Posted on 07/21/2009 8:17:36 AM PDT by GodGunsGuts
Rising Animal Cancers Point to a Dying World
by Brian Thomas, M.S.*
Cancer affects many humans and their loved ones, and a new report has found that certain animals are also suffering from higher cancer rates. Sadly, this is what is to be expected in a dying and decaying world.
The technical results of the study are slated to appear in the July edition of Nature Reviews Cancer. Lead author Denise McAloose, Chief Pathologist for the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Global Health program, said in a WCS press release that “we now understand that cancer can kill wild animals at similar rates [to humans].”1
The WCS study identified California sea lions, dolphins, porpoises, and green sea turtles as creatures with cancer rates that were higher than expected. Most of the described cancers likely have a viral source, but it is possible that human-caused pollution—including loose, carcinogenic chemical waste—could exacerbate the maladies.
Cancers are caused when an error occurs in the genetic machinery that regulates a cell’s growth. Since mutations relentlessly add up during an individual’s lifetime, it is only a matter of time before one of those mutations disrupts a cell’s growth regulation. This could lead to a tumor, which could lead to cancer.
Genesis indicates that human sin resulted in a universal curse, whereby man, animals, and the entire creation “groaneth and travaileth together.”2 This accurately reflects today’s world, in which cancer is an increasing calamity. Some endangered animals are even facing extinction due to cancer.3
In the bigger picture, fossils show clearly that nature has “deselected” the vast majority of life forms in the past through widespread catastrophes. And now nature continues to “deselect” more through disease. There is therefore no scientific basis for the Darwinian philosophy that living forms find a way to adapt and improve, ever-increasing their repertoires of functional biological mechanisms.
Rather, extinctions are the rule. In almost every animal and plant phylum, there has been a decline in variety, with most varieties having been catastrophically buried and fossilized. The grim reality is that over the long haul, if a created kind can avoid natural disasters, it will eventually succumb to cancer from mutations.
Scientific observation upholds the Bible’s depiction of a world that was created to be very good, but that is now suffering from the increasing effects of decay and corruption. That is not the end of the story, however. For those who have been redeemed through Christ, death will not have the final word.4
References
* Mr. Thomas is Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.
WTF??? Are you now contending that cancer is further proof that evolution didn’t happen?
If “monkey see, monkey do” then can we conclude that the Monkees did not evolve musically?
Thank God almighty that He sent His Son to die for what causes our mutations!
I’m sure the rising cancers are Bush’s fault or global warming.
What a crock.
I suspect that animals have been dying of cancer for millions of years, however, they’ve never been scrutinized with the microscope that is on them today especially now that anybody that can spell ‘climate change’ gets a ‘research’ grant from .gov.
Thanks for the ping!
Ugh. This is not helpful.
how about maybe they are now living enough longer that they die of cancer, rather than the myriad other things that used to kill them before they lived long enough to develop cancers?
My thoughts exactly.
Hey, let's re-wind the clocks 100 years and go back to a life expectency of under 50 years. This statement makes utterly no sense in the broader context that many of the old killers have been banished to obscurity.
A more philosophical approach?
This is a BS study. The author(s) is using conjecture as a baseline. There is nothing to show what a normal cancer baseline IS in the populations mentioned. How can a determination be made comparing current cancer rates to a WAG (wild ass guess) baseline.
Typical environmentalist pseudoscience.
And the earth will wear out like a garment And its inhabitants will die in like manner; Isaiah 51:6
What is rising is the number of otherwise unemployable women in biology and ecology jobs who study that which is unknown previously and attribute it to man.
Doomed! Doooooomed!
We're doomed I tell ya!
We are so doomed!
You nailed it. I think this is a trick article telling us we should die before our time. Sorry just paranoid about deathcare where we are made to go to death counseling.
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