Wonders of Creation

Every book produced by Readers Digest, (as far as I know), if it says anything about the origin of life, or the age of the Earth, will say only one thing: that life evolved from non-living materials, and the Earth is millions of years old.
The Readers Digest point of view is common, as most TV programs, almost all science fiction, and almost every natural history (?animal?) program will also carry a similar message.  To someone who has never considered an alternative, it seems that there is no other way to view life and the universe.  This is what is known as a ?world view?.  It is an all-encompassing interpretation and it pervades every aspect of modern, western Man's thinking.

The one great contradiction to this secular world view is a Person.  This Person began his human life in a common stable, and lived in an obscure village for most of his life.  When he was about thirty years old suddenly appeared beside a small stream, where he was baptized, then he began a three-year program which, if true, ought to force every secular thinker to completely rethink everything they have accepted as true.

Modern science is quite certain about chemical processes ? they cannot be reversed, yet Jesus gave the command and dead people were . . .

How does a gecko manage to walk on a ceiling, or across a sheet of smooth plastic? Do they have tiny hooks on their feet? No. Do they use small suction caps? No. Do they squirt something sticky from their toes? No. Do they use a static charge? No. They have dry feet, yet their toes stick fast to whatever surface they walk over ? even polished glass.

The Scientific American magazine, January 2004, ran a small item about gecko's feet, and pointed out that the feet have millions of microscopic hairs, called setae. Each setae is just the head of an even smaller array of nanostructures, called spatulae, which are so small in fact, that they make contact with the molecules of the surface they are placed on top of. A gecko may have about 6.5 million setae, and if all of them were in touch with a surface the gecko could lift 133 kilograms!

Why is the gecko's foot equipped with so much weight-bearing potential, when its body is so small and light? It never needs to hold colossal weights so why would it have the potential to do this? Because it walks over some rough surfaces, and does not always make contact with the whole area of the terrain it touches its feet against. The small area which does make contact is sufficient, and the area which misses the surface is . . .

At present our planet has an orbiting space station, in which people have been living, sometimes continuously for many months.  They have, of course, been tested, to see what the effects of living in micro-gravity are.  Here are some of the results:

Space affects the body in many ways.  One measurable effect is gradual bone loss ? at a rate of 1 to 1.5% every month.  The long term effect of this is similar to osteoporosis, or brittle bones.

Increased risk of kidney stones, which is linked to the slow demineralization of the bones, and also loss of muscle mass.  As the muscles shrink, the general strength and endurance of the body drops, so astronauts may become enfeebled.

Because the heart is not working against normal gravity, it too can become weaker, and suffer from rhythm disturbances.  Because the internal pressures of the body have altered, more fluid is pushed into the head, and less down to the feet and hands.

Because living in space alters the normal circadian cycle, (clearly defined day and night) astronauts can suffer from stress, and loss of sleep, which leads to a lowering of their immunity from infections.

Astronauts also need . . .

The usual school textbook diagram of a human cell and pictures of the Earth from space share something in common ? both make an object of incredible complexity appear simple. Zoom in on either, and a vast range of complicated detail will emerge, however it is easier to understand this detail when it comes to the Earth, than it is with the cell, because cells are made of molecules and atoms, chemicals and proteins and all sorts of other strange things, which we usually never see.

Yet all living things are made from cells. They are the basic building blocks of all life. In the human body they number in the trillions, and all of them communicate with each other like one vast city wired together. At the subatomic level a single cell contains several trillion parts, and all of these parts must work together efficiently, or the cell will either mutate or die. Just as a machine such as a photocopier is made of many separate pieces, all designed to operate with all the other pieces, the human cell is like a machine designed as a whole ? as Hickman (1997 page 43) says, ?Cells are the fabric of life.

Even the most ?primitive? cells are enormously complex structures that form the basis units of all living matter. All tissues and organs are composed of cells. In a human an estimated 60 trillion cells interact, each performing its specialized role in an organized community. In single-celled organisms all the functions of life are performed within the confines of one microscopic package. There is no life without cells.? Bacteria, or germs, are so small we cannot see them without a microscope, yet they need several thousand genes to carry out the functions necessary for life. E. coli has about 4,639,221 nucleotide base pairs, which code for 4,288 genes. Each gene produces an enormously complex protein-making engine. Despite Man's general dislike of bacteria, if just one of them could be enlarged to the size of a football field, it would . . .