Biology

The 2017 award of the Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine to three Americans, Michael Rosbash, Jeffrey Hall and Michael Young, has served to stimulate our interest in a phenomenon that is actually well-known. We all know why people get hungry about the same time of day, or wake up about the same time, or suffer from jet-lag. It is because of biological clocks. So what was so special about the work of these three scientists? The story actually goes back to 1729! Read the rest of this entry »

I remember suggesting to one of my professors, when I was at university, that a certain course would be a waste of my time since I had already studied that topic. He suggested that there might be more to learn and he was right, of course. In fact, there is always more to learn on any topic. That is why we hear so much about life-long learning. We don’t want to atrophy (dry up) mentally or physically. It is important to keep developing our skills.

Naturally in everything we learn, we have to be cautious. We don’t want to plant desert-loving plants in a wet area of the garden, or do stretches the wrong way, nor do we want to acquiesce to wrong interpretations in science, or history or philosophy or whatever.  This does not mean we stop reading! What it means is that we apply critical thinking skills to our various pursuits. Read the rest of this entry »

Some people are tempted to stay inside when the weather gets cold. That, of course, is neither me nor you! We know that there is plenty to do, and plenty to learn, when the weather becomes cool and even downright chilly. Read the rest of this entry »

Margaret Helder has developed a guide to enhance the learning opportunities and appreciation of the message in her book (which is to encourage everyone to critically evaluate scientific pronouncements). For each chapter there is a brief overview statement. Brief paragraphs follow for each subsection in each chapter with key concepts introduced. There follows for each chapter a list of questions, many of them involving the key concepts. The next section provides detailed answers for each question. A sure to be popular section follows on resources. These are provided under topical headings. Books, articles (all obtainable) and especially video clips on-line, are certain to be useful for any biological studies, not just for this book. Lastly for each chapter, a section on extension is provided.  This booklet of about 60 pages, will be available on line (free download) and in hard copy. Inquire through our website for your copy as soon as it is available.

November 13, 2004, a beautiful fall morning, found me driving south to Red Deer to hear John McKay of Australia. He has been described as a veteran creation geology expert and a walking encyclopedia of creation knowledge. With accolades like that, I was excited about this opportunity to learn. This man’s father was a Scottish lawyer, so he joked that he learned how to argue while very young. Read the rest of this entry »

For almost everyone, the year 2020 has certainly presented obstacles to our normal tasks and social gatherings. So it was that CSAA, like many Christian organizations, found that an on-line fall program offered the best hope of sharing our message. Blessed with someone on our team with expert computer skills, the appropriate programs were selected to make the event possible and professional. When David Coppedge of southern California agreed to be our speaker, we were so pleased! All the pieces of the organizational puzzle had fallen into place. One benefit of an on-line event, we discovered, was that people from as far away as Ontario and B.C., were able to enjoy the program. Read the rest of this entry »

It was like old times again! What a pleasure it was to hear our speaker, Dr. Gordon Wilson of New Saint Andrews College in Idaho, address us in person. And everyone appreciated the wonderful venue, Meadowlands Baptist Church, which provided excellent technical assistance as well as an attractive facility. The opportunity to chat with other people and to buy new book and DVD titles, were additional blessings.

Challenges, Motivation and Hope

Featuring
Dr. Brian Thomas
Research Scientist at the Institute for Creation Research, Dallas, Texas

Location:
Providence Canadian Reformed Church
12905 122 Avenue NW Edmonton, AB

SCHEDULE

Friday, Oct 24 @ 7:00 p.m.
Fresh Fossils from Four Continents
(especially family friendly) Have you heard about the blood vessels from dinosaur bones? It turns out that’s just the beginning of fresh features from all kinds of fossils. In this presentation, Dr. Thomas explains how we can know that these proteins are relatively young and how these exciting new finds fit with the Bible’s history of the world.

Saturday, Oct 25 @ 10:00 a.m.
The Beginning of Life
(design features extraordinaire) Using information you won’t find in secular biology textbooks, Dr. Thomas demonstrates the complete failure of natural processes to explain how life began. He critiques evolutionary speculations about the beginning of life and illustrates engineered precision in cellular machines that credit the Creator, not nature, with creating life.

Saturday, Oct 25 @ 11:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Annual General Meeting

Saturday, Oct 25 @ 12:15 p.m. – 1:15 p.m.
Noon Break

Saturday, Oct 25 @ 1:15 p.m.
How Creatures Adapt
(why Darwin’s explanatons don’t work) New studies into the nuts and bolts of creature adaptation keep refuting Charles Darwin’s old ideas about how creatures change. From finches to fishes, stunning animal adaptations revel new hallmarks of handiwork.

Free Admission
www.create.ab.ca

In the early years of the existence of Creation Science Association of Alberta, CSAA brought in many excellent speakers from the Institute for Creation Research. All these speakers were scientists with excellent experience and credentials. These included biochemist Dr. Duane Gish, geologist Dr. Steve Austin and biologist Dr. Gary Parker. In more recent years, ICR moved from California to Texas and set about becoming established in a new region. Now once again, CSAA is delighted that one of ICR’s research scientists, Dr. Brian Thomas, has agreed to be our featured speaker for Creation Weekend on October 24 and 25, 2025. The sessions are scheduled to take place at Providence Canadian Reformed Church which hosted the event in spectacular fashion in October 2024 (12905 122 Avenue NW in Edmonton).

There is no doubt that we are drawn to organization that involves hierarchy. Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) famously devised a scheme for plant classification according to their reproductive characteristics. He established the idea of grouping organisms into a hierarchy of progressively shared traits. In his Systema naturae (1735) Linnaeus decreed that this logical organization of living things should involve increasingly larger categories. Thus, all similar individuals would be members of a species, similar species could be lumped into a genus. Similar genera were clumped into a family, similar families into an order, similar orders into a class, similar classes into a phylum or division. These groups were supposed to be exclusive. An organism was supposed to be a member of only one group. In Linnaeus’ view, this logical arrangement of organisms reflected God’s character and wisdom.

But all that changed with Darwin. Read the rest of this entry »

Creation Science Association of Albert is delighted to present David Coppedge as the featured speaker for our Creation Weekend 2020. Due to the COVID 19 restrictions, Creation Weekend will be a one evening online event this year.  David Coppedge was exceptionally well received with his presentations in Edmonton in 2012. Now in 2020, his return promises another tour de force with a presentation entitled Creation is Awe Inspiring! This event will take place on Friday evening, October 23, 2020 at 7:30 pm. To participate in this session, register at www.create.ab.ca/register.  Once you register you will receive a confirmation email, and closer to the event you will receive an email with further details. Read the rest of this entry »

We humans are proud of our accomplishments in science, technology, the arts, and music. And, we have a right to be proud: the technological wonders of the last century have radically changed our world and benefited us enormously. While basking in our accomplishments, though, it behooves us to acknowledge the fact that we have used the natural world as a model for many of our achievements. Many scientists spend a lifetime studying and learning from the wisdom expressed everywhere in creation. In the fields of “engineering, chemistry, ballistics, aerodynamics – in fact in almost every area of human endeavor – nature has been there first” and the natural world is “infinitely more economical of resources and generally superior in performance” than our best efforts (Felix Paturi. 1976. Nature, Mother of Invention. Harper & Row p. 1). Read the rest of this entry »

An avid fan of spy stories, I have read many which involve an apparently harmless document (like a friendly letter). But the document actually conveys dangerous information if one is provided with the appropriate convention for decoding it. Read the rest of this entry »

Dr. Paul Nelson is a prominent spokesperson for the creation and intelligent design communities. It was in that capacity that he introduced enthusiastic participants at the 2013 Creation Weekend in Edmonton, to new arguments and exciting information. Read the rest of this entry »