Refuting Creationism - What Did The Denisovans Ever Do For Us?

Denisova Cave

By Демин Алексей Барнаул - Own work,
CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

Denisovan Girl Reconstruction (Smithsonian)

Artwork by Mayaan Harel, Mayaan Visuals.

New insights into the Denisovans – the new hominin group that interbred with modern day humans - News & Events | Trinity College Dublin

In marked contrast to the childish creationist notion of a single founder couple being magically created without ancestors 6-10,000 years ago, evidence is growing that one ancestral species that contributes some of its DNA to modern non-African humans, the Denisovans, were once widespread especially in Southeast Asia and may have reached South America, or at least people carrying some Denisovan DNA may have done, but not via the traditional route - Siberia, Beringia and Alaska - followed by later Homo sapiens.

My understanding is that they and Neanderthals were most likely direct descendants of H. erectus that migrated out of Africa some 2 million years ago and gave rise to the Denisovans in Eastern Eurasia and Neanderthals in Western Eurasia. These two then interbreed with the H. sapiens migrants as they came up out of Africa and spread throughout Eurasia and down to Melanesia, Austronesia and Oceania.

So, rather than a single ancestral couple magically created out of dirt, without ancestors, as creationists believe, modern non-African humans don't have an ancestral couple, they don't even have a single ancestral species but are the result of hybridization between at least three ancestral species.

There is also evidence, according to two researchers from Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, that there may have been several regional populations of Denisovans, each of which contributed to the Homo sapiens genome at different times. As with other hominin species, they were diversifying as they spread in what may have been the beginnings of classical allopatric speciation.

The Denisovan DNA that was retained by H. sapiens as they migrated into the different environments in Asia was that which gave them an advantage, such as the ability to survive in the low oxygen partial pressure of the Tibetan Plateau - something that the Tibetans have inherited - immunity to certain endemic pathogens and an improved ability to keep their body temperature up during cold weather by burning stored body fats - something that Innuits have inherited.

Refuting Creationism - The Japanese People Didn't Notice Noah's Genocidal Flood!

Representation of Jomo-period life in Japan in the shadow of Mount Fuji

AI-generated (ChatGPT4o)

Human remains from the Yayoi period, approximately 2,300 years ago, from which DNA was extracted.

Map of Japan showing Sakhalin (far north) and the Kuril and Ryukyu Islands

Google Map

Traces of ancient immigration patterns to Japan found in 2000-year-old genome | SCHOOL OF SCIENCE THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO

Being parochial Bronze Age pastoralists who knew about nothing and nowhere that was more than a day or two's walk from their hill pastures in Canaan, those who made up the Hebrew creation myths could not possibly have been aware that there were other cultures in far-away places like China, Korea and Japan, which had ancient histories going way back before the myth-makers thought Earth was created, and which were unscathed by an global flood at the time in which they set that tale.

Had they been aware of them, they could have made up slightly more plausible myths with a more realistic timeline, instead of requiring their believers to try to compress everything that's happened in the entire 14-billion-year-old Universe into 10,000 years.

But how could they have done so when they had no-one to teach them the real history of the planet and the people living on it? All they had was their own limited imagination and a handful if inherited myths from neighbouring culture, like Egypt and Sumeria, for theirs was a backward, illiterate culture from the fearful infancy of our species, dependent on oral traditions and superstitions.

How could they possibly have known, for example, that a population of humans had been more or less isolated for about 6,500 years, ending at about the time the myth-makers believed Earth was made out of nothing by magic, complete with a dome over it to cover the small, flat place they called home? They would have known nothing about immigration from China or from the Korean Peninsula into the Japanese archipelago that brought this period of isolation to an end and probably resulted in the present-day population of Japan.

So, of course, they saw nothing wrong with inventing a tale about a genocidal flood killing everyone apart from 8 related survivors, or of building a tower to reach above the dome or about a panicking god making them all speak different languages so they couldn't work in cooperative groups any more, and yet, if their tale is to be believed, the descendants of those few survivors, all speaking different languages, migrated to places like China, Korea and Japan where they all adopted the local language and writing that had been used for several thousand years, forgot all about Noah and his flood and invented new gods and religions, whereas the myth-makers of Canaan remembered it all word-perfect in every detail...

So, how do we know the record they left was wrong?

Refuting Creationism - How Mars Became Unsuitable For Life As We Know It - 3 Billion Years Before 'Creation Week'

Artist's concept of an early Mars with liquid water (blue areas) on its surface.

NASA/MAVEN/The Lunar and Planetary Institute

self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover

By NASA - http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19920, Public Domain, Link

NASA: New Insights into How Mars Became Uninhabitable - NASA Science

The Middle Eastern Bronze Age pastoralists who made up the Hebrew creation myths that later found themselves bound up in a book declared to be the inerrant word of a god, were probably aware of the planet Mars.

Certainly, the Sumerians, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans were and even named it after one of their gods - Nergal, Her Dashur, Ares and Mars, respectively. Because of its red colour, it was associated with blood and, by extension, war and violence.

But of course, the authors of Genesis thought it was stuck to the dome over their small flat planet, so they assumed it was made during 'Creation Week' and so had as little knowledge of its history as they had of their own planet - i.e., none at all. Had they realised Mars had water forming oceans, lakes and rivers 3 billion years earlier (they didn't even have a word for a number so large), they could have made up a slightly more plausible creation myth, at least as far as a time-scale is concerned.

But of course, as a small red light stuck to the dome, they had no more idea than fly how it got there, why it looked red or what it could tell them about planetary orbits. Although they don't even give it a mentions, presumably they must have had some inkling that it was different to the other little lights as it 'wandered' over the undersurface of the dome, like some of the other little lights - magical mystery, probably involving angels or other magic spirits, no doubt.

But what was it exactly that changed Mars from being a wet planet, with an atmosphere and probably suitable for life to evolve on, to being a cold, dry, unsuitable, even hostile place, where life as we know it could not exist, certainly on its surface or as advanced multicellular organisms.

Silly Bible - How The Description of the Universe in Genesis was Laugably Naïve

This artist’s impression of a planet-forming disk surrounding a young star shows a swirling "pancake" of hot gas and dust from which planets form. Using the James Webb Space Telescope, researchers obtained detailed images showing the layered, conical structure of disk winds – streams of gas blowing out into space.

National Astronomical Observatory of Japan

Winds of change: James Webb Space Telescope reveals elusive details in young star systems | University of Arizona News

Source

I keep returning to the contrast between how the universe is described in Genesis and how it really is as described by science because it illustrates better than almost anything else in the Bible, the naivety and sheer ignorance of the authors. A creator god who wanted us to understand the magnificence of its creation would surely have done a better job of explaining it than to have described it as a small flat planet with a dome over it to keep the water above the sky out, with the sun, moon and stars as lights stuck to the dome.

This description is so far removed from reality that none of it can plausibly be described as allegorical or metaphorical, or even a simplistic description intended to inform simple, uneducated people incapable of understanding anything more complicated. It is simply and laughably wrong; but exactly what parochial pastoralists might think from their limited perspective.

And these same parochial, naïve people came up with the notion of gods to explain the world around them whose working were so mysterious as to look like magic - and magic requires a magician. Where better to locate that magician? Above the dome over the Earth, obviously.

And so religions were built on the best guesses of people who knew no better; people whose best guess was that the Universe consisted of a small flat planet with a dome over it to keep the water above the sky out; people who saw no contradiction in describing the creation of light before the creation of the source of light, or the creation of green plants before the sun!

But how could they, with no technology more complicated than a potter's wheel and the visual acuity of the human eye, possibly know what was really going on as they looked up at the 'little lights stuck to the dome'? How could they possibly have been aware that this Earth is in orbit round the sun, that the sun is but one of half a trillion suns in one of half a trillion galaxies, all existing in a vast, expanding universe in which more than 3000 new stars are being born every second, most of them with an accretion disc from which planets will eventually coalesce?

Had they done so, and had they told us about it, then, and only then, would the notion that a creator god was inspiring them to explain the magnificence of its creation be even a plausible explanation for how they knew that stuff. As it is, all we are left to explain is why they were so ignorant of reality that they needed to invent stories to fill the gaps in their understanding, and of course, the gods they created exactly fitted those gaps, just as todays gods are precisely tailored to fill the gaps in the understanding of ignorant people.

So, how do we know they got things so badly wrong?

Refuting Creationism - If We Discovered The Bible Today We Could Date It's Authorship By The Scientific Illiteracy In It

An artist’s rendering of what’s called an active galactic nucleus at the center of NGC 4151. The galaxy’s black hole sits at the center, immediately surrounded by an accretion disk shown in blue.

Image credit: JAXA

This article is best read on a laptop, desktop or tablet

XRISM has shown that the accretion disk surrounding a black hole in an active galactic nucleus is warped, confirming earlier hypotheses reflected in this artist’s conception from 2015.

Image credit: International Center for Radio Astronomy Research

First data from XRISM space mission provides new perspective on supermassive black holes | University of Michigan News

I've often remarked on how the stark difference between their laughably childish description of the Universe in the Bible and the reality science is revealing, illustrates the scientific illiteracy of its parochial authors, and so gives the lie to claims that it was written or inspired by a creator god.

They were writing with the knowledge and understanding of Bronze Age pastoralists - which is hardly surprising, since that's exactly what they were. They only knew of the small area around the Canaanite Hills, so nothing that was more than a day or two's walk for them was included, which is why it seemed to them like a small flat planet with a dome over it, and fixed to the dome were the sun, moon and stars; stars being mere small points of light and only those that were visible to the naked eye.

So, just imagine what they would have made of the information if some time traveler from today went back and told them about black holes and the centre of a galaxy 120,000 light years across and containing a billion suns with planets orbiting them! How could they have comprehended the idea of mass bending space-time or something smaller than a grain of sand weighing the same as a million suns?

What would they have made of distances so great that it takes light 120,000 years to travel its length? To them, light was instantaneous; it mattered not whether it came from the sun or the campfire, and the sun was merely a lamp hanging from the dome over the earth. What on Earth was this nonsense about the sun being really big and Earth going round it, things weighing millions of times more than the sun or light taking more time than they thought there had been to travel from one place to another?

They knew nothing of laws of motion and how forces make things move, so they had no concept of gravity. They walked on Earth because they didn't float above it, and they couldn't fly. Only gods and supernatural beings could travel up and down at will. So, what on Earth would mass causing gravity and gravity being an attractive force mean?

Black holes would have been simply beyond their comprehension and outside their experience of the world.

So, of course, they could have included nothing of any of this stuff in the stories they invented to explain things they didn't understand. Had they done so, we might have had some cause to think something must have told them. As it was, they wrote tales that illustrated their scientific illiteracy because they had no option but to do so. They were scientifically illiterate by today's standards.

Refuting Creationism - "The Universe is Much Bigger Than Our Prophets Said, Grander, More Subtle, More Elegant..."

ESO telescope captures the most detailed infrared map ever of our Milky Way | ESO

PR Image eso2413a

This Picture of the Week shows a new view of NGC 3603 (left) and NGC 3576 (right), two stunning nebulas imaged with ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA). This infrared image peers through the dust in these nebulas, revealing details hidden in optical images. NGC 3603 and NGC 3576 are 22,000 and 9,000 lightyears away from us, respectively. Inside these extended clouds of dust and gas, new stars are born, gradually changing the shapes of the nebulas via intense radiation and powerful winds of charged particles. Given their proximity, astronomers have the opportunity to study the intense star formation process that is as common in other galaxies but harder to observe due to the vast distances.

The contrast between reality and the Bible's description of it can scarcely be more stark than that between the description of the Universe as a small flat planet with a dome over it as described in Genesis 1: 3-18, and the reality of the universe as it's being revealed in ever greater detail by science.

It's stretching credulity to breaking point to pretend the Bronze Age pastoralists knew full well how large and magnificent the Universe really is, with its countless trillions of galaxies each with half a trillion stars or more, but chose to describe it in some metaphorical way instead, complete with stars that shake loose from the dome and fall to earth during earthquakes. That's not allegorical; it's a mistake from assuming that meteorites burning up in the atmosphere were falling stars - an easy mistake to make if you know neither what stars are nor what meteorites are.

And like the description of meteorites, their description of the rest of it is based on guesses made from a position of ignorance, and an underlying assumption that somewhere up there above it all were magical, superhuman figures creating it all and making it work.

Refuting Creationism - Tiny Shells Hold a Record of Sea Temperature Changes 10,000 Years Before 'Creation Week'

Earth's last ice age may provide crucial insights into the future behavior of El Niño events,

Foraminifera fossils

Ice age clues point to more extreme weather patterns in our future | University of Arizona News

With so much of Earth history occurring before creationism's little god allegedly created a small flat planet with a dome over it in the Middle East, it's useful to be able to recover data on global events such as climate change and sea temperature changes that can be projected into the future to predict what changes we can expect.

The 'El Niño' is a climate phenomenon that has a profound effect on world climate. It occurs every 2-7 years and is characterized by a warming of the sea surface in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean. It changes ocean currents, atmospheric humidity and rainfall, and jet streams that drive weather patterns, so understanding when these events occurred in the past and mapping them onto known climate patterns can help us predict future weather patterns.

Now scientist at the University of Arizona have developed a model for predicting how El Niño affects global weather patterns which needs to be validated against actual data, so they have analyzed the record of sea temperature change recorded in deposits of tiny foraminifera shells in ocean sediment, going back to the last Ice Age, 10,000 years before creationists think Earth existed.

Of course, the reason was not to refute creationism - it does that incidentally - but to provide a longer history on which to base future predictions than are currently available.

Refuting Creationism - How, Properly Understood, A Biblical Myth Probably Refutes Creationism.

A violent flood of the Kosi River in the Purniya district, Bihar, India.

Image: Shutterstock

Wylausing State Park in Southern Wisconsin where the Wisconsin River flows into the Mississippi.

Breakthrough study from IU scientists predicts catastrophic river shifts that threaten millions worldwide: College of Arts + Sciences : Indiana University

According to researchers from Indiana University, Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin and the University of Minnesota, rivers can and do frequently change their course in an event known as an avulsion. The initial stage of this process is often a catastrophic flood costing thousands of lives and billions of dollars.

The authors speculate that these events could be the origin of numerous flood myths throughout history, especially the history of people living in flood plains of major river systems such as the Tigris and Euphrates on which the Epic of Gilgamesh was based.

The Suncook River, New Hampshire, 2006

The Epic of Gilgamesh, which even in its original form was never more than a story about a local flood, is believed to be the source of the Hebrew origin myth of Noah's Ark.

Ironically, these catastrophic avulsion events, of which the Noah's Ark myth is probably a result, are reminders of just how hostile this planet can suddenly become, giving the lie to parochial creationists assertions that Earth is perfectly designed for life (especially their life). Sudden major river avulsions impact dramatically on people living peacefully in river valleys where soil fertility and water can create the impression of a nicely ordered and well-designed place for life to exist.

Refuting Creationism - A Badly Thought Out Tale In The Bible - Or, What Did The Animals Eat When They Got Off The Ark?

Long-lasting volcanism has significantly warmed the climate in the Earth's history, which in turn has reduced the climate-regulating effect of vegetation over millions of years.

Image: Mateusz / Adobe Stock

Animals leaving the Ark - with nothing for the herbivores to eat.

Millions of years for plants to recover from global warming | ETH Zurich

A newly-published paper in Science shows how plants take millions of years to recover from catastrophic climate change, yet the silly Noah's Ark tale in the Bible, not only has plants magically reappearing after 'all living substance' on the face of the Earth had been destroyed (Genesis 7:22) (did the authors not think plants were living things?), but then continuing as though nothing had happened.

Plants, of course, are at the bottom of the food pyramid since they are eaten by the animals that the carnivores eat. This is a matter of common sense, yet the authors of the Bible myth seem to have assumed that when they got off the Ark, ecosystems and food pyramids would have resumed where they left off a year earlier.

The authors were, of course, ignorant of almost all biology save that which they needed to find the best places to graze their cattle as the seasons progressed. They even seem to have assumed that 'living' and 'breathing' were synonyms because 'life' could be breathed into nostrils. (Genesis 2:7; 7:22).

How does modern Christian apologetics account for the recovery of ecosystems post 'Flood', during which all living substance had supposedly been destroyed, in view of our understanding of the dynamics of ecosystems? Modern Christian apologetics approaches the question of ecosystem recovery after the biblical Flood from various angles, often depending on the interpretive framework of Genesis—whether the Flood is understood as a literal historical event, a localized flood, or a theological metaphor. Here are some ways these issues are addressed in light of our current understanding of ecosystems:

1. Literal Interpretation with Divine Intervention
   • Divine Power and Miracles: Apologists who take the Flood narrative literally often argue that the recovery of ecosystems post-Flood was facilitated by divine intervention. They propose that God, who orchestrated the Flood, also supernaturally accelerated the repopulation and restoration of ecosystems. This might involve miraculous regrowth of plant life, rapid diversification of species from the animals that were preserved on the Ark, and an extraordinary rate of ecological recovery that is not bound by natural processes as we understand them.
   • Preservation of Genetic Diversity: Some argue that the animals on the Ark carried a rich genetic diversity, allowing for rapid adaptation and speciation after the Flood. This would theoretically allow for a swift recovery of ecosystems as species rapidly filled ecological niches.
   
   
2. Localized Flood Interpretation
   • Regional Impact: Another approach is to interpret the Flood as a localized event rather than a global one. This view posits that the Flood affected only a specific geographical area, possibly the Mesopotamian region. In this case, the surrounding ecosystems, untouched by the Flood, could have acted as a source for the repopulation of the affected area. This view harmonizes more easily with modern scientific understanding of ecosystems and their resilience after localized natural disasters.
   • Surviving Pockets of Life: Some apologists suggest that not all life was destroyed by the Flood, even within the affected area. Small pockets of life could have survived in higher elevations or isolated environments, providing a basis for the recovery of ecosystems after the waters receded.
   
   
3. Theological and Allegorical Interpretation
   • Non-Literal Reading: For those who interpret the Flood story allegorically or theologically rather than historically, the question of ecosystem recovery is not a pressing issue. In this view, the story of the Flood is primarily a moral or spiritual lesson rather than a literal account of historical events. The focus is on the relationship between God and humanity, rather than the specific logistics of animal and plant survival.
   • Symbolic Meaning of the Flood: This approach emphasizes the Flood as a symbol of renewal and new beginnings, rather than an event that necessitates a scientific explanation. The recovery of ecosystems in this context is seen as part of the broader theological theme of renewal and restoration.
   
   
4. Young Earth Creationism
   • Post-Flood Hyper-Evolution: Young Earth Creationists often propose that a form of rapid, post-Flood evolution occurred, where the animals released from the Ark quickly diversified into the myriad species we see today. This theory, sometimes called "hyper-evolution," is invoked to explain how ecosystems could recover so quickly despite the apparent bottleneck in species diversity that the Ark would have represented.
5. Scientific Considerations
   • Ecosystem Resilience: Apologists may also point out that ecosystems have an inherent resilience and can recover from catastrophic events more quickly than expected. They may draw analogies to modern ecological recoveries, such as the regrowth of forests after a volcanic eruption or the return of life after the last Ice Age, to argue that the Earth could have rebounded after the Flood.
   • Migration and Colonization: The possibility of animals and plants migrating from less-affected areas to repopulate devastated regions is also considered. Modern ecology demonstrates that ecosystems can re-establish themselves through processes of colonization and succession.
6. Integration with Scientific Theories
   • Day-Age and Progressive Creationism: Some apologists integrate the Flood narrative with scientific understanding by viewing the "days" of creation as long periods of time (Day-Age Theory) or by suggesting that God guided the process of creation and recovery in a way that aligns with evolutionary principles (Progressive Creationism). This allows for a more metaphorical understanding of the Flood and lessens the tension between scripture and modern ecological science.

In summary, modern Christian apologetics addresses the recovery of ecosystems post-Flood through a variety of perspectives, ranging from literal divine intervention to non-literal, theological interpretations. Each approach seeks to reconcile the biblical narrative with contemporary ecological knowledge, though the degree of reconciliation varies depending on the interpretive framework.

Doesn't the need to include so much additional information not present in the Bible, cast doubt on the truth of the biblical account?

The need to include additional information to explain or reconcile the biblical account of the Flood with modern scientific understanding can indeed raise questions about the nature and interpretation of the Bible. Whether this casts doubt on the truth of the biblical account depends on one's perspective on biblical interpretation, the nature of religious texts, and the relationship between faith and science. Here are a few key considerations:

1. Different Interpretative Approaches
   • Literalism vs. Non-Literalism: For those who take a literal approach to the Bible, the need to introduce extra-biblical explanations (like rapid post-Flood speciation or divine intervention in ecosystem recovery) may seem necessary to defend the text's historical accuracy. However, this can raise doubts if these explanations appear contrived or inconsistent with observable reality.
   • Theological Interpretation: Non-literalists, on the other hand, may argue that the Bible is not intended to be a scientific textbook and that its truth lies in its spiritual and moral teachings rather than in literal historical or scientific accuracy. For these interpreters, additional explanations are not problematic because they see the biblical text as conveying theological truths through symbolic or allegorical narratives.
   
   
2. The Nature of Religious Texts
   • Ancient Context: Some argue that the Bible was written in a particular historical and cultural context, where the primary purpose was to convey theological and moral truths, not to provide detailed scientific explanations. The ancient authors might not have had access to the scientific knowledge we have today, so their accounts reflect their understanding of the world at that time. The need for additional explanations today could then be seen as a reflection of the evolving understanding of the world rather than a flaw in the biblical text itself.
   • Progressive Revelation: Another view is that God reveals truth progressively, and that the Bible provides foundational spiritual truths that can be further illuminated by later discoveries in science and history. In this view, additional explanations are seen as complementary to, rather than contradictory with, the biblical account.
3. Faith and Reason
   • Faith-Based Acceptance: For many believers, the truth of the biblical account is accepted on the basis of faith, and additional information is seen as a way to better understand and articulate that faith in light of contemporary knowledge. The need for such explanations does not necessarily diminish the believer's faith in the biblical narrative but may instead enrich it.
   • Critical Examination: On the other hand, those who prioritize empirical evidence and logical consistency might see the need for extensive additional explanations as a sign that the biblical account should be understood more metaphorically or symbolically, or that it reflects ancient cosmology rather than literal history. This can lead to doubts about the historical accuracy of the biblical account, especially when the additional explanations seem to stretch credibility or conflict with established scientific understanding.
   
   
4. Impact on Biblical Authority
   • Preservation of Biblical Authority: Some apologists argue that providing additional explanations helps to preserve the authority and relevance of the Bible in a modern context. They see this as a way of harmonizing ancient texts with contemporary knowledge, thus maintaining the Bible’s credibility as a source of truth.
   • Potential for Undermining Authority: Conversely, if these explanations are seen as overly speculative or inconsistent with observable evidence, they may indeed undermine the authority of the biblical text in the eyes of some, leading to doubts about the reliability of the biblical account.
   
   
5. Philosophical and Theological Considerations
   • Role of Mystery in Faith: Some Christian thinkers embrace the idea that not all aspects of faith can be fully explained or understood, and that mystery is a central component of religious belief. In this view, the need for additional explanations does not necessarily cast doubt on the truth of the biblical account but rather acknowledges the limitations of human understanding.
   • Dialogue Between Science and Religion: Others see the dialogue between science and religion as a dynamic process where both can inform each other. The need for additional explanations might then be viewed as part of an ongoing conversation rather than a reason for doubt.

Conclusion The need for additional explanations to reconcile the biblical Flood with modern scientific understanding can raise questions, but whether it casts doubt on the truth of the biblical account depends on one's interpretive approach and understanding of the nature of the Bible. For some, it may indeed lead to doubts, especially if the explanations appear forced or speculative. For others, it may enrich their understanding of the Bible and deepen their faith, seeing the additional information as a way to harmonize ancient wisdom with contemporary knowledge.

For their tale to be even slightly plausible, the authors should have allowed for the long time-lag between the destruction of Earth's ecosystems and their recovery to the level at which they could sustain growing populations of animals and humans, let alone animals apparently evolving and speciating at the impossible warp-speeds creationists have now incorporated into their dogmas, to account for the impossibility of two of every species, living and extinct (some 220 million species) being housed on a wooden boat small enough not to be destroyed in a year floating about in turbulent waters, or being crushed under its own weight.

Creationists of course, have no problem including lots of new information to supplement what they claim is the inerrant word of a god, presumably because the god forgot to include it.

So, of what modern science were the Bronze Age authors of the Bible particularly ignorant when they were making up the 'Flood' myth?

In a paper by an international team of Earth and environmental scientists from the University of Arizona, University of Leeds, CNRS Toulouse, and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), led by scientists from Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zurich, have shown how it can take millions of years for ecosystems to recover from catastrophes like volcano-induced climate change, and there could have been few such ecological disasters as a global flood and mass genocide would have been.

Their findings are the subject of a news release from UTH Zürich:

Millions of years for plants to recover from global warming

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Catastrophic volcanic eruptions that warmed the planet millions of years ago shed new light on how plants evolve and regulate climate. Researchers reveal the long-term climate effects of disturbed natural ecosystems - its implications both in geological history and for today.

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In brief

• Disruption of the functioning of vegetation due to warming can lead to the failure of climate regulating mechanisms for millions of years.
  
• Vegetation changes can alter the planet’s climate equilibrium.
• Geological and climatic history provide insight into the effects of global warming today.

Scientists often seek answers to humanity’s most pressing challenges in nature. When it comes to global warming, geological history offers a unique, long-term perspective. Earth’s geological history is spiked by periods of catastrophic volcanic eruptions that released vast amounts of carbon into the atmosphere and oceans. The increased carbon triggered rapid climate warming that resulted in mass extinctions on land and in marine ecosystems. These periods of volcanism may also have disrupted carbon-climate regulation systems for millions of years.

Ecological imbalance

Earth and environmental scientists at ETH Zurich led an international team of researchers from the University of Arizona, University of Leeds, CNRS Toulouse, and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) in a study on how vegetation responds and evolves in response to major climatic shifts and how such shifts affect Earth’s natural carbon-climate regulation system.

Drawing on geochemical analyses of isotopes in sediments, the research team compared the data with a specially designed model, which included a representation of vegetation and its role in regulating the geological climate system. They used the model to test how the Earth system responds to the intense release of carbon from volcanic activity in different scenarios. They studied three significant climatic shifts in geological history, including the Siberian Traps event that caused the Permian-Triassic mass extinction about 252 million years ago.

The Siberian Traps event released some 40,000 gigatons (Gt) of carbon over 200,000 years. The resulting increase in global average temperatures between 5 - 10°C caused Earth’s most severe extinction event in the geologic record.

Professor, Taras V. Gerya, co-author
Department of Earth Sciences
ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.

Formed 252 million years ago, these mesas of the Putorana Plateau in Siberia consist of thick layers of rock of volcanic origin.

Image: Sergei / Adobe Stock.

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Rivers have dug deep gorges over the course of time.

Image: Crazy nook / Adobe Stock

Move, adapt, or perish

The recovery of vegetation from the Siberian Traps event took several millions of years and during this time Earth’s carbon-climate regulation system would have been weak and inefficient resulting in long-term climate warming.

Julian Rogger, lead author
Department of Earth Sciences
ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.

Researchers found that the severity of such events is determined by how fast emitted carbon can be returned to Earth’s interior – sequestered through silicate mineral weathering or organic carbon production, removing carbon from Earth’s atmosphere.

They also found that the time it takes for the climate to reach a new state of equilibrium depended on how fast vegetation adapted to increasing temperatures. Some species adapted by evolving and others by migrating geographically to cooler regions. However, some geological events were so catastrophic that plant species simply did not have enough time to migrate or adapt to the sustained increase in temperature. The consequences of which left its geochemical mark on climate evolution for thousands, possibly millions, of years.

Today’s human-induced climate crisis

What does this mean for human induced climate change? The study found that a disruption of vegetation increased the duration and severity of climate warming in the geologic past. In some cases, it may have taken millions of years to reach a new stable climatic equilibrium due to a reduced capacity of vegetation to regulate Earth’s carbon cycle.

Today, we find ourselves in a major global bioclimatic crisis. Our study demonstrates the role of a functioning of vegetation to recover from abrupt climatic changes. We are currently releasing greenhouse gases at a faster rate than any previous volcanic event. We are also the primary cause of global deforestation, which strongly reduces the ability of natural ecosystems to regulate the climate. This study, in my perspective, serves as ‘wake-up call’ for the global community.

Professor Loïc Pellissier, co-author
Professor of Ecosystems and Landscape Evolution
Department of Environmental Systems Science
ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.

Reference

Rogger J, Judd EJ, Mills BJW, Goddéris Y, Gerya TV, Pellissier L: Biogeographic climate sensitivity controls Earth system response to large igneous province carbon degassing. Science, 8. August 2024, doi: 10.1126/science.adn3450

Abstract
Periods of large igneous province (LIP) magmatism have shaped Earth’s biological and climatic history, causing major climatic shifts and biological reorganizations. The vegetation response to LIP-induced perturbations may affect the efficiency of the carbon-climate regulation system and the post-LIP climate evolution. Using an eco-evolutionary vegetation model, we demonstrate here that the vegetation’s climate adaptation capacity, through biological evolution and geographic dispersal, is a major determinant of the severity and longevity of LIP-induced hyperthermals and can promote the emergence of a new climatic steady state. Proxy-based temperature reconstructions of the Permian-Triassic, Triassic-Jurassic, and Paleocene-Eocene hyperthermals match the modeled trajectories of bioclimatic disturbance and recovery. We conclude that biological vegetation dynamics shape the multimillion-year Earth system response to sudden carbon degassing and global warming episodes.

Rogger J, Judd EJ, Mills BJW, Goddéris Y, Gerya TV, Pellissier L: Biogeographic climate sensitivity controls Earth system response to large igneous province carbon degassing. Science, 8. August 2024, doi: 10.1126/science.adn3450

© 2024 he Authors
Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science. Reprinted with kind permission under license: #5845441238068.

The mystery of what the Ark survivors ate when they got off the Ark onto a sterile world is just one of those things that the Bible's authors were too ignorant of biology to have thought about. Others are how many herbivores did the carnivores exterminate in the first days and weeks. Shrews need to eat their body-weight in worms, slugs, snails and earthworms every 24 hours and are not averse to eating hatchling birds in nests. Bats consume moths by the dozen every night.

So, rather than being the saving of every species during creationism's favourite mass genocide by drowning, the 'Flood' if it had been real would have resulted in a mass extinction to rival anything caused by a meteor strike, catastrophic volcano activity or run-away global warming.

And, as science has now shown, Earth's ecosystems would still be struggling to recover from it, and yet the ignorant authors of the tale thought everything was back to normal within a few thousand years.

Refuting Creationism - A Calendar Carved On A Monument in Turkey - 3,000 Years Before 'Creation Week'

Carvings on a pillar at Göbekli Tepe, Turkey

Carvings at ancient monument may be world’s oldest calendar | School of Engineering

Figure 1. Left: Plan of Enclosures A–D at Göbekli Tepe. Right: Pillar 43 at Göbekli Tepe, Enclosure D.

Image courtesy of Alistair Coombs.

One of the more obvious blunders in the opening verses of the Bible is the use of the term 'day', supposedly before the sun was created. But the measure of time called 'a day' is the rotation period of Earth, as it orbits the sun.

Why would a god choose that measure of time, of all the planets and suns in the Universe, and before it had allegedly created either the sun or Earth? Or more specifically, why would the people who made up the creation myth assume it would when the stories they made up and the Universe they described have no concept of a rotating Earth or of Earth orbiting the sun, which they described as fixed to a dome over a flat, 'fixed, immobile' Earth?

Of course, the answer is that the story tellers had inherited their concept of time and how the passage of time could be measured over the course of 365 days and be found to follow a repeating pattern, and simply assumed any god would use the measure they were familiar with - they were imbuing their god with human characteristics.

One of those cultural ancestors live not a million miles from where the Bronze Age Canaanite Pastoralists who made up the origin myths later incorporated in a book decreed to be holy, but they predated them by many millennia.

More Magnificent Than Our Priests And Prophets Told Us

The distorted spiral galaxy at center, the Penguin, and the compact elliptical at left, the Egg, are locked in an active embrace. This near- and mid-infrared image combines data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), and marks the telescope’s second year of science. Webb’s view shows that their interaction is marked by a glow of scattered stars represented in blue. Known jointly as Arp 142, the galaxies made their first pass by one another between 25 and 75 million years ago, causing “fireworks,” or new star formation, in the Penguin. The galaxies are approximately the same mass, which is why one hasn’t consumed the other.

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s mid-infrared view of interacting galaxies Arp 142 seems to sing in primary colors. The Egg shows up as a tiny, teal-colored oval, because it is made up of old stars and has lost or used up most of its gas and dust. At right, the Penguin’s star-forming regions are represented in pink and purple, and contain smoke-like material known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

Vivid Portrait of Interacting Galaxies Marks Webb’s Second Anniversary - NASA Science

It takes a special skill to read the description of the universe in the Bible - a single, small flat planet with a dome over it to which the sun, moon and stars are fixed - compared that with what science shows the universe is really like, and conclude that the Bible must have been written by an omniscient, creator god.

And yet grifters like Ken Ham regularly reassure their followers and source of income, that the Bible is their god's inerrant word and god never lies so it must be the science that's wrong. Of course, since it's his source of excuses that he uses to justify fleecing his flock, what he can never afford for them to realise is that we can tell the Bible could not possibly have been written by the god described in it because it differs so widely from reality.

God has always existed, knows all things, and cannot lie.

— Answers in Genesis (@AiG) August 5, 2024

Why would a god who knew the truth about the Universe uses such a childishly naïve description that it seems to have been written by simple, ignorant people whose entire world consisted of a few square miles of the Middle East, since it contains nothing that wasn't known to them?

Of course, their description was childishly naive because the authors were childishly naïve. It would have been impossible for them to have stood on a Canaanite hill, look up and grasp the true majesty of the Universe - that each tiny point of light could be one of half a trillion stars in a vast galaxy or that other points of light could be one of maybe a trillion other galaxies each with half a trillion stars around which there could be other planets.

At what speed through space would a person standing on a hill in Canaan in 3000 BCE have been travelling? To calculate the speed through space of a person standing on a hill in Canaan in 3000 BCE, we need to consider three main components of motion:

1. The rotation of the Earth on its axis.
2. The Earth's orbital motion around the Sun.
3. The Sun's orbital motion around the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

We'll break down the calculations for each component and then combine them.

1. Earth's Rotational Speed
   
   The Earth's rotational speed at the equator can be calculated using the circumference of the Earth and the period of rotation (24 hours).
   
   • Radius of the Earth (r): approximately 6,371 km
   • Circumference at the equator (C): \(2 \pi \times 6371 \, \text{km}\)
   • Rotation period (T): 24 hours
   \[\small C = 2 \pi \times 6371 \, \text{km} \approx 40,075 \, \text{km} \] \[\small\begin{flalign*} &\text{Rotational speed at the equator}\\ &= \frac{40,075 \, \text{km}}{24 \, \text{hours}} \approx 1670 \, \text{km/h}\end{flalign*} \]
   
   Since Canaan is not on the equator, we need to account for its latitude. Let's approximate the latitude of Canaan (modern-day Israel) as about 32°N.
   \[\small\begin{flalign*} &\text{Rotational speed at latitude}\\ &= 1670 \, \text{km/h} \times \cos(32°)\end{flalign*} \]
   
2. Earth's Orbital Speed Around the Sun
   
   The Earth's average orbital speed around the Sun can be calculated using the circumference of its orbit and the period of revolution (1 year).
   
   • Average distance from the Sun (r): approximately 149.6 million km
   • Orbital circumference (C): \(2 \pi \times 149.6 \times 10^6 \, \text{km}\)
   • Orbital period (T): 1 year (365.25 days)
   \[\small C = 2 \pi \times 149.6 \times 10^6 \, \text{km} \approx 940 \times 10^6 \, \text{km} \] \[\small\begin{flalign*} &\text{Orbital speed}\\ &= \frac{940 \times 10^6 \, \text{km}}{365.25 \times 24 \, \text{hours}} \approx 107,000 \, \text{km/h}\end{flalign*} \]
   
3. Sun's Orbital Speed Around the Milky Way
   The Sun's orbital speed around the center of the Milky Way galaxy is approximately 220 km/s.
   \[\small \begin{flalign*} &\text{Orbital speed}\\ &= 220 \, \text{km/s} \times 3600 \, \text{s/hour} = 792,000 \, \text{km/h}\end{flalign*} \]
   

Total Speed

To find the total speed, we can combine these three components as vectors. Since the directions are not perfectly aligned, we'll consider a simplified approach by summing the magnitudes approximately, assuming they are roughly perpendicular.

Calculation:

1. Earth's rotational speed at 32°N:
   \[\small\begin{flalign*} & 1670 \, \text{km/h} \times \cos(32°)\\ &\approx 1670 \, \text{km/h} \times 0.848 \approx 1417 \, \text{km/h}\end{flalign*} \]
2. Earth's orbital speed around the Sun:
   \[\small 107,000 \, \text{km/h} \]
3. Sun's orbital speed around the Milky Way:
   \[\small 792,000 \, \text{km/h} \]

Since these velocities are mostly perpendicular to each other, we can use the Pythagorean theorem to approximate the total speed:
\[\small\begin{flalign*} &\text{Total speed}\\ &\approx \sqrt{(1417^2 + 107,000^2 + 792,000^2)} \, \text{km/h}\end{flalign*} \]

Let's compute this:
\[\small\begin{flalign*} &\text{Total speed}\\ &\approx \sqrt{(1417^2 + 107,000^2 + 792,000^2)} \, \text{km/h}\end{flalign*} \] \[\small\begin{flalign*} &\text{Total speed}\\ &\approx \sqrt{(2,007,489 + 11,449,000,000 + 627,264,000,000)} \, \text{km/h}\end{flalign*} \] \[\small\begin{flalign*} &\text{Total speed}\\ &\approx \sqrt{638,713,007,489} \, \text{km/h}\end{flalign*} \] \[\small\begin{flalign*} &\text{Total speed}\\ &\approx 799,195 \, \text{km/h}\end{flalign*} \]
Thus, a person standing on a hill in Canaan in 3000 BCE would be travelling through space at approximately 799,195 km/h (496596.75 mph)

They couldn't even conceive of the idea that Earth could be a spinning spheroid with several continents, held in orbit around the sun by gravity or that they could actually be travelling through space at almost 500,000 mph. Even a sizable proportion of Americans find that hard to understand and still believe the sun orbits Earth, which is at the center of the Universe, so what chance did uneducated Bronze Age pastoralists have?

And, as though to rub salt in creationists wounds, although that was far from their reason, NASA has just released stunning photos of a tiny fragment of the night sky that could be hidden behind a grain of rice held up between thumb and fore-finger, in which two galaxies are interacting.

Vivid Portrait of Interacting Galaxies Marks Webb’s Second Anniversary

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Two for two! A duo of interacting galaxies commemorates the second science anniversary of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, which takes constant observations, including images and highly detailed data known as spectra. Its operations have led to a “parade” of discoveries by astronomers around the world.

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Since President Biden and Vice President Harris unveiled the first image from the James Webb Space Telescope two years ago, Webb has continued to unlock the mysteries of the universe. With remarkable images from the corners of the cosmos, going back nearly to the beginning of time, Webb’s capabilities are shedding new light on our celestial surroundings and inspiring future generations of scientists, astronomers, and explorers.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

In just two years, Webb has transformed our view of the universe, enabling the kind of world-class science that drove NASA to make this mission a reality. Webb is providing insights into longstanding mysteries about the early universe and ushering in a new era of studying distant worlds, while returning images that inspire people around the world and posing exciting new questions to answer. It has never been more possible to explore every facet of the universe.

Mark Clampin
Director of the Astrophysics Division
NASA Headquarters in Washington.

The telescope’s specialization in capturing infrared light — which is beyond what our own eyes can detect — shows these galaxies, collectively known as Arp 142, locked in a slow cosmic dance. Webb’s observations, which combine near- and mid-infrared light from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), respectively, clearly show that they are joined by a haze represented in blue that is a mix of stars and gas, a result of their mingling.

Their ongoing interaction was set in motion between 25 and 75 million years ago, when the Penguin (individually cataloged as NGC 2936) and the Egg (NGC 2937) completed their first pass. They will go on to shimmy and sway, completing several additional loops before merging into a single galaxy hundreds of millions of years from now.

Let’s Dance!
Before their first approach, the Penguin held the shape of a spiral. Today, its galactic center gleams like an eye, its unwound arms now shaping a beak, head, backbone, and fanned-out tail.

Like all spiral galaxies, the Penguin is still very rich in gas and dust. The galaxies’ “dance” gravitationally pulled on the Penguin’s thinner areas of gas and dust, causing them to crash in waves and form stars. Look for those areas in two places: what looks like a fish in its “beak” and the “feathers” in its “tail.”

Surrounding these newer stars is smoke-like material that includes carbon-containing molecules, known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which Webb is exceptional at detecting. Dust, seen as fainter, deeper orange arcs also swoops from its beak to tail feathers.

In contrast, the Egg’s compact shape remains largely unchanged. As an elliptical galaxy, it is filled with aging stars, and has a lot less gas and dust that can be pulled away to form new stars. If both were spiral galaxies, each would end the first “twist” with new star formation and twirling curls, known as tidal tails.

Another reason for the Egg’s undisturbed appearance: These galaxies have approximately the same mass or heft, which is why the smaller-looking elliptical wasn’t consumed or distorted by the Penguin.

It is estimated that the Penguin and the Egg are about 100,000 light-years apart — quite close in astronomical terms. For context, the Milky Way galaxy and our nearest neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy, are about 2.5 million light-years apart. They too will interact, but not for about 4 billion years.

Now, look to the top right to spot a galaxy that is not at this party. This edge-on galaxy, cataloged PGC 1237172, is 100 million light-years closer to Earth. It’s also quite young, teeming with new, blue stars.

Want one more party trick? Switch to Webb’s mid-infrared-only image to see PGC 1237172 practically disappear. Mid-infrared light largely captures cooler, older stars and an incredible amount of dust. Since the galaxy’s stellar population is so young, it “vanishes” in mid-infrared light.

Also take a moment to scan the background. Webb’s image is overflowing with distant galaxies. Some take spiral and oval shapes, like those threaded throughout the Penguin’s “tail feathers,” while others scattered throughout are shapeless dots. This is a testament to the sensitivity and resolution of the telescope’s infrared instruments. (Compare Webb’s view to the 2018 observation that combines infrared light from NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope and near-infrared and visible light from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.) Even though these observations only took a few hours, Webb revealed far more distant, redder, and dustier galaxies than previous telescopes – one more reason to expect Webb to continue to expand our understanding of everything in the universe.

Want more? Take a tour to the image, “fly through” it in a visualization, and compare Webb’s image to the Hubble Space Telescope’s.

Arp 142 lies 326 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Hydra.

Video: Tour the Arp 142 Image

Video tour transcript

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Danielle Kirshenblat (STScI)

Video: Arp 142 Visualization

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI), Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Christian Nieves (STScI), Joseph Olmsted (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI), Frank Summers (STScI), Greg Bacon (STScI)

Hover over the dividing line then click to move and compare the two images

Hubble Space Telescope

Webb Space Telescope

A selection of images from the James Webb Space Telescope in 2024

Oh! Silly me! That last one isn't from the James Webb Space Telescope! It's the way the people who wrote the Bible thought the Universe looked like! spot the difference!

It defies belief that there are adults, mostly in the USA, who believe that description in the Bible far surpasses for accuracy and reliability anything that science can reveal, and that this 'amazing accuracy' is proof that it was written by an inerrant god who created it all.

You might expect the fact that the Bible's description is so hilariously naïve would be taken as evidence that the description is proof of exactly the opposite: that the Bible could not have been written by an omniscient god who created the Universe it so inaccurately describes, but there is something about religion that seems to prevent intellectual honesty and the humility to allow evidence to inform opinion. Religion seems to produce the delusion that opinion informs the evidence and if they conflict, then opinion trumps evidence.

The same people also claim to worship a god who told them that vanity is a mortal sin, and a terrible fate awaits those who transgress.

Bible Blunders - Why the Bible Could Not Have Been Written Or Inspired By The God Described In It

What happens when matter is squashed to the brink of collapse? We weighed a neutron star to help NASA find out

Assuming you could speak whatever ancient form of Hamito-Semitic language the Bronze Age authors of Genesis spoke; what do you think they would say if you asked them how to weigh a neutron star?

They might just about grasp the meaning of 'weigh' but 'neutron' and 'star', let alone 'neutron star'?

The plain fact is that we not only speak a different language but have words for ideas and objects which would have been incomprehensible to people who thought the entire Universe was a small, flat planet with a dome over it, that contained nothing that couldn’t be found within a day or two's walks of their pastures in the Middle Eastern petty state of Canaan, later to split up into even smaller waring tribal area under the leadership of despotic warlords.

You could have done the same with words like 'electricity', 'atom', bacteria', 'virus', 'genes', 'energy', 'galaxy', 'thermodynamics', 'chemistry', 'physics' and, of course 'evolution'. These are all as absent from the Bible as are elephants, penguins, north and south-poles, democracy, civil rights, or gender equality, because the authors knew nothing about them and had no way of knowing anything about them.

It wasn't that they were stupid, after all it probably takes a lot of intelligence and a long apprenticeship to understand the needs of a herd of sheep and/or goats and where the best grazing is without encroaching on the neighbouring tribes grazing rights. My dear old maternal grandfather was a highly-respected third-generation shepherd in his day who was head-hunted to look after a prize-winning flock of Oxford Downs and given a cottage to live in, that his family then lived in for four generations. He was by no means a stupid man - simplistic in his understanding of many things. A fundamentalist Christian who knew the Bible by heart and took everything in it as 'Gospel truth' and misogynistic to the core, but not stupid.

But they not only lacked the technology (how can you learn about bacteria when you don't have glass good enough to make a microscope) but they believed they knew the answers already. They thought they knew the answers to the questions their limited horizons suggested - and the answer was always the same - a god did it (which god or gods didn't matter, it was the god or gods the rest of the tribe believed in), so what would you want a microscope for? there is nothing in water that you can't see, except water. There is nothing over the earth but the dome with the sun and moon and stars fixed to it, so why would you need a telescope to find out about galaxies?

Creationism Refuted - Why Did The 'Creator' Get It So Wrong?

Domestic animals

A sample of cultivated root crops.

The fundamental problem for creationists is their dependence on a book that can so easily shown to be wrong on almost every level. It's rather like taking an imaginative story made up by an uneducated 6-year-old to explain the world as he or she saw it and pointing out the errors in it.

Trivially easy, especially for someone with a little education, especially in the relevant subject like biology, geology, cosmology and history.

One of the more glaring errors is very early on in the Bible narrative which describes how a magic creator created all the animals for human use. It comes mostly from the first version of creation. In this version, the animals were all created before a man and a woman who were both created together, and then the animals and plants were all given to them for 'meat'.

In the second version, a man was created alone, then the animals, then a woman.

Obviously, both can be true, but it is mostly from the first version that creationists get the idea that all the animals and plants in the world were created especially for them. And that's where things begin to fall apart on close inspection of the facts.

Here is how the story goes. The first version: