Subject to Ridicule
By: Jim Virkler; ©2012 Michael Behe, famous for his proposal of irreducible complexity (IC), has endured plentiful cynical ridicule. IC proposes, that in a complex functional system such as the blood clotting cascade, or even in a simpler, non-living functional analog like the mousetrap, removal of one key component of the system effectively derails the…
Read MoreID and Descent Dissent
By: Jim Virkler; ©2012 Michael Behe is one of the original scientists to popularize the concept of intelligent design in the last two decades. Darwin’s Black Box (1996) introduced the idea of irreducible complexity in living systems. Behe describes irreducible complexity as follows: “…a single system composed of several well-matched, interacting parts that contribute to…
Read MoreProperly Basic Cycles
By: Jim Virkler; ©2012 The title of this post is a play on words. Philosophers such as Alvin Plantinga and William Lane Craig make the proposal that for many, belief in God is a properly basic belief. That is to say, belief in the existence of God is innate in human experience and does not…
Read MoreDust of the Ground
By: Jim Virkler; ©2012 Bible commentators have contributed several interpretations of the term dust in Genesis 2:7, Genesis 3:19, Psalm 103:14, and Ecclesiastes 3:20. These passages speak of man being created of the dust of the ground, our bodies returning to the dust when we die, and the Lord remembering that we are dust. The…
Read MoreCycles by Design
By: Jim Virkler; ©2012 The operations of most cycles of nature are well understood. The use and re-use of water, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, and hydrogen in our world depends on the properties of these chemical substances, how they react with other substances, and how their interactions sustain the activities of earth’s life forms. The deeper…
Read MoreThe Big Four
By: Jim Virkler; ©2012 Our discussions of major natural cycles have highlighted the big four of elements in living things: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen. The water cycle also describes the cycling of hydrogen through the biosphere. The fundamental concept of recycling the big four chemical elements to power activities of our daily lives may…
Read MoreCarbon Sequence
By: Jim Virkler; ©2012 To catch the attention of high school students beginning their study of the carbon cycle, I may recycle one or two simple demonstrations they might remember from their younger days. One is a favorite, outrageous party trick. Passing one’s finger quickly through the lower part of a candle flame leaves a…
Read MoreNitrogen Renewal
By: Jim Virkler; ©2012 For 50 years I was privileged to observe a master agronomist firsthand. My father was a regional agent for a hybrid seed company in the 1940s and 1950s. In this role, he applied knowledge of good plant nutrition in concert with his knowledge of the advantages of hybridization which started to…
Read MoreA Place to Thrive
By: Jim Virkler; ©2012 As we study the cycles of nature—the water cycle and numerous other cycles and processes in nature, we sometimes experience some uncertainties about the goodness of these natural phenomena. Is Planet Earth really a place to thrive? Or is it a place of brokenness and decay? Superimposed upon the life sustaining…
Read MoreOxygen for the Ages
By: Jim Virkler; ©2012 When one wishes to convey the idea that something vital has been lost, he sometimes uses the imagery of “removing the oxygen.” We may ask, “What is so uniquely vital about oxygen?” By weight oxygen is the most common element in the earth’s crust (almost half), and also the most common…
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