Category Archives: News

Information Enigma: 21-minute video explains intelligent design

The video is here:

I have read and listened and watched a lot of material on intelligent design, but I have never seen so much value packed into such a short lecture. I really hope you’ll watch this and that it’s helpful to you.

Summary:

  • the big question when discussing the origin of life: where did the information in living systems come from?
  • Until 530 million years ago, the oceans were largely devoid of life
  • In a 10 million year period, many new forms of animal life emerged
  • New biological forms of life require new information
  • the discovery of DNA shows that living systems work because cells have information that allows them to build the components of molecular machines: cell types, proteins, etc.
  • can random mutation and natural selection create new functional information?
  • normally, random mutations tend to degrade the functionality of information, e.g. – randomly changing symbols in an applications code does not usually introduce useful new functions, it usually renders what is there non-functional
  • the majority of possible sequences will NOT have functions, so random mutations will more likely give you non-functional code, rather than functional code
  • example: a bicycle lock  with 4 numbers has many possible sequences for the 4 numbers, and only one of them has unlock functionality, the rest have no functionality
  • if you have lots of time, then you might be able to guess the combination, but if the lock as has 10 billion numbers, and only one combination that unlocks, you can spend your whole life trying to unlock it and won’t succeed
  • how likely is it to arrive at a functional protein or gene by chance? Is it more like the 4-dial lock (can be done with lots of time) or the 10 billion dial lock (amount of time required exceeds the time available)?
  • the probability is LOW because there is only one sequence of numbers that has unlock function
  • consider a short protein of 150 amino acids has 10 to the 195th power possible sequences
  • if many of these sequences of amino acides had biological function, then it might be easier to get to one by random mutation and selection than it is with a lock that only unlocks for ONE sequence
  • how many of the possible sequences have biological function?
  • Thanks to research done by Douglas Axe, we now know that the number of functional amino acid sequences for even a short protein is incredibly small…
  • Axe found that the odds of getting a functional sequence of amino acids that will fold and have biological function is 1 in 10 to the 77th power
  • Is that number too improbable to reach by chance? well, there are 10 to 65th atoms in the entire Milky Way galaxy… so yes, this is a very improbable outcome
  • can random genetic mutations search through all the sequences in order to find the one in 10 to the 77th power one that has biological function? It depends on how much guessers we have and how many guesses we get in the time available
  • even with the entire 3.5 billion year history of life on Earth, only about 10 to the 40th organisms have ever lived, which far smaller fraction of the 10 to the 77th total sequences
  • even with a very fast mutation rate, you would not be able to reach a functional protein even with all that time, and even with all those organisms

I was once having a discussion with a woman about the research that Axe did at the Cambridge University lab. He published four articles in the Journal of Molecular Biology. I held out one of the papers to her and showed her the numbers. She said over and over “I hate the Discovery Institute! I hate the Discovery Institute!” Well, yeah, but you can’t make the Journal of Molecular Biology go away with hating the Discovery Institute. JMB is peer-reviewed, and this was experimental evidence – not a theory, not a hypothesis.

We have been blessed by the Creator and Designer of the universe in this time and place with overwhelming evidence – an abundance of riches. For those who have an open mind, this is what you’ve been waiting for to make your decision. For the naturalists who struggle so mightily to block out the progress of experimental science, they’ll need to shout louder and shut their eyes tighter and push harder to block their ears. Maybe if they keep screaming “Star Trek” and “Star Wars” over and over to themselves, they will be able to ignore the real science a little longer.

Is David French right to say that teachers who talk to 5-year-olds about sex aren’t “groomers”?

Sometimes, I get really annoyed with moral relativists for being too compassionate with predators. Whenever I feel like that, a trip to The Federalist to read their amazing women authors fixes me right up. They have so many great authors there. Right now, I am reading everything I can find by Elle Reynolds, Kylee Zempel, Jordan Boyd, Margot Cleveland and Joy Pullmann.

This article from the splendid Kylee Zempel at The Federalist is a must-read. I loved every word!

She writes:

The ranks of progressives and unmistakably pro-LGBT media — who spend their days throwing around insulting hyperbole like “Nazi,” “fascist,” and “silence is violence” — are being joined by so-called conservatives who’ve taken it upon themselves to lecture those to the right of them that ackshuuully it’s not appropriate to call the kids’ entertainment creators and state-sanctioned educators who insist on sexually indoctrinating 5-year-olds “groomers.”

Who are the so-called conservatives?

Here’s David French, who used to be conservative:

David French Groomer

And this guy from National Review, which used to be conservative:

National Review Groomer

Kylee continues:

Have the “conservatives” resisting the use of the “groomer” label forgotten about the concerted effort by gender activists to host drag-queen story hours for little children in taxpayer-funded libraries or “drag-tastic” camps at museums? Have they not seen the pornographic books introducing kids to gay sex and masturbation?

How about government schoolteachers’ documented cult-like allegiance to gay pride? The cover-up of sexual assault resulting from trans bathroom policies? Or the coaxing of children into sex confusion and dangerous gender-bending interventions and then hiding it from their parents?

Have they not heard stories of young people who internalized backward notions about human sexuality during their formative years, were utterly failed by every institution that should have helped them correct course, then underwent destructive procedures that left them full of regret, just disfigured shells of the unique and beautiful people they were created to be?

How about tongue-in-cheek confessions from choruses of gay men that they’ll “convert your children”? Or even manipulation by the president of the United States that those who don’t abide by LGBT orthodoxy “don’t see” and “don’t respect” transgender people and that so-called gender affirmation is the best way to keep kids “safe and healthy”?

There’s a word for adults who build trust with children then condition them in sexual matters without their parents’ consent or knowledge in order to manipulate them for their own pleasure: It’s groomer.

Kylee goes on to quote a list of grooming behaviors from the American Bar Association website. Among them, she finds exactly what the teachers are banned from doing, e.g. – “discussing sexually explicit information under the guise of education.”

She adds:

According to the website ChildHelp, which seeks to prevent child abuse, “grooming includes … gaining trust and access … playing a role in the child’s life, isolating the child, [and] creating secrecy around the relationship.” It goes on to say that signs of grooming include… “talking about sexual topics that are not age appropriate.”

So yes, this is a texbook definition of grooming. David French disagrees, but remember, in 2019, David French called “drag queen story hour” in schools “a blessing of liberty“. This isn’t his first time deflecting criticism of LGBT activists grooming children for sex with adults. He isn’t trying to protect children from predators. He isn’t a good man. He has given up on the male responsibility to protect the weak from predators. He would prefer to virtue signal to the secular left instead.

Open Secrets Teacher Unions
Open Secrets Teacher Unions

You have to focus on what groomer allies write about. They aren’t writing anything against the secular left. They aren’t writing about fathers losing their children to teachers who trans kids. They aren’t writing about parents being arrested for mis-gendering their children. They aren’t writing about the far-left LGBT radicalism of teachers. They aren’t writing about the labeling of parents who dissent from secular left indoctrination as “domestic terrorists”. Etc.

In every case, the fake conservatives have their sights firmly set on ordinary conservative parents, and their children. They want to protect the places where Democrats wield power – like public schools. And when the state comes along to seize the children of Christians, because those parents were supportive enough of LGBT rights, you can bet that the false conservatives will support that, too.

I’ve been writing about what the secular left is doing with children in the schools, divorce courts, etc. I also supported the candidate that pro-life groups endorsed in 2020. I’m a real conservative. David French is not a real conservative. Remember how he sided with far-left public schools against parents. He’s more interested in defending grooming of children for child abuse than your rights as a parent. Can we just judge him by his actions?

Is the Biden administration good for evangelical Christians?

I remember during the election campaign, a whole group of very charismatic, respected Christian leaders all warned us against the scourge of Trump and his mean tweets. We were assured that it was more important to vote for elected officials based on how they made us feel, and whether they made people like us. And Biden was going to do that. Let’s see what results these Christian leaders got us.

Transgenderism

Here’s the latest news from the Daily Signal:

The Department of Health and Human Services recently released an order that said it would be adding federal protections to ensure “transgender youth receive the care they need.”

During a video commemorating the “Transgender Day of Visibility” and the HHS order, President Joe Biden lashed out at states that are looking to prevent “care,” as the cultural left defines it, from being extended to children who believe they are not the biological sex they were assigned at birth.

“The onslaught of anti-transgender state laws attacking you and your families is simply wrong,” Biden said. “This administration is standing up for you against all these hateful bills. And we’re committed to advancing transgender equality in the classroom, on the playing field, at work, in our military and our housing and health care systems.”

In addition to the HHS order, the Justice Department put out a memo to state attorneys general putting them on notice for lawsuits if their states go ahead and prevent “gender-affirming care.”

What’s “gender-affirming care”? Well Dr. Jay Richards, famous Christian apologist and scholar, explains:

  • Social Affirmation: Adopting gender-affirming hairstyles, clothing, name, gender pronouns, and restrooms and other facilities. When: At any age or stage. Reversible.

  • Puberty Blockers: Using certain types of hormones to pause pubertal development. When: During puberty. Reversible.
  • Hormone Therapy: Testosterone hormones for those who were assigned female at birth; Estrogen hormones for those who were assigned male at birth. When: Early adolescence onward. Partially reversible.
  • Gender-Affirming Surgeries: “Top” surgery—to create male-typical chest shape or enhance breasts. “Bottom” surgery—surgery on genitals or reproductive organs. Facial feminization or other procedures. When: Typically used in adulthood or case-by-case in adolescence. Not reversible.

Would the social affirmation be coerced by the government? Would all this “care” be paid for by Christian taxpayers? Are these policies worse than “mean tweets”?

Well, we have to assume that the people who obsessed over “mean tweets” during the 2020 campaign agree with Biden about coercing social approval and taxpayers paying for “care”: Russell Moore, Beth Moore, David French, John Piper, Tim Keller, Bob Mendelsohn, David Platt, Matt Chandler, etc. They think that Biden’s LGBT policies are no big deal, but mean tweets must be avoided. After all, elections are about feeling good, and being seen as virtuous. So, mean tweets really are more important than these policies.

Foreign policy

Here’s another article from the Daily Signal, this time about foreign policy:

Congress is considering several bills that would warp how the U.S. applies sanctions—through the Global Magnitsky Act—against foreigners who violate human rights. The changes would redefine human rights to enforce the left’s abortion-and-gender agenda. That would hobble the fight against real abuses of human rights.

[…]In the last few decades, the left has invoked human rights to promote abortion and policies based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The Biden administration… often uses human rights language to pressure other countries to decriminalize “status or conduct” based on sexual orientation or gender identity. President Joe Biden issued a presidential memorandum in February 2021 that directed agencies of the U.S. government to “combat the criminalization by foreign governments of LGBTQI+ status or conduct” and to fight “discrimination, homophobia, transphobia, and intolerance.”

Again, we have to assume that the people who obsessed over “mean tweets” during the 2020 campaign agree with Biden about promoting abortion and LGBT activism in foreign policy: Russell Moore, Beth Moore, David French, John Piper, Tim Keller, Bob Mendelsohn, David Platt, Matt Chandler, etc.

Conscience rights

During the 2020 election, conservatives said that Democrat legislation like the Equality Act and the Women’s Health Protection Act would hurt Christians in areas like religious liberty and right to life. But Evangelicals for Biden told us that “mean tweets” were worse than this legislation.

Now we get this story, from Daily Caller:

Medical professionals are suing President Joe Biden’s administration over a mandate requiring doctors to perform transgender surgeries in violation of their religious beliefs or medical judgement.

Represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, the American College of Pediatricians, the Catholic Medical Association and an OB-GYN doctor specializing in adolescent care filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Chattanooga Thursday against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

[…]The two medical associations represent 3,000 doctors and health care professionals, ADF said in a press release.

I’m just imagining myself being in a position where the secular left government forced me to violate my conscience. It makes me sick.

Abortion subsidies

I noticed that Life News – a pro-life web site – is pretty upset about Biden’s policies so far.

They write:

Joe Biden is rapidly becoming the most pro-abortion president in U.S. history as he takes multiple actions to expand abortions and force taxpayers to subsidize them.

On Wednesday, the Biden administration released a rule that will force taxpayers to fund the abortion industry through the Title X family planning program.

The rule, issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will end a pro-life regulation that President Donald Trump put in place to ensure Title X grants are not used to subsidize the killing of unborn babies in abortions.

Pro-life groups like Susan B. Anthony List and National Right to Life considered Trump to be the most pro-life president ever. I even wrote about all the specific actions, policies and nominations he did to help the pro-life cause. But did any of that matter to Evangelicals for Biden? No. Because mean tweets got them in trouble with their Democrat atheist friends in New York and Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. So mean tweets had to go – whatever the cost.