has oceans of water, an oxygen-rich, carbon dioxide-poor atmosphere, and a large moon should boost the Solar System’s rank to the top of the ETI’s list. Their travel brochure might describe it as a rare jewel that is sure to enthrall!

Not Likely to Be “Passed Over”

All this strongly implies that the Earth would not have been “passed over” during a “colonization wave” through the galaxy. Yet, there is no convincing evidence of ETI visitation or communication. Yes, I know there are speculative responses to the Great Silence in attempts to rescue ETIs from the obvious implications of the Fermi Paradox. There are good responses to these. I would recommend If the Universe is Teeming with Aliens … Where is Everybody? (2nd edition). Contrary to first impressions, then, exoplanet discoveries actually strengthen the impact of the Fermi Paradox.

Stalinism redux? V

Jehovah’s Witnesses Tortured in Surgut, Russia

Just nine days after Dennis Christensen was unjustly convicted in a Russian court, at least seven of Jehovah’s Witnesses were subjected to physical abuse—electric shocks, suffocation, and beatings—by Russian investigators in the western Siberian city of Surgut. While torturing our brothers, the officers demanded to know the locations of their meetings and the identity of other Witnesses.

The incident began when authorities in Surgut carried out raids in the early morning hours of February 15, 2019. After arresting some Witnesses and taking them to the Investigative Committee offices, the authorities began interrogating our brothers, who refused to disclose details about their fellow worshippers. After the only legal representative present left, the victims report that the following occurred: agents put a bag over their head and sealed it with tape, tied their hands behind their back, and beat them. After stripping the Witnesses naked and dousing them with water, the agents shocked them with stun guns. This sadistic torture lasted for about two hours.

At least three Witnesses are still imprisoned. Those who have been released sought medical attention for their injuries and filed complaints with supervisory agencies.

Additionally, after the mass searches were completed, the Russian authorities initiated criminal cases against a total of 19 Witnesses for so-called “participating in extremist activity” and “organizing an extremist organization.”

Such an egregious abuse of authority is punishable under the Russian Criminal Code. Additionally, the Russian Federation is subject to several international bodies that protect individuals from torture. Therefore, we will pursue all available legal remedies, both domestic and international, for this crime.

Ultimately, we know that Jehovah has seen the persecution of our brothers in Russia and will act as their ‘helper and rescuer.’—Psalm 70:5.

On the uprising against the expertocracy

A Bad Case of Expertitis
Wesley J. Smith February 15, 2016 11:03 AM

The days of extolling objective journalistic discussions of scientific and technocratic issues -- always a bit laughable -- are clearly over. Now, journalists are being told not to present both sides of important debates, but rather, to take the "side" of "experts."

An op-ed in the New York Times urges journalists to stop presenting both sides when "experts" have reached a consensus opinion. You see, it only causes confusion to give a voice to dissenting opinions. From "Why People Are Confused About What Experts Really Think," by expert psychology professor Derek J. Koehler:

Government action is guided in part by public opinion. Public opinion is guided in part by perceptions of what experts think. But public opinion may -- and often does -- deviate from expert opinion, not simply, it seems, because the public refuses to acknowledge the legitimacy of experts, but also because the public may not be able to tell where the majority of expert opinion lies.

Balderdash. We hear constantly that "the experts" have reached a "consensus," and we should just go along. Indeed, that argument is wielded as a cudgel to stifle debate.

But here's the thing: People know that many "experts" are ideologically predisposed, their "studies" often intended to reach certain predetermined conclusions. Or, that their interpretations of data are akin to the cliché about the butcher putting his thumb on the scale. They know what they want to find, and lo and behold, they find it!

Finally, people no longer trust authority because they know that the fingerprints of "the experts" are all over many of the worst problems we face.

These advocates should look in a mirror for the reasons the public refuses to meekly follow what "the experts" advocate. Indeed, the more heterodox views are stifled and kept from the public to skew political debates, the more the public will distrust the views of "experts."

Yet more storytelling masquerading as science?

At Last, the Details of How Proteins Evolve?
Cornelius Hunter

How did proteins evolve? It is a difficult question because, setting aside many other problems, the very starting point — the protein-coding gene — is highly complex. A large number of random mutations would seem to be required before you have a functional protein that helps the organism. Too often such problems are solved with vague accounts of “adaptations” and “selection pressure” doing the job. 

   But this week researchers at the University of Illinois announced ground-breaking research that provides a step-by-step, detailed, description of the evolution of a new protein-coding gene and associated regulatory DNA sequences. The protein in question is a so-called “antifreeze” protein that keeps the blood of Arctic codfish from freezing, and the new research provides the specific sequence of mutations, leading to the new gene. 

     It would be difficult to underestimate the importance of this research. It finally provides scientific details answering the age-old question of how nature’s massive complexity could have arisen. As the paper triumphantly declares, “Here, we report clear evidence and a detailed molecular mechanism for the de novo formation of the northern gadid (codfish) antifreeze glycoprotein (AFGP) gene from a minimal noncoding sequence.” Or as lead researcher, professor Christina Cheng,  explained, “This paper explains how the antifreeze protein in the northern codfish evolved.” 

       

   Just One Problem

This is a monumental finding. Having the scientific details, down to the level of specific mutations, of how a new protein-coding gene evolved — not from a related gene but from non-coding DNA — is something evolutionists could only dream of only a few short years ago. There’s only one problem: it is all junk science.

    The first difficulty is that this new “research” is, in actuality, a just-so story. As Wikipedia defines it:

    In science and philosophy, a just-so story is an unverifiable narrative explanation for a cultural practice, a biological trait, or behavior of humans or other animals. The pejorative nature of the expression is an implicit criticism that reminds the hearer of the essentially fictional and unprovable nature of such an explanation. Such tales are common in folklore and mythology.

     For example, the antifreeze protein is of relatively low complexity chiefly consisting of a repeating sequence of three amino acids (threonine-alanine-alanine), and the evolutionists claim that these repeating sequences “strongly suggest” that the protein-coding gene “evolved from repeated duplications of an ancestral 9-nucleotide threonine-alanine-alanine-coding element.”

Why is that true? Why does a repeating genetic sequence “strongly suggest” that it “evolved from repeated duplications?” What experiment revealed this truth? What evidence gives us this profound principle? The answer, of course, is that there is none. Nowhere do the evolutionists justify this claim because there is no empirical justification.

There is no scientific evidence for it. Zero.

More Non-Empirical Claims 

The paper continues with yet more non-empirical claims. Those nine nucleotides “likely originated within a pair of conserved 27-nucleotide” segments that flank each side of the repetitive region. And these four 27-nucleotide segments are similar to each other, “indicating they resulted from the duplication of an initial copy.” As the paper concludes, “chance duplications” of an ancestral 27-nucleotide segment “produced four tandem copies.”

But why are those claims true? Why do such similarities imply an origin via evolutionary mechanisms? The problem is, they don’t. There is no empirical evidence for any of this. This is completely evidence-free.

The evolutionists next explain that the 9-nucleotide segment duplicated a large number of times because it worked well:

We hypothesize that, upon the onset of selective pressure from cold polar marine conditions, duplications of a 9-nt ancestral element in the midst of the four GCA-rich duplicates occurred.

The above quote is an example of the non-empirical teleology that pervades evolutionary thought. It was upon the onset of cold conditions that the needed genetic duplications occurred. This is not empirical; this is story-telling.

The paper continues with a series of one-time, contingent events crucial to their story and non-empirical claims. The genetic sequence “was appropriately delimited by an existing in-frame termination codon.” Appropriately delimited?

The presence of a region in two of the species “indicates that it existed in the gadid ancestor before the emergence of the AFGP.” The absence of a thymine nucleotide at a location in some of the species “very likely resulted from a deletion event,” causing a fortuitous frameshift which supplied the crucial signal peptide segment, telling cellular machinery that the protein should be secreted to the bloodstream. As the paper concludes, “the emerging AFGP gene was thus endowed with the necessary secretory signal.”

Endowed with the necessary signal? There is no empirical evidence for any of this.

Substantial Serendipity 

Another problem with this just-so account is the substantial level of serendipity required. The new antifreeze protein did not arise from some random DNA sequence, but rather from crucial, preexisting segments of DNA that just happened to be lying around. In other words, the fish were facing a colder environment, they needed some antifreeze in their blood, and the pieces needed for such an antifreeze gene were fortuitously available.

The authors hint at this serendipity when they conclude that their story of how this protein evolved is an example of “evolutionary ingenuity.” Evolutionary ingenuity?

The press release is even more revealing. Cheng admits that the evolution of this gene “occurred as a result of a series of seemingly improbable, serendipitous events.” For “not just any random DNA sequence can produce a viable protein.” Furthermore, in addition to the gene itself, “several other serendipitous events occurred.”

The DNA was “edited in just the right way,” and “somehow, the gene also obtained the proper control sequence that would allow the new gene to be transcribed into RNA.”

Even the evolutionists admit to the rampant serendipity. Nonetheless they are triumphant, for “the findings offer fresh insights into how a cell can invent ‘a new, functional gene from scratch.’”

In actuality the findings arose from a series of non-empirical claims. Fresh insights? Not so much.

The apostle Paul's epistle to the Hebrews:The Watchtower society's commentary.

HEBREWS, LETTER TO THE

An inspired letter of the Christian Greek Scriptures. Evidence indicates that it was written by the apostle Paul to the Hebrew Christians in Judea about 61 C.E. To those Hebrew Christians the letter was most timely. It had then been about 28 years since Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. In the earlier part of that period severe persecution had been brought upon these Jewish Christians in Jerusalem and Judea by the Jewish religious leaders, resulting in the death of some Christians and the scattering of most of the others from Jerusalem. (Ac 8:1) The scattered ones remained active in spreading the good news everywhere they went. (Ac 8:4) The apostles had stayed in Jerusalem and had held the remaining congregation together there, and it had grown, even under stiff opposition. (Ac 8:14) Then, for a time, the congregation entered into a period of peace. (Ac 9:31) Later, Herod Agrippa I caused the death of the apostle James, John’s brother, and mistreated others of the congregation. (Ac 12:1-5) Sometime after this, there developed a material need among the Christians in Judea, giving opportunity for those in Achaia and Macedonia (in about 55 C.E.) to demonstrate their love and unity by sending aid. (1Co 16:1-3; 2Co 9:1-5) So the Jerusalem congregation had suffered many hardships.

Purpose of the Letter. The congregation in Jerusalem was comprised almost entirely of Jews and those who had been proselytes to the Jews’ religion. Many of these had come to a knowledge of the truth after the time of the most bitter persecution. At the time the letter to the Hebrews was written, the congregation was enjoying comparative peace, for Paul told them: “You have never yet resisted as far as blood.” (Heb 12:4) Nevertheless, the lessening of outright physical persecution to death did not mean that strong opposition from the Jewish religious leaders had ceased. The newer members of the congregation had to face the opposition just as the rest did. And some others were immature, not having made the progress toward maturity that they should have made in view of the time. (5:12) The opposition they faced daily from the Jews put their faith to a test. They needed to build up the quality of endurance.​—12:1, 2.

Time was running out for Jerusalem. Neither the apostle Paul nor those in the congregation at Jerusalem knew when the foretold desolation would occur, but God did know. (Lu 21:20-24; Da 9:24, 27) The situation would call for the Christians there to be alert and to exercise faith so that they would flee from the city when they saw Jerusalem surrounded by encamped armies. All in the congregation needed to strengthen themselves for these momentous events. According to tradition, it was just about five years after the writing of this letter that Cestius Gallus’ troops attacked the city and then withdrew. Four years after that, Jerusalem and its temple were leveled by the Romans under General Titus. But before either of these events took place, Jehovah had provided the inspired counsel that his servants needed.

Jewish opposition. The Jewish religious leaders, by lying propaganda, had done everything they could to stir up hatred against Christ’s followers. Their determination to fight Christianity with every possible weapon is demonstrated by their actions, as recorded in Acts 22:22; 23:12-15, 23, 24; 24:1-4; 25:1-3. They and their supporters constantly harassed the Christians, evidently using arguments in an effort to break their loyalty to Christ. They attacked Christianity with what might seem to a Jew to be powerful reasoning, hard to answer.

At that time Judaism had much to offer in the way of tangible, material things and outward appearance. The Jews might say that these things proved Judaism superior and Christianity foolish. Why, they had told Jesus that the nation had as their father Abraham, to whom the promises were given. (Joh 8:33, 39) Moses, to whom God spoke “mouth to mouth,” was God’s great servant and prophet. (Nu 12:7, 8) The Jews had the Law and the words of the prophets from the beginning. ‘Did not this very antiquity establish Judaism as the true religion?’ they might ask. At the inaugurating of the Law covenant, God had spoken by means of angels; in fact, the Law was transmitted through angels by the hand of the mediator Moses. (Ac 7:53; Ga 3:19) On this occasion God had given a fear-inspiring demonstration of power in shaking Mount Sinai; the loud sound of a horn, smoke, thunder, and lightning accompanied the glorious display.​—Ex 19:16-19; 20:18; Heb 12:18-21.

Besides all these things of antiquity, there stood the magnificent temple with its priesthood instituted by Jehovah. Priests officiated at the temple, daily handling many sacrifices. Accompanying these things were the costly priestly garments and the splendor of the services conducted at the temple. ‘Had not Jehovah commanded that sacrifices for sin be brought to the sanctuary, and did not the high priest, the descendant of Moses’ own brother Aaron, enter the Most Holy on the Day of Atonement with a sacrifice for the sins of the whole nation? On this occasion, did he not approach representatively into the very presence of God?,’ the Jews might argue. (Le 16) ‘Furthermore, was not the kingdom the possession of the Jews, with one (the Messiah, who would later come, as they said) to sit on the throne at Jerusalem to rule?’

If the letter to the Hebrews was being written to equip the Christians to answer objections that were actually being raised by the Jews, then those enemies of Christianity had contended in this way: ‘What did this new “heresy” have to point to as evidence of its genuineness and of God’s favor? Where was their temple, and where their priesthood? In fact, where was their leader? Was he of any importance among the leaders of the nation during his lifetime​—this Jesus, a Galilean, a carpenter’s son, with no rabbinic education? And did he not die an ignominious death? Where was his kingdom? And who were his apostles and followers? Mere fishermen and tax collectors. Furthermore, whom did Christianity draw, for the most part? The poor and lowly persons of the earth and, even worse, uncircumcised Gentiles, not of the seed of Abraham, were accepted. Why should anyone put his trust in this Jesus, who had been put to death as a blasphemer and a seditionist? Why listen to his disciples, men unlettered and ordinary?’​—Ac 4:13.

Superiority of Christian system. Some of the immature Christians may have become neglectful of their salvation through Christ. (Heb 2:1-4) Or they may have been swayed by the unbelieving Jews who surrounded them. Coming to their aid with masterful argument, using the Hebrew Scriptures, on which the Jews claimed to rely, the apostle shows irrefutably the superiority of the Christian system of things and of the priesthood and kingship of Jesus Christ. He Scripturally demonstrates that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, greater than angels (1:4-6), than Abraham (7:1-7), than Moses (3:1-6), and than the prophets (1:1, 2). In fact, Christ is the appointed heir of all things, crowned with glory and honor and appointed over the works of Jehovah’s hands.​—1:2; 2:7-9.

As to priesthood, Christ’s is far superior to the Aaronic priesthood of the tribe of Levi. It is dependent, not on inheritance from sinful flesh, but on an oath of God. (Heb 6:13-20; 7:5-17, 20-28) Why, though, did he endure such hardships and die a death of suffering? This was foretold as essential to mankind’s salvation and to qualify him as High Priest and the one to whom God will subject all things. (2:8-10; 9:27, 28; compare Isa 53:12.) He had to become blood and flesh and die in order to emancipate all those who through fear of death were in slavery. Through his death he is able to bring to nothing the Devil, a thing no human priest could do. (Heb 2:14-16) He, having so suffered, is a High Priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses and can come to our help, having been tested in all respects.​—2:17, 18; 4:15.

Moreover, argues the apostle, this High Priest “passed through the heavens” and appeared in the very presence of God, not in a mere earthly tent or building that was only pictorial of heavenly things. (Heb 4:14; 8:1; 9:9, 10, 24) He needed to appear only once with his perfect, sinless sacrifice, not over and over again. (7:26-28; 9:25-28) He has no successors, as did the Aaronic priests, but lives forever to save completely those to whom he ministers. (7:15-17, 23-25) Christ is Mediator of the better covenant foretold through Jeremiah, under which sins can really be forgiven and consciences can be made clean, things that the Law could never accomplish. The Ten Words, the basic laws of the Law covenant, were written on stone; the law of the new covenant, on hearts. This prophetic word of Jehovah by Jeremiah made the Law covenant obsolete, to vanish away in time.​—8:6-13; Jer 31:31-34; De 4:13; 10:4.

It is true, the writer of Hebrews continues, that an awesome display of power was manifested at Sinai, demonstrating God’s approval of the Law covenant. But even more forcefully God bore witness at the inauguration of the new covenant with signs, portents, and powerful works, along with distributions of holy spirit to all the members of the congregation assembled. (Heb 2:2-4; compare Ac 2:1-4.) And as to Christ’s Kingship, his throne is in the heavens itself, far higher than that of the kings of the line of David who sat on the throne in earthly Jerusalem. (Heb 1:9) God is the foundation of Christ’s throne, and his Kingdom cannot be shaken, as was the kingdom in Jerusalem in 607 B.C.E. (1:8; 12:28) Furthermore, God has gathered his people before something far more awe inspiring than the miraculous display at Mount Sinai. He has caused anointed Christians to approach the heavenly Mount Zion, and he will yet shake not only the earth but also the heaven.​—12:18-27.

The letter to the Hebrews is of inestimable value to Christians. Without it, many of the realities concerning Christ as foreshadowed by the Law would be unclear. For example, the Jews had known all along from the Hebrew Scriptures that when their high priest went into the Most Holy compartment of the sanctuary in their behalf he was representing them before Jehovah. But they never appreciated this reality: Someday the real High Priest would actually appear in the heavens in Jehovah’s very presence! And as we read the Hebrew Scriptures, how could we realize the tremendous significance of the account of Abraham’s meeting with Melchizedek, or understand so clearly what this king-priest typified? This, of course, is to cite only two examples out of the many realities that we come to visualize in reading the letter.

The faith that the letter builds helps Christians to hold on to their hope by means of “the evident demonstration of realities though not beheld.” (Heb 11:1) At a time when many persons rely on antiquity, on the material wealth and power of organizations, on the splendor of rites and ceremonies, and look to the wisdom of this world instead of to God, the divinely inspired letter to the Hebrews admirably helps to make the man of God “fully competent, completely equipped for every good work.”​—2Ti 3:16, 17.

Writership and Time, Place Written. Writership of the letter to the Hebrews has been widely ascribed to the apostle Paul. It was accepted as an epistle of Paul by early writers. The Chester Beatty Papyrus No. 2 (P⁠46) (of about 200 C.E.) contains Hebrews among nine of Paul’s letters, and Hebrews is listed among “fourteen letters of Paul the apostle” in “The Canon of Athanasius,” of the fourth century C.E.

The writer of Hebrews does not identify himself by name. Even though all his other letters do bear his name, this lack of identification of the writer would obviously not rule out Paul. Internal evidence in the letter strongly points to Paul as its writer and to Italy, probably Rome, as the place of writing. (Heb 13:24) It was in Rome, evidently during the years 59 to 61 C.E., that Paul was first imprisoned. Timothy was with Paul in Rome, being mentioned in the apostle’s letters to the Philippians, the Colossians, and Philemon, written from Rome during that imprisonment. (Php 1:1; 2:19; Col 1:1, 2; Phm 1) This circumstance fits the remark at Hebrews 13:23 about Timothy’s release from prison and the writer’s desire to visit Jerusalem soon.

The time of writing was before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E., for the temple at Jerusalem still stood, with services being performed there, as is evident from the argument in the letter. And Paul’s remark about Timothy’s being released reasonably fixes the time of writing about nine years earlier, namely, 61 C.E., when it is thought that Paul himself was released from his first imprisonment.​—Heb 13:23.

[Box on page 1078]

HIGHLIGHTS OF HEBREWS

A powerful treatise that fortified Hebrew Christians and enabled them to help sincere fellow countrymen during the final years of the Jewish system

Evidently written by the apostle Paul less than a decade before Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 C.E.

The superior position occupied by God’s Son (1:1–3:6)

He is the unique Son, appointed heir, exact representation of his Father’s very being, through whom all that was made is also sustained

Compared with the Son, angels are but servants. The Father calls him alone “my son,” the Firstborn to whom even angels would do obeisance; of him and not of angels can it be said that his royal rule rests upon God as his throne, his permanence surpasses that of heavens and earth made through him, and his position is at the Father’s right hand

If the Law conveyed through angels could not be disregarded without punishment, what was spoken by God through the Son, who is higher than angels, must be given extraordinary attention

Though lower than angels as a man, Jesus Christ was afterward exalted above them and granted dominion over the inhabited earth to come

Moses was an attendant in the house of God, but Jesus Christ is over the entire house

Entering God’s rest still possible (3:7–4:13)

Because of disobedience and lack of faith, the Israelites who left Egypt failed to enter God’s rest

Christians can enter God’s rest, provided they avoid Israel’s disobedience and exert themselves in a course of faithfulness

The living word promising entrance into God’s rest is sharper than a sword, dividing (by a person’s response to it) between what he may appear to be as a soul and what he really is as to his spirit

Superiority of Christ’s priesthood and the new covenant (4:14–10:31)

Because of having been tested in all respects yet remaining sinless, Jesus Christ as high priest can sympathize with sinful humans and deal compassionately with them

He is priest by God’s appointment according to the manner of Melchizedek, whose priesthood was greater than the Levitical priesthood

Unlike Levite priests in Aaron’s family, Jesus Christ possesses an indestructible life and thus requires no successors to continue his saving work; he is sinless and so does not need to present sacrifices for himself; he offered up his own body, not animals, and entered, not an earthly sanctuary, but heaven itself with the value of his outpoured blood, thereby validating the new covenant

The new covenant, with Jesus as Mediator, is superior to the Law covenant in that those in it have God’s laws in their hearts and enjoy true forgiveness of sins

Appreciation for these benefits will move Christians to make public declaration of hope and to assemble regularly

Faith essential to please God (10:32–12:29)

Jehovah is displeased with those faithlessly shrinking back from him instead of enduring so as to receive what he has promised

The exemplary faith of integrity-keepers from Abel onward serves as encouragement to endurance in the Christian race, while considering closely Jesus Christ and his flawless course under suffering

The suffering that God permits to befall faithful Christians may be viewed as a form of discipline from him, designed to produce the peaceful fruit of righteousness

Exhortations to pursue a faithful course (13:1-25)

Manifest brotherly love, be hospitable, remember believers who are suffering, maintain marriage in honor, and be content with present things, confident of Jehovah’s help

Imitate the faith of those taking the lead, and avoid succumbing to strange teachings

Be willing to bear reproach as Christ did; always offer to God sacrifice of praise through him

Be obedient to those taking the lead

File under only in academia.

‘Sokal Squared’: Is Huge Publishing Hoax ‘Hilarious and Delightful’ or an Ugly Example of Dishonesty and Bad Faith?

By Alexander C. Kafka 

Reactions to an elaborate academic-journal hoax, dubbed "Sokal Squared" by one observer, came fast and furious on Wednesday. Some scholars applauded the hoax for unmasking what they called academe’s leftist, victim-obsessed ideological slant and low publishing standards. Others said it had proved nothing beyond the bad faith and dishonesty of its authors.

Three scholars — Helen Pluckrose, a self-described "exile from the humanities" who studies medieval religious writings about women; James A. Lindsay, an author and mathematician; and Peter Boghossian, an assistant professor of philosophy at Portland State University — spent 10 months writing 20 hoax papers that illustrate and parody what they call "grievance studies," and submitted them to "the best journals in the relevant fields." Of the 20, seven papers were accepted, four were published online, and three were in process when the authors "had to take the project public prematurely and thus stop the study, before it could be properly concluded." A skeptical Wall Street Journal editorial writer, Jillian Kay Melchior, began raising questions about some of the papers over the summer.

Beyond the acceptances, the authors said, they also received four requests to peer-review other papers "as a result of our own exemplary scholarship." And one paper — about canine rape culture in dog parks in Portland, Ore. — "gained special recognition for excellence from its journal, Gender, Place, and Culture … as one of 12 leading pieces in feminist geography as a part of the journal’s 25th anniversary celebration."

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Not all readers accepted the work as laudable scholarship. National Review took "Helen Wilson," the fictional author of the dog-park study, to task in June for her approach. "The whole reasoning behind Wilson’s study," wrote a staff writer, Katherine Timpf, "is the belief that researching rape culture and sexuality among dogs in parks is a brilliant way to understand more about rape culture and sexuality among humans. This is, of course, idiotic. Why? Because humans are not dogs."

Another published paper, "Going In Through the Back Door: Challenging Straight Male Homohysteria, Transhysteria, and Transphobia Through Receptive Penetrative Sex Toy Use," appeared in Sexuality and Culture. It recommends that men anally self-penetrate "to become less transphobic, more feminist, and more concerned about the horrors of rape culture."

The trolling trio wondered, they write, if a journal might even "publish a feminist rewrite of a chapter from Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf." Yup. "Our Struggle Is My Struggle: Solidarity Feminism as an Intersectional Reply to Neoliberal and Choice Feminism" was accepted by the feminist social-work journal Affilia.

Darts and Laurels

Some scholars applauded the hoax.

"Is there any idea so outlandish that it won’t be published in a Critical/PoMo/Identity/‘Theory’ journal?" tweeted the Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker.

"Three intrepid academics," wrote Yascha Mounk, an author and lecturer on government at Harvard, "just perpetrated a giant version of the Sokal Hoax, placing … fake papers in major academic journals. Call it Sokal Squared. The result is hilarious and delightful. It also showcases a serious problem with big parts of academia."In the original Sokal Hoax, in 1996, a New York University physicist named Alan Sokal published a bogus paper that took aim at some of the same targets as his latter-day successors.

Others were less receptive than Mounk. "This is a genre," tweeted Kieran Healy, a sociologist at Duke, "and they’re in it for the lulz" — the laughs. "Best not to lose sight of that."

"Good work is hard to do," he wrote, "incentives to publish are perverse; there’s a lot of crap out there; if you hate an area enough, you can gin up a fake paper and get it published somewhere if you try. The question is, what do you hate? And why is that?"

Reviews of several of the papers "were partly conditional on claims to have done some sort of actual (very bad) fieldwork," Healy noted.

And that’s where the question of bad faith comes in.

"I am so utterly unimpressed," wrote Jacob T. Levy, a political theorist at McGill University, "by the fact that an enterprise that relies on a widespread presumption of not-fraud can be fooled some of the time by three people with Ph.D.s who spend 10 months deliberately trying to defraud it."

“The chain of thought and action that encourages you to spend 10 months 'pulling a fast one' on academic journals disqualifies you from a community of scholarship.”

Karen Gregory, a lecturer in sociology at the University of Edinburgh, wrote that "the chain of thought and action that encourages you to spend 10 months ‘pulling a fast one’ on academic journals disqualifies you from a community of scholarship. It only proves you are a bad-faith actor."

Karl Steel, an associate professor of English at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, called the trio’s work "simply not rigorous research" and described three objections to it. It is too narrow in disciplinary scope, he said. It focuses on exposing weaknesses in gender and ethnic studies, conspicuously ideological fields, when that effort would be better spent looking at more-substantive problems like the replication crisis in psychology, or unfounded scholarly claims in cold fusion or laissez-faire economics.

The trio could have reached out to colleagues in physics and other fields, but instead opted for "poor experimental design." And they targeted groups that are "likely to be laughed at anyway," showing not intellectual bravery but cowardice. "These three researchers have demonstrated that they’re not to be trusted," he said.

‘Deep Doubt’

Other online commenters said the hoax papers lack a control group of papers for comparative purposes.

Pluckrose, Lindsay, and Boghossian, reached by phone in Portland, said the papers that were rejected serve as a control of sorts. Better yet, they said, consider this meta-control thought experiment: Look at your journals and the articles they published, and see if you can distinguish them from the hoax articles. If the answer is often no, then there is your control.

Mounk, by phone, also said the control-group criticism is misguided. He called it a "confused attempt to import statistics into a question where it doesn’t apply." If the authors were claiming that their work proves that some publications are, say, 50 percent more susceptible to hoaxes than the average, or that 100 percent of articles published are nonsense because these seven articles were accepted, then you would obviously need controls. But the authors "do nothing of the sort. They demonstrate that it’s possible, with relatively little effort, to get bullshit published." It "sows deep doubt" about the nature of the academic enterprise in these disciplines.

Time will tell, the trio said, but they think the mega-hoax will effectively snuff out their academic futures. Pluckrose thinks she’ll have a hard time getting into a doctoral program, Lindsay predicted that he would become "an academic pariah," and Boghossian, who doesn’t have tenure, thinks he will be punished, and possibly fired. Still, this isn’t the first time that Lindsay and Boghossian have teamed up to mock trendy scholarship. Last year their spurious paper "The Conceptual Penis as a Social Construct" was published in the journal Cogent Social Sciences.

Meanwhile, Pluckrose and Boghossian are working on a book together, and Pluckrose is writing one on the 50-year development of grievance studies and the leftist academic culture of victimization.

If the three are exiled from academe, said Mounk, that will be unjust and a shame. Through "courage and quite a lot of work," they have shown that "clearly there’s a big corner of academia where the emperors wear no clothes." He called the hoax "a more serious contribution to our understanding of the world than many Ph.D. theses." The three of them, Mounk said, "should absolutely be celebrated."

1Corinthians 3:19 NASB  "For the wisdom of this world is foolishness...