|
For
in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and
all that is in them...
|
     |
Copyright © 1997, 2000 by the Creation Research Society. All rights reserved.
Volume 34, Number 4
March, 1998
Abstracts
A Quantitative Approach to Baraminology With Examples from the Catarrhine Primates
D. Ashley Robinson and David P. Cavanaugh
Quantitative methods for identifying holobaramins have yet to be introduced into the field of baraminology. In this report we examine some quantitative methods which may be applied to a variety of biological data to empirically estimate the identity of holobaramins. Organismal relationships are based on a measure of dissimilarity called baraminic distance. A set of diagnostic statistics is described that allows the researcher to assess the completeness, variation, resolving power, and associations within a data set. Bootstrapped dendrograms are constructed to identify clusters of organisms, which are subsequently evaluated for phylogenetic discontinuity by comparing baraminic distance variation, and by correlating sets of baraminic distances. Using this approach both related monobaraminic groups and unrelated apobaraminic groups can be identified. The described methods are illustrated using data from humans and nonhuman primates, a group assumed by baraminologists to be polybaraminic. We have found that baraminic distances based on hemoglobin amino acid sequences, 12S-rRNA sequences, and chromosomal data were largely ineffective for identifying the Human holobaramin. Baraminic distances based on ecological and morphological characters, however, were quite reliable for distinguishing humans from nonhuman primates.
Diet, Health and Evolution
Jerry Bergman
Evidence is accumulating that food is critically important medicine and that the wrong diet is the major cause of death in the western world. This paper reviews the empirical research on nutrition. The conclusion is that a Biblical diet high in fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts and low in fat and red meat is critical for good health. Historically, physicians have tended to downgrade the importance of diet in health, an attitude which began changing with the discovery that vitamin C could cure scurvy and vitamin B1 supplements could cure beriberi.
Nutrition is now seen as so critically important that it is often a major adjunct in the curing of disease and is recognized as critically important in the prevention of disease. The high level of compatibility between the food made by plants and the nutritional needs of humans is discussed from both the creationistís and evolutionistís standpoint. It is concluded that the creationistsí explanation, that vegetables with grains and fruits and nuts were specifically designed for human consumption, fits the evidence better than the evolutionary assumption.
Flood Geology Sheds Light on Unaweep Canyon Mystery
Michael Shaver
The topography of West Central Colorado provides challenges for historical geology. The scale of features necessitates a cataclysmic process in order to accommodate a young earth chronology. Implications for current creationist theories regarding the rapid formation of the Grand Canyon are described. Steam superposition at Unaweep Canyon is an area for creationist research. This involves issues regarding the incision of Unaweep Canyon into crystalline rock and the time of canyon formation. The author proposes multiple episodes of drainage of flood waters.
The Big Sky Paving Gravel Deposit Cascade County, Montana
Peter Klevberg
Gravel-capped buttes, benches, and pediments are common in Montana east of the continental divide. One such gravel deposit near Great Falls, Montana, has been extensively mined by Big Sky Paving, Inc. Gravel fabric, sorting, bedding, load structures, and an associated clay rhythmite unit within the gravel deposit are described in this paper. A brief summary of traditional genitive explanations is presented. However, the characteristics of the Big Sky Paving deposit appear to be at variance with these uniformitarian explanations. A biblical approach to earth history provides superior explanations for the depositional features of this deposit.
© Copyright 2001-2013, Creation
Research Society. All rights reserved.
Copyright & Permissions