Christian Monthly Standard

Some Things Said… (July 07)

Polling the ignorant?

A reader wrote: “Have you ever noticed that opinion polls ask the opinions of people who have no expertise in the subject on which they are being polled and publish these opinions as if they were gospel truth instead of group ignorance?” –Thomas Sowell

Supreme Court’s ‘new direction’ — constitutional? or ‘rightward tilt’?

The founder of a legal group that defends religious freedoms in the United States says Supreme Court rulings earlier this week are encouraging and represent a new direction for the high court. Few debate the latter observation — but interpretations apparently differ. –headline for an audio report by Allie Martin and Jody Brown at OneNewsNow.com 6.27.07

Human DNA More Complex Than Was Thought – Discovery a nod toward intelligent design.

Studies taking a deeper look into the human genome have revealed that human DNA is up to five times more complicated than researchers had thought.

Portions of the human genome that scientists said had no function — dubbed “junk DNA” — had been claimed to be evidence of the randomness of evolution. But studies now reveal that what was thought to be “junk” has purpose and could help scientists understand more of how life works and how diseases can be cured.

Michael Snyder, a biology professor at Yale University, said the complexity was not immediately apparent.

“Analyzing the human genome is a lot like looking at a sports car,” he explained. “When you first look at it, it looks pretty simple and elegant, but as soon as you start prodding around under the hood, you realize exactly how complicated this is.”

Backers of evolution have held up so-called junk DNA as evidence against intelligent design. Casey Luskin with the Intelligent Design and Evolution Awareness Center told Family News in Focus the new research is welcome news.

“Intelligent design is actually being vindicated, because we’re discovering that it’s actually the Darwinists who are wrong on this point,” he said. “‘Junk DNA’ is not ‘junk.’”

Luskin added that some scientists used to believe other parts of the human body had no purpose, including the appendix and wisdom teeth.

“Now they’ve realized that this evolutionary assumption that our bodies are full of just sort of functionless junk is a very bad one,” he said. “This is a strike against evolution.” –from a Focus on the Family staff report 6.18.07 and as submitted by Mark Zaveson.

A little too late?

I was thinking about how people seem to read the Bible a whole lot more as they get older. Then, it dawned on me, they were cramming for their finals. –from an Internet e-mail amusement.