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.
Humans will never find a cure for old age and death. It is written. The only cure is God Himself.
100 years ago short of an obvious tumor sticking out somewhere, it would’ve been “that sickly cow’s gone off her feed” or “I guess Fido was older than we realized, and in time God takes all his creatures home to be with him, kids.”. They didn’t go through all the measures we have these days to test for everything.
How many “died of old age”, “got into poison”, or “died of a bad heart” cases were really cancer? We’ll never know, but I suspect quite a few.
Scientists Find First Dinosaur Brain TumorScientists reported on Thursday they had found the first evidence of a brain tumor in a dinosaur, in the fossilized remains of a creature that lived 72 million years ago... Evidence of the tumor was found in a fossil of a 25-foot-long predator called Gorgosaurus, a meat-eater closely related to Tyrannosaurus rex, the announcement said. The fossil was discovered in 1997 at the Two Medicine Formation in western Montana's Teton County... He said the finding is significant because it is the first brain tumor found in any kind of fossil -- dinosaur or otherwise -- and it shows that problems like brain tumors "have been around basically forever." The ball-shaped mass was about two inches in diameter in a brain that was about half the mass of a human brain. The tumor took up almost all of the cerebrum, the part of the brain that processes higher thought, and was pressing against the brain stem, Larson said.
Thu Oct 23, 1:47 PM ET
Veterinarians are better at recognizing cancer and more aware than they were 20-30 years ago. IMO there was just as much before as now, vets are just better in diagnosing the problems.
So you don't use medical services?
I guess I’ll just wait and see, thanks.
Did you read the stinkin’ article linked in the thread?
Obviously not.
Here’s the link for the link impaired.
WCS Says Wildlife Faces Cancer Threat
http://www.wcs.org/press/press-releases/high-rates-in-wildlife-should-concern-humans.aspx
It’s not from a creationist site. You guys are reacting to the information based on the site that GGG posted it from. Go on to the link for the full article and read that.
If you still want to dispute the premise of the article, which is that animal cancers are apparently on the rise, fine, do so, but stop being intellectually dishonest in attributing it to the ICR and attacking it for being creationist when it’s not.
The ICR (and GGG) posted the link to site the source. Try being scientific about it and following the link yourselves.
The article posted on-thread is a creationist interpretation of such. Nice try, though, at misdirection.
BEst answer all day -— made me laugh and I needed to after that article
Only if by “both sides of the debate” you mean Young Earth Creationists and Geocentric Creationists both agree; as there is certainly nothing in biology that claims that organisms grow less fit or are fated to only lose genetic functions over time.
Do you think a population changing its DNA in response to environmental conditions in such a way that it better survives those conditions is an example of genomic degeneration of de-evolution?
Scietifically-robed mythology is what some would call stuff like this.
Scientifically-robed mythology is what some would call stuff like this.
Believe it or not, no one gets out alive
We're responding to the bleak position of the ICR and GGG that the world is in permanent decay.
Five to one
One in five.
Thanks for the ping!
Biology may not ‘mandate’ entropy but the laws of the universe and modern physics do. You are stuck with entropy (devolution of organized systems)as a fundamental understanding of how things work. Cells and living things are not an exception
half of one six dozen of the other?
It does not mean there are more cases, it only means there are more cases reported. Like people today over pampered pets live longer and develop more diseases. It is common sense 101.
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