The Longest Time

I swear, since I read Darwin's Black Box, by Michael Behe, I am perpetually reminded of the enduring
argument between the evolutionists and the proponents of Intelligent Design.  I am no expert.  I don't understand complex biochemistry.  I am not even familiar with all of the Darwinists' arguments.

I guess I have at least a cursory understanding of their ideas -

1.  Evolution is the result of infinitesimally small, gradual changes which occurred over an extremely long period of time (billions of years).
2.  Creatures and features that exhibited better qualities tended to survive, while organisms with less desirable or less enduring traits faced extinction (natural selection).

Please understand - I believe that BOTH of these premises are not confirmed by science.  True, if you put a tiger in Antarctica, he will freeze, but that doesn't confirm natural selection.

Here is an example of some thoughts I have had.  One of my wives is VERY sensitive about eyebrows.  She notices the eyebrows on everyone she meets - color, thickness, shape, etc.  She notices it all.  So, in the vast, epic process of evolution over billions of years, how did we end up with eyebrows?  Were they some vestigial artifact of our monkey ancestors who needed eye protection while they scampered through the jungle?  OR - did our ancestors who lacked eyebrows slowly die out in favor of the few aberrant hominids who were lucky enough to have them?  I can grasp this idea, but then there are so many other bodily features that seem to serve no real purpose (like pubic hair) - that would never really have come about by this "natural selection" process.  I have hair on my upper lip and on my lower cheeks and chin, but it doesn't grow around my eyes.  Thank God!  Imagine shaving one's temples!  What if you had eyelash hairs that grew all rogue and curly like my chest hair?  How many dead prototype homo sapiens had to go extinct to sort out all these very nuanced hair configurations?  I think the evolutionists get all giddy when some fur-clad corpse surfaces in northern Siberia and some scientist tries to say that the poor blighter lived ten million years ago.  Even when that does happen, they never find eyebrow hairs growing out of the guy's lips. 

I just don't buy it.  The other ridiculous flaw in the evolution argument is the assertion that DNA changes can be triggered by environmental pressures.  Some inquisitive walrus sees a bird soaring aloft and decides it would be fun to take flight, so she looks at her flippers and wills them to turn into wings - NAHH !!  OR she wills the eggs that are already in her ovaries to undergo DNA changes that eventually will result in her offspring being able to get airborne.  It's all stupid.  How can intelligent people spout that kind of lunacy?  I'll tell you how - they don't like God, or they wish He didn't exist.  They hope that He doesn't see their imperfections and that there will be no judgment for their conduct in a hereafter.

I didn't even begin to tackle the complicated stuff like cell division, color vision, blood-clotting and how anyone survived before the birth canal figured out how to stretch to 100 times its usual size to permit live births.

If evolution needed a very long time to accomplish all those things, I think this planet hasn't even been habitable for that long.

Sorry, Ukraine

Russia's recent occupation of the Crimea (in southern Ukraine) is all over the news right now.  Vladimir Putin has sent Russian troops to blockade and occupy every corner of the Crimea, ostensibly because the new regime in Kiev cannot yet be recognized as the legitimate government of the Ukraine.

Russia has broken treaties by invading in this way.  It obviously wants the natural resources of the Crimea.  Many Crimeans are Russian speakers.  Russia has significant interests in the Crimea and in eastern Ukraine.  Putin is smelling unchallenged victory.

American politicians are hand-wringing.  The last time this happened (in Georgia and Ossetia), Putin permanently annexed two provinces.  The world's leaders are not excited about imposing sanctions on Russia, and a military response is unthinkable.

Obama's impotence is legendary, and traditional U.S. allies like Germany seem to have no desire to participate in any measures aimed at punishing Putin.  Why?

Well, over the last decade, Russia has built dozens of natural gas pipelines between its vast reserves in Russia and eager customers in Germany, Belgium and other European nations, supplying up to 50% of the fuel used by several countries.  You have to believe that German politicians received bribes to not impede the construction of these pipelines, so . . . . .

Sorry, Ukraine, your European neighbors won't be making any efforts any time soon to protect your national sovereignty.

The U.S. State Department is threatening sanctions and restrictions on Russia, so Putin is threatening to impose sanctions on U.S. interests in retaliation.  Putin even said Russia might stop using the dollar as its reserve currency in international trade.  Look out !!!  Money talks louder than bullets.  Sorry, Ukraine.