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.
Did Mother Nature tell you why she changed her style?
...and those who accept Jesus Christ, the Creator of the Universe and everything in it, shall inherit ETERNAL LIFE. Amen? Amen!!!
Another in a long list of made up head lines!!!!
Thanks for the bleak and depressing message. Like I’ve said, you and your buddies do far more damage to religion, than science.
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.
You are correct, but in the past people were sane, and not willing to spend ten grand on a damn pet.
Actually, the article makes perfect sense. We are all subject to genetic entropy, and are headed for error catastrophy...both as individuals, and as a species, and indeed all life on Earth.
Thankfully, there is a remedy...John 3:16
See #26
PS That is precisely the way the Bible lays out our predicament. This article merely fills in some details with respect to the genetic effects of the curse that was handed down in the Garden of Eden.
Earth First! Then we stripmine Mars and make it our be-yatch!
That is not a remedy for cancer but rather a way to alleviate the fear. It's an after effect.
LOL!
Straw man arguments never make sense since they are not based on actual fact.
It is a remedy for both physical and spiritual death. Both of which are coming our way unless we accept the free gift of salvation from the Author of Creation. Do you really think it’s lights out when you die. Don’t you think that which operates your brain and animates your spacesuit live on? To think otherwise is to take a terrible, terrible risk IMHO.
I’m dumber for having read this.
Does that include all the critters?
LOL, fake is fake!!! Sort of like that DR degree the huckster said he had.
So in an age when scientists are discovering cures for cancer, you’re sending a message of hopelessness.
“stripmine Mars”
Just try it earthling, and my captain Marvin will vaporize you.
John Carter,
Barsoon, Mars
Did he say that? Why do evos keep jumping to the most absurd conclusions about what creationists believe and then accuse us of believing them, with no evidence that we do?
Sheesh.
Nope, just those who are made in God’s image. But don’t worry, the rest of God’s critters aren’t even thinking about it :o)
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