CRSQ Abstracts, Volume 29, Number 2

For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them...

Premium
Area

CRS Quarterly

Abstracts

Selected
Articles

Selected
Notes

Author
Instructions

Subscribe

Order Back
Issues

Volume 29, Number 2
September, 1992
Abstracts

Genetic Information and McCann's Dual Factor Paradigm for Development and Variation

Richard D. Lumsden, Ph.D., Paul C. Anders, B.S., Jeffrey R. Pettera, B.S.

McCann (1991) has developed a model for embryogenesis and other aspects of differentiation that subordinates developmental genetics to a quality he defines as "cellular intelligence." We debate this paradigm in light of currently understood genetic principles and functions, information theory, and the Creationist concept of origins. We contend that "cellular intelligence" is a non-entity, that cells are neither creative nor "intelligent" entities, but are informed entities. The dichotomy between intelligence and information is defined in terms of organizational hierarchy and antecedents.

Since information is not spontaneously generated, the information guiding development and differentiation is hereditary, being archetypical in origin and genomic in location. The ultimate source of that genetic information is Creative intelligence.

Cytodifferentiation is primarily a function of gene regulation and information transduction, according to a variety of tangible constitutive and inducible mechanisms and cellular components. The latter include homeotic genes, gene promoter, repressor, and enhancer elements, receptors, protein kinases, the cytoskeleton, and the dynamic three-dimensional tertiary structure of DNA itself.

The limitations McCann would place on "gene action" respective of phenotypic variation and development are untenable.

The Darwin Conversion Story: An Update

Robert C. Newman, Ph.D.

Since the discussions of Rusch (1975), Rusch and Klotz (1988) and Herbert (1990), new information on the Darwin conversion story has come to light. The earliest version of the story has been located in the Watchman-Examiner and some further biographical information on a possible candidate for Lady Hope is presented.

Varves --The First "Absolute" Chronology

Part 1--Historical Development and the Question of Annual Deposition

Michael J. Oard, M.S.

Varves have been used to set up the first "absolute" chronology, which significantly exceeds the Scriptural time scale from Genesis. Observations of modern glaciers and recent climate simulations show that the ice sheets during the Ice Age melted rapidly, much faster than indicated by varves. A further investigation of varves demonstrates that other mechanisms deposit varve-like couplets in a short time. Therefore, "varves" are not necessarily annual. A method to distinguish between annual depositional sequences and other mechanisms is difficult to apply.

Magnificent Miracle: The Virgin Conception of Jesus Christ

Albert S. Anderson, M.D.

This study is an attempt to understand from a cytogenetic perspective the physical aspects of the means God might have used to accomplish the miracle of the virgin conception of Jesus Christ. It distinguishes three separate but related factors pertinent to the physical aspects of this miracle: (1) Man's fall and inheritance of original sin, (2) The second-law-of-thermodynamics curse of death and (3) The precise gametogenic definition of the seed of the woman. Although this study postulates a physical component to our sin nature and its inheritance, it does not propose, or even imply, that our sin nature is purely genetic or merely physical. From these considerations, a possible cytogenetic mechanism is described whereby the physical aspects of the virgin birth of Jesus Christ could have contributed to His being both fully God and fully man, sinless, yet able to die as the perfect Sacrifice to save us from our sins.