Smoking and Lung Cancer Caused 20 Years Later

I’m sure we all know about the adverse health effects of smoking. And I’m sure we all know that the worst health effect smoking causes is lung cancer.

But have you ever seen this statistical graph from the National Institutes of Health ?

       

The graph clearly shows that the incidence of lung cancer in men (the primary group of smokers) follows the trend of smoking very closely, only separated by a 20-year period in which the continuous daily smoking took it toll on their health.

The more ciggys you smoke a year, the higher the chance that you will get – and die in painful suffering from – lung cancer. Only, you won’t realize it until 20 years down the smokey road of life.

As the number of hardcore smokers rose to 4000 ciggys a man a year (about 11 a man every day), lung cancer correspondingly raised the toll to over 175 dead men per 100,000 people (or 1 dead guy per 571 people).

And as cigarette smoking dropped, 20 years later the number of lung cancer deaths dropped. Scary and enlightening! Cigarette smoking is clearly, ahem, the smoking gun.

Now if this 20-year incubation time didn’t exist – if smokers got their lung cancer a mere WEEK after smoking – then I’m sure there’d be far fewer willing smokers. In fact, with such a horrendous effect, smokes would be totally banned as a hazardous (and addictive) substance!

However, in our current socio-economic situation, the sale and consumption of cigarettes cannot be simply banned outright. The demand for their half-hourly nicotine fix would lead smokers to turn to cigarettes smuggled in and sold on the black market.

This contraband trade would then greatly increase the prosperity, influence and power of organized crime cartels, as happened during America’s Prohibition period. The cash flow would change course from the Government (which taxes sales of tobacco and rakes in huge profits) to the underworld.

So a blanket ban simply wouldn’t work, what more with smoking seemingly much more addictive than drinking alcohol.

The solution? On a personal level, don’t start – or quit right now if you already have! Do it now! Don’t wait till 20 years later, when you’re dying in horrendous pain and draining the money of your family to pay for your chemotherapy! Now, dammit!

On a wider level, the current gradual steps towards a smoke-free environment are quite good. No smoking zones everywhere, upping the taxes on ciggys, making packs bigger and more expensive so that teenagers can’t afford them, education campaigns…

The idea is that by making smokers feel like the outcast, walking corpses that they are, nonsmokers will be discouraged from picking up the habit. At the very least, nonsmokers won’t suffer from second hand smoke through no fault of our own.

Though many more people will slowly die from smoking in the process, a gradual reduction of the smoking trend seems to be the only practical way.

Unless, of course, NO tobacco products are EVER sold again, worldwide. Such as a mutant plant plague that wipes out all tobacco plants spreading all across the Earth instantaneously.

Now that would be the ultimate, enforced quitting cold turkey. And after a few weks of withdrawal agony, many lives and billions of monetary-units would be saved.

PS. On a related note: How do you define religious legalism?

Legalism is when the spirit of the law (i.e. the reason the law is made in the first place) takes a backseat to the letter of the law (what not to do etc.).

For example: Religious legalism is demonstrated when practitioners of religions that forbid the consumption of alcohol think it’s completely all right to smoke.

After all, the letter of the religious law says ‘no alcohol allowed’. It doesn’t say ‘no smoking allowed’. Therefore, they argue that hey! Smoking is allowed!

But go deeper into the spirit of the law. What’s so wrong with alcohol that it has to be prohibited by religion?

It is because alcohol is addictive and has strongly negative effects (drunkenness, and from modern discoveries liver cancer too). That’s the reason why it’s forbidden. That’s the spirit of the law.

It’s not so much the alcohol itself that is bad, rather it is the effects of alcohol consumption – and more precisely, excessive alcohol consumption.

To abhor the use of alcohol as a disinfectant, solvent or propellant just because it is alcohol is therefore to completely ignore the context. Heck, the stuff isn’t even drinkable in those cases – industrial alcohol is toxic! So how does using alcohol-based perfume equate to drunkenness?

If the negative effects of alcohol are what caused the alcohol to be forbidden, then smoking should likewise be forbidden – as it too is highly addictive and has very negative effects.

But lo and behold, it’s a-okay to smoke! Why? Simply because smoking isn’t mentioned specifically, by name, in the religious texts.

So alcohol is not allowed among religious adherents, while much more addictive and prelavent smoking is allowed.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a smokey example of religious legalism.

10,000 Hits!

 

At long last, I have reached the magical 10,000 mark!

            

It’s been six and a half months since I first started blogging. Today is the 195th day. Over these 195 fun-filled days…

I’ve gotten 10,000 hits! That averages 51.282051 hits a day. The actual best day ever was 265 views of my blog in a day, back during the Datuk Azhar Mansor period of hoo-hah.

I’ve made 234 posts (including this one). That averages exactly 1.2 posts a day (6 posts every 5 days).

With 10,000 hits and 234 posts, that averages 47.735 hits per post.

And according to the WordPress Dashboard, I’ve used 44% of my 50mb allocation for this blog. But I’ve already made preparations for the event of using up all my space.

There are also 149 comments,  62 Blogroll links and 787 spams caught…

   

The hits over the past 30 days:

The most popular posts over the past 30 days:

Ahhhh….. So now that I’ve reached the 10k mark, I can retire contented from the world of blogging….

Yeah, right! Hehe! Here’s to more posts, more hits and (hopefully) eventual worldwide recognition. (Even As I write the day after on 31st Jan, the hits are at 10114… Over a hundred more since the 30th.)

And in conjunction with my little celebration, below is a selection of posts over the past half year that I find fun, interesting, excellent or worthwhile reading. Enjoy!

Anne-Phetamine

Apostasy, Treason and North Korea

BUUUUURRRRNING HOT!!! (Lysol Flamethrower)

Caaaaaannnnn!

Chopper, Be A Man!

Christ as God… In the OLD Testament!

Dueling Analogs: Tetris Love

8-Bit Theater: Destructive & Insulting

Fai-wa of the Day 3: More Dangerous Than…

Gunslinger Scott and the 50 Desperados

Hell, If I Know

Isaiah in the Dead Sea Scrolls

Mommy Why Don’t You Love Me

Morality: Of Absolutes and Relatives

Rule Enforcement, DoTA and the Ugly Southeast Asian

Sadat of Sarawak

Satellite Zoom In: Scott’s Workplace

The Sun Speak Up!: Beware Fascism in Science

What I Learnt in Bio Class

What Did the Vietnam War Ever Accomplish?

Why the Chinese Act Like Chinese in Malaysia (or, Why the DAP is Not in Power)

WRYYYYYY!!! Dio Brando The World

You Have Two Cows: Southeast Asian Edition

Was Christ Crucified? Deedat vs. McDowell

 

As the image says, this debate happened a long time ago. I first came across it in one of Josh McDowell’s older books. Click on the image to read the transcript of the very excellent debate.

A little background: Josh McDowell is a renown Christian Apologist and writer. Among his books are More Than A Carpenter, He Walked Among Us: Evidence for the Historical Jesus and New Evidence That Demands A Verdict.

Ahmed Deedat was a Muslim scholar of comparative religions, an author and lecturer. He was known for his blunt (often offensive) style and highly publicized debates with various well known Christians, such as Jimmy Swaggart.

I say was because Mr. Deedat has since passed away. The short of it is, he kept becoming more and more insulting, reaching the point where he was actually insulting the Bible itself – God’s Holy Word. He was asked to repent, for his own sake, but refused. As it were, God struck him down with a devstating stroke. Read it here.

When you read through Mr. Deedat’s speech, you might realize (as I did) that he is a very skillful speaker. He knows how to take facts and present them in a way that is supportive to his arguments.

He makes himself out to be both knowledgeable and correct about the topic, while his opponents are made out to be mistaken and brainwashed. If one didn’t know his Scripture well, Mr. Deedat’s chosen interpretation would be greatly convincing, turning the crowd to his side.

That is, until Josh McDowell starts to speak. It’s as if a bright light has been switched on, and the many flaws and selective portrayals in Mr. Deedat’s points are revealed. Then you realize that Mr. Deedat’s interpretations are not the only valid ones. In fact, now they don’t seem very valid at all, whereas you can suddenly see the validity in the interpretations he was ridiculing!

The most clear example of the above is where Deedat claims that all Jesus’ followers abandoned Him, according to the Bible – the Gospel of St. Mark, chapter 14, verse 50, tells us that at the most critical juncture in the life of Jesus, all His disciples forsook Him, and fled. ALL.

McDowell follows with a clear refutation of that claim – just the next four verses. It says this: “And Peter followed Him.” Ta-daaah! Deedat has just been shown to be supremely ignorant (not even reading the very next verse) or, more likely, sneaky (knowing full well about the next verse, but trying to use it as a point anyway).
 
Overall, a very good effort from both sides. Going through the whole debate, I would have to cast my vote for Josh McDowell’s excellent defense of the Christian stand. He uses plenty of research, facts and quotes as becomes immediately apparent. A stunning amount even! He seems completely prepared for the polemical attacks that Deedat throws so confidently.

You realize he’s certainly done his homework here, many times quoting from Mr. Deedat’s own writings. And he even fits in the Gospel message and his personal testimony in there.

More impressive than, say, than the harping on your own viewpoint and interpretations that Mr. Deedat prefers. Good show, sir!

How about you? What do you think? Read the transcript la!

Buggy Saints Row: The Musical

This is from a certain site called:

I came across his amusing post about the glitches he comes across when playing Saints Row. It’s basically a Grand Theft Auto style game.

What’s really great is the original musical he put together out of video footage of some of the game’s weird bugs.

                  

IMHO, the three different songs are pretty good! Check out the quicktime or YouTube at his site here:  http://www.cabel.name/2006/12/buggy-saints-row-musical.html 

Some screenshots (but you really need to watch the whole thing to the accompanying music):

   

   

   

NST Letters: Living in Fear of Armed Criminals

Four days after appearing in The Star’s letters pages, the New Straits Times is carrying my same letter. Link to it is here (note 5 Feb, letter since removed to archives).

       

       

NST chose to carry a different emphasis compared to The Star. Noticably, the parts about ‘raise salaries for the lowest paid police recruits’ and ‘rely on ourselves since police cannot be everywhere at once’ was edited out. But they kept the ‘police feel overwhelmed’ and ‘criminals act with impunity’ parts.

Altogether, this makes the NST version have more of a “Why aren’t the police doing a better job?” feel, compared to The Star which has a takes a more “Police are trying hard, but need more support from Govt and help from citizens” line.

Eh-hem… Bottom line is, catch these hateful criminals! Better yet, stop them before they complete their crime sprees!

The Star: Retiree Dies After Two Men Stab And Rob Him

From The Star 27 Jan 2007, another horrifyingly callous crime carried out with impunity, this time in the Tampoi area.

A 64 year old man buying vegetables, and they have to stab him in order to grab his wallet? It seems like Johor Bahru is ripe for military rule, if only it will keep us all from getting killed by criminals!

In the holy and mighty name of Jesus, let judgment fall upon the heads of these evil men! Allow them no rest until justice and repentance have run their due course.

——–

JOHOR BARU: Every morning, he walks out his house to buy vegetables from a mobile vendor in his Taman Tampoi neighbourhood.

Yesterday, Wong Ah Fong, 64, was waylaid by two men who stabbed him to death before he could reach the vendor’s parked van. 

Several people, who heard his cries for help at about 6.35am, rushed out of their homes and found him in a drain. 

They sent him to a nearby private hospital but he was pronounced dead on arrival. 

Two men on a motorcycle had apparently stopped the retired construction worker. 

One of them got off the bike and drove a knife into Wong’s stomach three times.  

Johor Baru (South) OCPD Assist Comm Shafie Ismail said Wong’s empty wallet was found several meters from the scene of the crime.

Hidden Revelation in the Genealogy From Adam to Noah

This is the first Guest Article that I’m featuring, an enlightening insight into the genealogy from Adam of Noah. I gladly welcome more on any topic 🙂

For those of you who have been following Apologia tou Kristou, this is the third featured example of the Messiah, Jesus Christ being declared waaaaaay back in the Old Testament.

(See A-Cross to the Promised Land and Christ as God in the Old Testament, with The LORD Said to my Lord and Isaiah in the Dead Sea Scrolls for additional support.)

And now, from guest blogger Michael Parson:

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I have much to share that might not be known by some, and would love to build up knowledge and faith (with the help of Jesus). I thought I might start by showing you a interesting insight I have come across from listening to lectures given by Dr. Chuck Missler.

Sometimes when reading Scripture we find things that at first glance seem to be nothing more than a bit of information the Spirit has put there so we will understand history. A good question to ask is, did God place this here for more than describing history?

I recall this about myself, how many times I have opened the New Testament and skipped over the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew. I heard a testimony of a Jewish man who found Christ through the start of Matthew. He had not known about Jesus, and when he read the Genealogy it hit home to his Jewish roots.

The Spirit places things there for many reasons. It tells us in Proverbs 25:2 – “[It is] the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings [is] to search out a matter.”

And Jesus tells us in the Gospels that if we look at the Scriptures (meaning the Old Testament), we will find that they are written about Him.
 
So I would like to share with you another discovery from a genealogy we find in the Bible. This one is found near the beginning of the Bible, in Genesis 5 . It is the genealogy from Adam to Noah.

You will find from the Scriptures that it was common for people to name children with a meaning. Usually it would describe an attribute, an act in their lives, or something to come.  A great example of this is Jesus, Whose name means salvation.

Hebrew names come from a root word, for example Adam comes from the root word ‘adomah’ which means ‘man’. This is a fitting name as he was the first man.

As we carry on throughout this genealogy, we can dig up the meanings of the names from their Hebrew roots. For time’s sake I will only give a few examples of root words, but remember what God said to us in Proverbs 25:2. 

Continuing through Genesis 5, we find Seth is next in line after Adam. Seth’s name means ‘appointed’, you will find a reference to this in Gen 4:25, where Eve says God has appointed her another son in place of Abel who had been killed by Cain.

After this we find Enosh which means ‘mortal’. The root is ‘anash’ which mean incurable, wound, grief… You can see how his name means mortal with words like that associated with it!

Next we have Kenan which means ‘sorrow’. Some of these name meanings are a bit sombre, I don’t think I would like to be named sorrow! I wonder why parents would name their child that? I can just imagine:

“Honey, I’m pregnant.”

“Oh man, my freedom is gone! Sorrow, oh what sorrow!”

🙂 Sorry, I’ll go on. Next we have Mahalalel. Things get a bit brighter with the meaning of his name. The first portion ‘mahalal’ means ‘blessed’ or ‘praise’, and ‘El’ is the name for God. (When you see ‘El’ in any name it has God’s name built into it, like Daniel.) So Mahalalel means ‘the blessed God’.

Next we have Jared which means ‘shall come down’. A rather odd meaning for a name? But read on and you shall see…

After this we have Enoch, which means ‘teaching’ or ‘commencement’. We know from the book of Hebrews that Enoch did not die – he was taken up by the Lord. His story is one of salvation. At 65 years old, he turned to God and walked with Him for the remainder of his 300 years of life, as a prophet proclaiming God’s judgment on a corrupt Earth.

The judgment would later come by the Great Flood in Noah’s time. There is a lot to talk about when it comes to Enoch, but I will save it for another day. I’d also love to address the reason for the long life spans in the Bible.

Next we have Methuselah. His name means ‘his death shall bring’. Methuselah’s name is actually a prophecy for the day of his death, for the Great Flood ‘his death shall bring.’

You will find a great show of Gods grace in this for Methuselah has the longest life span recorded in Scripture. God gave the world 969 years to turn from sin. But they did not.

Next we have Lamech, the root of his name means ‘despairing’. You will see the meaning of his name still evident in the English word ‘lament’. 

Now last but not least, we have Noah. His name comes from the word ‘nacham’ which means ‘to bring relief’. Noah’s name means ‘comfort’ and ‘rest’.

And we’re done, from Adam all the way to Noah! Now this is where it gets good. I’m sure you will find it worthwhile.

Is the above just a genealogy filled with interesting names? Or is it something more? Now that we’ve found the root meanings of each name, let’s put them all in order:

Adam – Man
Seth – Appointed
Enosh – Mortal
Kenan – Sorrow
Mahalalel – The blessed God
Jared – Shall come down
Enoch – Teaching
Methuselah – His death shall bring
Lamech – Despairing
Noah – Comfort and rest

Put those meanings into a complete sentence and you get: Man (is) appointed mortal sorrow, (but) the blessed God shall come down teaching. His death shall bring (the) despairing comfort and rest.

And there you have it, in the names of Adam to Noah, a summary of the New Testament message – the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

For Jesus is Himself God, who came to down to Earth to teach. His sacrificial death on the cross washed away the sins of despairing man, and gave them comfort and rest.

Wow that’s great eh! I would say there is no way it could be by chance. A seemingly boring genealogy holds inside itself a short summary of the New Testament, and also holds the statement that Jesus is God.

Jesus was right when He said the whole of Scripture speaks of Him! The Bible has the fingerprint of God all over it. It has a depth that we could spend all of eternity searching. And if we search with the power of the Spirit, He will show us the wonders to be found in the Scriptures.

Thank you for spending the time to read this, and I hope it put a smile in your heart! God bless.

Michael Parson

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Fantastic Flame Screensaver

My current screensaver program, and so far the ‘hottest’ screen saver I’ve ever come across! Everything on your screen bursts into gently roiling flames! Impressive stuff.

The fire effect depends on what your screen looks like when the screensaver kicks in… Different text, icons or images show up different flames. If you change your desktop image often (like me), then you’ll have lots of different stuff getting arsonized every week!

You can download the free trial version at  http://www.laconicsoftware.com/  which will give you the basic ‘screen catches red fire’ option. Other options like pre-set images or different colours/styles of fire only come with the full purchase.

For me, the basic desktop combustion is more than adequate. Especially soothing in the cold air-conned office…

The Star Opinion: Burgled Despite The Precautions

Yesterday it was the Sun; today the Star carries my letter. A welcome boost to my spirits at a somewhat down time.

It’s a piece about my recent brush with violent crime, and how absically nothing seems to be able to be done about it. Read it here:  http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/1/25/focus/16667961&sec=focus

 

The original full version that I sent in is as follows, with the parts the Star removed in bold. More poetic I feel, but also more morose and hoepelessness-invoking. I mean, the title alone would scare tourists off!

But by removing those very parts, they changed the slant of my letter: That criminals in JB seem to act with impunity and fearlessness. They seem to rule the streets at night. We, the upright citizens, are the ones who must skulk around and hide!

By removing the strong words and vivid imagery, they effectively neutered my persuasive powers to a great extent.

My aim had been to stir up public emotion – sympathy, outrage, trepidation – at the fact that criminals are now so brazen. The power of carefully chosen words… Ah, well.

Oh, but not to seem ungrateful! Kudos to The Star for printing my letter and the ones before!

But as long as something comes from this, I’ll be glad. It’s all in Your hands now, LORD. (It’s always been.)

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Johor Bahru: City of Criminals

A year ago, I moved to Johor Bahru for my job. I had heard plenty of warnings about the crime rate here. Having stayed in JB for a few months, these warnings became much more real as people I personally knew encountered car theft, burglary and even rape.

So I took all the necessary precautions. A steering lock for my car. Avoiding dark, lonely places at night. Keeping alert even when in seemingly safe areas. But as it turns out, I wasn’t nearly paranoid enough!

Recently, robbers broke into the house where I rented a room. They ripped the entire metal door off its hinges, robbed me at machete point and scooted off while the house alarm blared. It took less than five minutes.

After all my staying sharp and keeping on my toes, I was robbed in my own house at a time when I’m sound asleep! There was nothing I could have done to prevent it. The only safe place, a fortress of steel and bricks, was no longer safe.

The police duly took down the report, but couldn’t promise much. After all, the area I stayed in was (and I quote) “Famous for break-ins” and a place where “Robberies happen every day”.

Get that: Robberies every day. The police basically feel overwhelmed by the heart-attack inducing crime rate!

And the scary thing is… It’s so true! A gang of robbers can loot five houses and disappear before the police even arrive. Burglars can target the same housing area over and over, breaking through each successively upgraded security measure.

One word neatly sums up the attitude of criminals in Johor Bahru: Impunity.

After all, what can be done about it? Can the Government allocate more funds for the police force? Increase the salary for the lowest paid recruits so they aren’t so underpaid? Increase the number of night patrols to make it harder for criminals to carry on fearlessly?

The thinnest veil of sanity keeps us from giving in to the fear and helplessness of the situation! Police, Government, NGOs… Won’t someone, anyone do something to save us?!

Not very likely. People have complained about JB’s crime rate for years. Why should this year bring any difference? The police force is kept at the status quo while the criminals improve and multiply. And thus: Impunity.

My landlady has hired an armed guard to watch her house through the night. I myself have since moved to an apartment with a guard service – all the cases I know of happen at landed properties. Several neighborhoods have their own Rukun Tetangga style night patrols.

Perhaps that is the only solution, every man for himself and every neighborhood for itself, since the police force cannot be everywhere at once. Thus the families of Johor Bahru by neccessity adopt a siege mentality every night, while predators aggressively prowl their back lanes.

Sometimes I wonder if we law-abiding citizens truly are the minority, in a city ruled by crime.

SCOTT THONG YU YUEN

The Sun Speak Up!: Beware Fascism In Science

Yay, my letter to The Sun has appeared in print and online! And a long letter too. Thanks to my dad for spotting it. Here’s the link:  http://sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=16786

It’s in response to several letters in a row along the lines of ‘Creation is junk science and Evolution is sooooo great’ that appeared in The Sun. Having been riled up, I took it upon myself to present the other side of the story.

As it happens, a Dr. Richard Khaw wrote in around the same time and states that Evolution is merely a theory, not a full fledged fact. My letter serves to explain why that is so, hehe.

Originally titled ‘Evolution: Not As Perfect A Picture As Darwin Paints It’, I decided to include the screen captures below, followed by the full printed text. Yes, I do feel very proud and fulfilled!

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Beware fascism in science

Oh no, the creation-evolution debate has finally reached the shores of Malaysia! As a Bachelor of Science (Applied Biology), please allow me to say my piece.

Throughout my youth, I was a firm proponent of the theory of evolution. It struck me as a very elegant, clever and complete theory, and one that neatly explained how the variety of life we see today came to be. I regarded Darwinistic Evolution as an unchallenged fact.

Now that I am older and wiser, I realise that I did not then know the complete story. Evolution may be very clever and elegant, but it is by no means complete. I still think it is an excellent theory, but that is all that it is – a theory. It is not undebatably proven as a fact.

I present to you now several well-known problems with Darwinistic Evolution that are clear to see, even to the layman.

1) The lack of fossils that clearly show transitions between distinct life forms. Darwin knew that the lack of transitional fossils in his day presented difficulties to his theory, so he predicted that such fossils would be discovered in the future.

Today is the future that Darwin spoke of. Literally millions of fossils have been discovered, including those of soft-bodied creatures like jellyfish. Yet where are all the transitional life forms? Evolution predicts there should be just as many millions, but in reality there are only a handful of (highly debated) specimens.

2) Exactly how do complex organs evolve? This is the problem of Irreducible Complexity. Take an eye for instance. An eye requires all its individual parts to function correctly. If a creature evolved just a cornea first, it would serve no function. If it evolved just an optic nerve, that too would be useless. A creature has to evolve an entire, working eye in one single evolutionary step to have a useful, functioning organ.

How can step-by-step, slowly-does-it evolution achieve this? Add to that the fact that if one organism manages this amazingly wide evolutionary leap, it is merely one lone organism in a gene pool of millions. The new adaptation could easily be lost through death, further mutation or genetic crossing.

3) The biochemical Origin of Life. You may have heard it said that millions or billions of years ago, inorganic molecules such as methane and water randomly combined into the first organic molecules – perhaps using the energy from lightning or sunlight. These organic molecules then randomly combined into the first amino acids, the first proteins, the first DNA and the first living cells.

To a science graduate, this is quite clearly improbable, even blatantly incredulous! Having studied biochemistry and genetics, I know exactly how complex even a single organic molecule is, let alone an entire chunk of DNA!

Neither is a living cell a mere blob of easy-to-form gunk! Within the cell are countless tiny organelles, each with a specific function … And many of them also Irreducibly Complex!

Taking into account only pure chance, the odds of forming a working amino acid are so low that it would take an inordinate amount of time to eventually happen, longer than the time frame allowed by the age of the Earth.

In fact, if you were to mark a single atom and mix it into all the atoms in the whole entire universe, the odds of finding it at random are better than the odds of forming a single living cell by pure, unguided chance!

And that is assuming that the chemicals present in an early Earth were actually suitable for the formation organic molecules. The famous Miller-Urey experiment which “proved” that organic molecules can be synthesized has been shown to be based on faulty assumptions about the early Earth’s chemistry. The most recent research indicates that the early Earth’s chemical soup was not only unsuitable, it was downright toxic to organic life!

There are arguments for both sides of the above points. And there are many more problems facing Evolution which I have not addressed. I just wish to bring your attention to the fact that Evolution has as many unanswered questions as any other unproven theory. It is by no means universally accepted among the scientific community as the only truth about how life originated.

I am personally of the opinion that Creationism (and related to that, Intelligent Design) is not really a science, per se. But neither am I convinced that the theory of Evolution is satisfactory, unassailable and proven as a fact.

Those who dogmatically hold to the theory of Evolution, who gloss over its flaws and refuse to consider if there are viable alternatives, are acting just as “rational” as the Creationists they ridicule!

And when anyone raises the issue that Evolution is not yet a proven fact, the pro-Evolution side are quick to label them as “unscientific quacks” or “religiously motivated”. Alternative theories are automatically ignored and assumed to lack credible arguments.

To me, this is nothing short of scientific fascism on the part of the current majority – Evolution supporters!

Scott Thong Yu Yuen
Ipoh