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Tuesday, October 30, 2007

YouTube - The Watchmaker

YouTube - The Watchmaker

The watchmaker theory. (For anyone not familiar with this theory/argument)

One of, if not the, most famous arguments for Intelligent Design Theory, or Argument From Design, originally put forth by William Paley in Natural Theology - or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity Collected from the Appearances of Nature, published in 1802. Although Paley himself never referred to a Watchmaker Theory by name, his comparison of life to a complicated and intelligently designed watch has become well-known and used by Creationists from every religion.

In the beginning of Natural Theology, Paley states a difference between simple, physically
homogeneous objects such as stones, and purposeful, complex, manufactured objects like watches, and believes that for a watch to come into being "... the watch must have had a maker: that there must have existed, at some time, and at some place or other, an artificer or artificers, who formed it for the purpose which we find it actually to answer; who comprehended its construction, and designed its use... every indication of contrivance, every manifestation of design, which existed in the watch, exists in the work of nature; with the difference, on the side of nature, of being greater or more, and that in a degree which exceeds all comparison."

Should Christians Celebrate Holloween?

Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?
This article is taken from the Amazingfacts.org website. I know a lot of people enjoy dressing up and handing out candy and also having their little ones dress up. I don't mean to be an extremist or judge anyone, I simply want to just promote awareness and information. No matter what you choose to do this Halloween please be safe. Enjoy the article

http://www.amazingfacts.org/Home/InsideReport/tabid/123/newsid457/198/Should-Christians-Celebrate-Halloween/Default.aspx

Everly's Story

Everly's Story
Everly was born at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. She was born with a couple of heart defects which we learned of when Liz was five months pregnant. It was a very difficult time in our lives, one of the roughest weeks we have ever gone through. In October of 2005 my mother had come to live with us due to contracting colon cancer. It was very severe and it was to the point where she could barely move or walk without any type of assistance. Liz and I decided to have her come live with us. She moved here in August of 2005 and lived with us until Oct. She past away on Oct 19th. As I was on the way to the Airport in NY to pick up my sister from California I was accompanied by some friends along with my brother from Texas who also came up for the funeral. It was supposed to be a day of great joy because it was supposed to be the day that Liz and I would go to the hospital to find out the sex of our baby. Unfortunately Liz had to go by herself in order so that I can gather up my family for the funeral. While Liz was there she learned of the horrible news that our baby had some heart defects. It was a very scary and confusing time in our lives. We could not understand this being that Liz and I were two perfectly healthy people. Almost a year prior to this Liz experienced a miscarriage after carrying for around eleven weeks. We were very discouraged and hurt. Nonetheless, we trusted in God that He would see us through what ever it was that was coming our way. Liz called me from her cell phone and after much joyful debate in the vehicle as to what the gender of my child would be, she instead had to inform me of our daughters condition. At five months in the womb Everly was diagnosed with "Tricuspid Atresia" and "Transposition of the great arteries". Feel free to click on these links to learn more about Everly's condition. As mentioned before it was a very difficult time in our lives however, nothing compared to all that we were about to go through. We had countless Doctors appointments, meetings, visits and sessions with all kinds of specialist. We had to mentally prepare ourselves for the worst that could happen which was that our daughter might not make it through this. In fact at the five month check up the Doctors told Liz that she would most likely not make it and if Everly was born she would most likely die shortly after. God had other plans. Everly was born on March 1st of 2006 at 5lbs 15oz. She screamed her brains out! The doctor allowed us to hold her for a quick couple of seconds and even gave me a second to snap a picture of her. They took her off to a more private room just in case she needed better attention for her condition and should anything unexpected happen they would be in the necessary place already. I was a proud father, as proud as a father could be. Liz and I are forever in debt to the many Doctors, nurses and surgeons who attended to Everly while at CHOP and even here near our home town. Everly remained in the hospital for the first couple of months after she was born. Liz and I were unable to hold Everly for the first week or so. We held her for a few seconds each on her way into surgery. She was to receive a procedure called the "Norwood Procedure" This would be a series of surgeries (three major surgeries) over the course of months and years. So far Everly has undergone the first two procedures. We consider these procedures the "major" procedures because the truth is Everly has undergone more operations than this. Everly was also born with a severe case of acid reflux which would not allow her to keep anything in her stomach. We had to have another procedure which would bypass her stomach and place the food directly into her intestines where she was less likely to throw the food back up causing aspiration (food going into her lungs). So about a month in a half in the hospital Everly was given an operation in which they placed what's called a GJ tube (Gastrojejunal) in her stomach. (To see what this tube looks like just type in "GJ Tube" in the Google search engine and click on images) In short, after the tube goes into her stomach it splits off. One portion of the tube goes into her stomach (this is where the meds go via a syringe) and the other portion of the tube went into her intestines (this is where the food from a pump Liz and I carried went, bypassing the stomach). To make a really long story short Everly has gone through countless operations and procedures. Recently she has gone through a procedure that has allowed us to remove the GJ Tube and replace it with a Mickey button (you can also type this into Google to see what this looks like) Mainly, the Mickey button is like the GJ tube only it is not permanently hanging from her stomach and it does not split and go to two different places within her. The Mickey button allows food to go directly into her stomach and is much like the top of a water bottle, you are able to close it when your done. In addition to the Mickey button, she received a surgery called a "Nissen Fundoplication Procedure" which is supposed make it impossible to reflux anything. She has since made the motions as though she want to throw up but is physically unable to due to the surgery. Everly has been quite the trooper over the course of this year. If Liz and I were to type all that has happened to her and us we would be able to publish a small book (I'm serious). Everly has been given many shots, taken many meds and is involved with different therapist in order to help with the integration of food to her mouth and walking and crawling. We would mainly like to thank Dr. Gayner who operated on Everly for around ten hours when the operation was supposed to only be around four hours. We owe him a great deal of gratitude amongst many of other Doctors as well. We have come to love the people at CHOP who pretty much know our daughter by name. They have treated us well and we are grateful that God has positioned us right here in the Lehigh Valley so we are close to one of the best Children's Hospitals in the country. Liz and I truly believe that there are no coincidences with Jesus and that all that is done is for our strengthening and encouragement and for his will and plans (James 1:2). Some of our family, friends and co-workers have come up to me and said "how do you guys do it?" "how do you stay so strong?". My answer to that is an easy one. "We can do all things through Christ who gives us strength" We would really like to also thank much of our family and mainly my Mother and Father in law. They have been there with us through the entire thing. Liz and I would not have been able to do this without their help. I want to thank my mother in law Graciette for all the wonderful home cooked meals she brought over or made in my home while I was sleeping because I work night shift. It is truly a wonderful blessing to wake up to all those wonderful smells. And also for the countless times she has baby sat for us at the drop of a hat when we needed her. And for taking the time to learn how to provide for Everly such as medications and feedings. It is a great work preparing all of this for Everly on a daily basis and we would never expect anyone to be burdened by it, yet she has taken it upon her self to learn these things. I want to thank my father in law John who is always fixing something in my home or making a wonderful improvement to the house. I'm learning a great deal from him and hope to continue to learn more. I want to thank him for always taking the time out to explain something to me as he is fixing it. I thank God for you both for all the giving you do on our account, we are truly grateful. Again, I, Liz, Tyler & Everly would like to thank everyone for taking the time to read this and for all those who have supported us a great deal along the way. We thank you all for keeping us in your prayers and look forward to sharing our updates of the family with you. We love you all.

A debate with an ardent evolutionists

As some of you may know I have many ongoing debates and conversations with atheists and evolutionist on an ongoing basis at work and at various other places. However I am choosing to post some of the debate with one particular person I work with. He's a great guy and we have fun while respecting (or respectfully disagreeing) with eachother's views. Enjoy the posts and if anyone has a reply, question or comment please don't hesitate to post something. I welcome all comments positive or negative and certainly corrective criticism is welcome as well. (I will post any replies he may have in upcoming blogs as well so everyone else can read them.

Enjoy.

Joe S.

Hey Dom hows it going? Good I hope. hey I have some questions that have been brewing in my mind for months now from reading I have been doing. I know your a busy guy but kindly reply to these at you own leisure. If it takes 10 months, that's ok. But these are only a few of about a hundred questions I think i have. :o Just curious as to what the Evolutionist thinks or has to say about these things.

I know I asked you this already but I don't remember what you said:
1. Where did the space for the universe come from?

2. Where did matter come from?

3. How did the matter get so perfectly organized?

4. When, where, why, and how did life learn to reproduce itself?

5. With what did the first cell capable of sexual reproduction reproduce?

6. Why would any plant or animal want to reproduce more of its kind since this would only make more mouths to feed and decrease the chances of survival? (Does the individual have a drive to survive, or the species? doesn't sound like "natural selection" to me. How do you explain this?

7. How can mutations (recombining of the genetic code) create any new, improved varieties? (recombining English letters will never produce Chinese books)

8. When, where, why, how, and from what did:
Whales evolve?
Sea horses evolve?
Bats evolve?
Eyes evolve?
Ears evolve?
and.......
Hair, skin, feathers, scales, nails, claws, etc....evolve?
Which evolved first (how, and how long, did it work without the others?)
The digestive system, the food to be digested, the appetite, the ability to find and eat the food, the digestive juices, or the body's resistance to it's own digestive juice (stomach, intestines, etc...?)
The drive to reproduce or the ability to reproduce?
The lungs, the mucus lining to protect them, the throat, or the perfect mixture of gases to be breathed into the lungs?
DNA or RNA to carry the DNA message to cell parts?
The Termite or the flagella in it's intestines that actually digest the cellulose?
The plants or the insects that live on and pollinate the plants?
The bones, ligaments, tendons, blood supply, or muscles to move the bones?
the nervous system, repair system, or hormone system?
the immune system or the need for it?

Some Cosmology: Referring to the so called Big Bang Theory-
9. The Planetary Collision Theory says our world collided with a small planet, producing our moon. but such an Impact would totally destroy our planet. How could such an impact produce a circling moon? This would have had to be repeated for all 60 moons in our solar system. The theory would require thousands of planets passing through our solar system for enough direct hits to produce all our moons. Why are not such fly byes occurring today?

10. The usual shape of the galaxies is that of a saucer with a central sphere. This shape defies explanation by the laws of physics. Island universes should not have their highly coordinated, inter-orbiting structure arrangement. The stars should all fly apart. Each galaxy is a carefully organized city in the sky. Can you explain this from an evolutionary standpoint?

11. Angular momentum is another serious problem. Why do stars turn? Why do galaxies rotate? Why do planets orbit stars? Why do binary stars circle one another? How could the super-fast linear (straight line) motion started by the supposed Big Bang, have changed into rotation (spinning or revolving motion) and revolutions (orbiting motion)? How could angular momentum exist and in such perfectly balanced orbits throughout space? There is no possible way that floating gas could transform itself into rotating and orbiting objects, like stars, planets and moons. Can you explain this?

12. Evidence is accumulating that the entire universe is rotating! This is angular momentum on the most gigantic of proportions. Yet the Big Bang should only have produced linear movement outward from it. ?????? My brain is frying man, help me out here...

13. Random explosions do not produce intricate orbits. The theory requires that countless billions of starts exploded. How could haphazard explosions result in the marvelously intricate circling that we find in the orbits of the suns, stars, binary stars, galaxies, and star clusters? Within each galactic system, hundreds of billions of stars are involved in these interrelated orbits. Were these careful balances not maintained, the planets would fall into the stars, and the stars would fall into their galactic centers- or they would fly apart! Over half of all the stars in the sky are in binary systems, with two or more stars circling one another. How could such astonishing patterns be the result of explosions? Because there are no" first generation" (population 1) stars, Big Bang theory requires that every star exploded at lest one or two times. But random explosions never produce orbits. ???????? Can you explain this?

Evolution could not do or explain this

Maybe you could explain this?:

The Mallee bird lives in the Australian desert. In May or June, with his claws the male makes a pit in the sand that is just the right size about 3 feet deep and 6 feet long. then he fills is with vegetation. As it rots, it heats up. the bird waits patiently until the rains, which increase the heat to over 100º F at the bottom of the pile. The bird waits until it is down to 92º F. When the right temperature is reached, he calls for his wife; they mate; she lays one egg a day for 30 days, and then leaves. The male then covers the eggs with sand, and continually checks the temperature with his amazing thermometer bill for 7 weeks. he cannot let the temperature go up or down even one degree. If it cools at night, he piles on more sand. If it overheats in the day, he pulls off sand. At hatching time, the chicks break their shells and crawl up through as much as 2 feet of sand! Arriving at the top, each one is fully able to fly and is on its own. Neither father or mother mallee bird gives it any further attention or training. when it grows up, it does just as it's parents did.

Another story:

Daniel Bernoulli was an 18th-century physicist who first stated the principle that the pressure exerted by a moving fluid decreases as the fluid moves faster. Bernoulli's principle may sound complicated to you and me; but prairie dogs, which live in the western plains of America, understand it well. these little creatures admirably apply this principle in making their underground tunnel cities. The burrows have two openings--one at ground level, the other located on a foot-tall chimney of mud and stones. they work hard to make that second opening higher than the flat one on ground level. Having done this, the Bernoulli principle takes effect and nicely aerates their burrows with fresh air. Can evolution explain this?

another one:

Porpoises (bottle-nosed dolphins) never hurt humans, but crush vicious barracudas and kill deadly sharks. It is sonar (underwater radar) that enables them to successfully plan their attacks. With their high pitched squeaks, they can identify the type of fish, and measure its distance and size. Porpoises have a special region in their head which contains a specialized type of fat. Scientists call it their "melon", for that is it's shape. Because the speed of sound in the fatty melon is different than that of the rest of the body, this melon is used as a sound lens to collect sonar signals and interpret them to the brain. It focuses sound, just as a glass lens focuses light. The focused sound produces a small "sound picture" in the porpoise's mind showing it the unseen things ahead in the dark, murky water. It has been discovered that the composition of this fatty lens can be altered by the porpoise in order to change the sound speed through the melon and thus change the focus of the lens to accord with variational factors in the surrounding water! There is also evidence that the composition of fat varies in different parts of the melon. This technique of doublet lens (two glass lenses glued together) is used in optical lenses in order to overcome chromatic aberrations and produce high-quality light lenses. The porpoise appears to be using a similar principle for it's sound lens system! Can evolution explain that?

how about this one:

Try as they might, scientists cannot figure out how to make light without 94.5% of the energy being used as heat. But the firefly, Phontinus, makes light with 90% of the energy for that purpose. The glow of a firefly contains only 1/80,000 of the heat that would be produced by a candle flame of equal size. One scientists spent his lifetime studying the luciferin in fireflies, without success. Many other researchers have tackled the problem, and have also failed.
The diving spider is a regular spider which breathes air but spends most of it's time under water. Diving under water with a bubble, and fastening it to vegetation, the spider uses it for air and a nest. The living and nesting habits of this spider are complex and amazing. As soon as the babies are born, they do their part in diving and helping the family.

Hey I have more but I need to go take care of something. I'll send some other questions I have also out to you some other time. Feel free not to answer any of these if you wish, I just thought that since you are the only stubborn, I mean genuine evolutionists I know I would ask you first :)

Thanks man, see you at work....

-- Joe Sirianni - Man of God