ICR article image.
Posted on 12/16/2014 5:52:03 AM PST by fishtank
Unlocking the Origins of Snake Venom
by Jeffrey Tomkins, Ph.D. *
The origin of snake venom has been a long-time mystery to both creationists and evolutionists. Interestingly, new research confirms that the same genes that encode snake venom proteins are active in many other tissues.1
According to the biblical record, God’s creation was originally void of death, disease, and violence. Because of Adam and Eve’s rebellion, the whole of creation became subject to a curse that resulted in snakes with venom, stinging arthropods, and countless diseases. One of the chief questions facing creation biologists and geneticists is how venom was manifested in the genomes and cellular biology of creatures. A new scientific model that explains this paradox is gaining credibility thanks to a variety of studies in different types of organisms.2,3 In this model, genes and their regulatory sequences have either been corrupted and/or lost through genome degradation to bring about scenarios in nature that seem to defy the original harmonious purpose of God’s creation.
(Excerpt) Read more at icr.org ...
ICR article image.
The researchers at ICR and at other creationist organizations have been investigating the presence, function and design of biochemical pathways.
Nathaniel Jeanson at ICR has also written on this topic.
God created predators, including those such as cats that are obligate carnivores, with their digestive systems unable to digest anything but meat effectively.
But he never intended these functions to be used.
He who made kittens, put snakes in the grass....
/Bungle In The Jungle
“God created predators, including those such as cats that are obligate carnivores, with their digestive systems unable to digest anything but meat effectively.”
Tell us, how many fossilized cat digestive systems have you examined?
P’ison sneks ping.
God realized his mistake in creating Adam & Eve, so he only created that one human species. He took more delight in sprinkling the Earth with birds, mammals, fish, plants and microbes none of whom start wars or destroy their habitat.
jmho:)
http://www.currentresults.com/Environment-Facts/Plants-Animals/number-species.php
How many species are known to currently exist in the world.
Category
Species
Totals
Vertebrate Animals
Mammals 5,490
Birds 9,998
Reptiles 9,084
Amphibians 6,433
Fishes 31,300
Total Vertebrates 62,305
Invertebrate Animals
Insects 1,000,000
Spiders and scorpions 102,248
Molluscs 85,000
Crustaceans 47,000
Corals 2,175
Others 68,827
Total Invertebrates 1,305,250
Plants
Flowering plants (angiosperms) 281,821
Conifers (gymnosperms) 1,021
Ferns and horsetails 12,000
Mosses 16,236
Red and green algae 10,134
Total Plants 321,212
Others
Lichens 17,000
Mushrooms 31,496
Brown algae 3,067
Total Others 51,563
TOTAL SPECIES 1,740,330
The species totals do not include domestic animals such as sheep, goats and camels. Nor do they include single-celled organisms such as bacteria.
That is too series. (not to mention hugh)
What was the purpose of a cat before it was a predator?
Did the entire class of predators come into existence when Adam sinned?
But, sorry, the notion that snake venom and the entire system to deliver it, along with the instinct to use it and to be a predator came into existence when Adam ate the fruit is just plain silly.
This type of stuff makes anybody who believes in God or Creation look really, really stupid, IMO.
YMMV
“This type of stuff makes anybody who believes in God or Creation look really, really stupid, IMO.”
Well, I think that saying you believe in God, but refusing to believe what He tells you in the Bible makes you look pretty stupid, but that’s just me. A supernatural deity creating us is already an extraordinary proposition, compared to that, the rest of what the Bible asserts is pedestrian in comparison.
That was quick;)
The other way to see it is, as St. Augustine says with the thorns and thistles, that these injurious organisms were created in the beginning with everything else, but would not have harmed man who retained his original innocence. In other words, the poison and the thorn have their own purpose in the will of God which is intrinsically good, and it's only because of man's Fall that man *experiences* them as harmful.
Many poisons, after all, can be medicinal if used properly. Many noxious plants have very useful other properties. And animal death is not an intrinsic evil. As Augustine says
"One might ask why brute beasts inflict injury on one another, for there is no sin in them for which this could be a punishment, and they cannot acquire any virtue by such a trial. The answer, of course, is that one animal is the nourishment of another. To wish that it were otherwise would not be reasonable.....Indeed this struggle for life that goes on in the lower order of creation does but admonish man for his own welfare to see how resolutely he must struggle for that spiritual and everlasting life by which he excels all the brute beasts."The Fall did not, generally, change the natures of animals and plants. It changed man's relation to those natures.
It’s a gift.
I’ll buy that. Very well put.
I don’t believe Creation or the Earth went from Good to Bad when Man fell. Man was affected, not animals and plants.
Not rejecting God or the Bible. Rejecting someone’s interpretation that snakes and by extension all other predators were nothing of the kind until Man fell.
Even more mind blowing is that those who have exoskeletons are the most successful critters, ever and outnumber us by insane amounts.
[I, for one, welcome our new ant overlords]
It was only after the flood that God put the fear of man into animals and vice versa.
Also, the edible bits.
I always figured it was more like this:
The Father and Creator stands outside of time. He knew when he created what the end result would be, but even chose to create man, with his intrinsic free will, knowing the results. Only the Father knows what is in the Book of Life.
I think this shows how much he truly loves us creating us anyway, knowing we’d be a “problem child”. However, since he knew the end result he also knew he would need to create the salvation that saves us - thus The Son.
The other possibility I’ve considered is that Eden was outside of Time, meaning that sustenance wasn’t required anyway, and then God put Time in place as part of casting them out of Eden. Or Eden is still outside of Time, but when man was cast out we were placed under the constraint of Time resulting in a similar scenario with minor differences.
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