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Newsletter from Anne Habermehl    No. 6    May 2017

Greetings to all!

It has been too long since my last newsletter! Please believe me that I have not forgotten you all over the past months. It's been a busy time with several papers to research. I promise that I have felt guilty.

I've had a request from Mark Armitage to publicize his article on soft tissue in dinosaurs: "Might you consider publicizing my recent paper in Microscopy Today?... I remain the ONLY creationist researching soft dinosaur tissues and publishing in secular journals." I'm real glad to include the abstract of his paper here.* We cannot overestimate the importance of this research, that shows that dinosaurs cannot possibly have been millions of years old. This is a Big Stick that we young earthers hold in the evolution/creation debate. When I was in Istanbul over a year ago, a group of us were walking down a street on the way home from the restaurant where we had had dinner. I had given my presentation earlier that day at the archaeoacoustics conference on the dating of ancient musical instruments on the biblical versus secular timelines.  A scientist, who was walking beside me along the busy street, said that over many years he had looked into young earth creationism, but had not found any reason to believe it. What came to my mind on the spot was to say that scientists had found dinosaur blood cells that were preserved. He stared at me and said that he had not heard of any such thing. Clearly he was shaken. I expect to see him again in October, at the conference in Tomar, Portugal. I shall put Mark's paper on soft blood vessels in his hands. It will be a test to see how sincere this man is in his search.

My paper for the conference in Tomar will be "Archaeoacoustics and the Fall of Jericho," a departure from the previous musical themes. This will highlight the various sounds that must have accompanied the episode of the capture of Jericho. Of course, I will discuss whether or not the biblical narrative  described a true event or not. This will be a poster presentation, and I have not forgotten those of you who were supportive back in 2014 when I produced my very first poster on the Neanderthal flute, when this conference was held in Malta. That will surely make producing the poster easier this time. You can see the Tomar conference web site here: http://www.otsf.org/2017-conference.html . If you look down to the bottom right-hand corner of this web page you will see me playing the harp. I've promised to do a historical program of singing in the ancient Welsh language, accompanied by harp. The harp is the earliest instrument mentioned in scripture, so that it is no surprise that the playing of some kind of harp spread thoughout the world in the Babel dispersion.

As many of you know, I support the Septuagint as the most likely original version of scripture. It is with great interest that I see that Henry Smith and Jeremy Sexton are collaborating on a project to research the timeline determined by the LXX genealogies. Smith is also writing a paper for the ICC2018 on this subject, pending acceptance. For more on this, see the ABR web site: http://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2017/04/26/From-Adam-to-Abraham-An-Update-on-the-Genesis-5-and-11-Research-Project.aspx .

I am working on two papers for the ICC2018, also pending final acceptance, of course. One is on the ancient Göbekli Tepe archaeological site in southeast Turkey. All published information on GT naturally gives dates according to the secular timeline; what I am doing is working out how GT fits on our biblical timeline. The other paper is on the Egyptian Ipuwer Papyrus (why the principles of probability support this papyrus as describing events at the time of the Exodus). The subject of divergence of the biblical and secular timelines in the first, second and third millennia BC is ongoing in this paper as in all of my work these days (yes, it will even enter into my paper on Jericho ― which really were the walls of Joshua's time?). Just about every day I trip over another scholar who doubts the literal veracity of the biblical narrative, or outright claims that the Bible has to be wrong (some of these people aren't very subtle). And why the disbelief? It's always the same thing―they are looking for biblical events in the wrong place in time because they do not recognize that the biblical and secular timelines are different. If soft dinosaur tissue is a Big Stick for us, so is timeline divergence.

On to other things: There is news of a $500 million Museum of the Bible located a couple of blocks from the Capitol in Washington, D.C., tentatively to be opened in November. It will house the $800 million collection of the Steve Green family (not the Christian singer, but the owners of the Hobby Lobby business.) As described, the museum will not merely display Bibles, but will have Bible-related artifacts and many other features. They tell us that there is a full-size 3200-pound replica of the original Liberty Bell that is so large that it has been placed inside the museum while the building is under construction. Let us hope that they will never have to move this bell, because it appears that they will have to take the building apart to get the bell out! I especially like the idea of a Bible museum in the capital of our country that was founded on biblical principles. Here's a page of facts on the museum: https://www.museumofthebible.org/fact-sheet-museum-bible . You can even donate if you like, as the building cost is entirely privately funded.

Speaking of museums, the Institute for Creation Research in Dallas, Texas, is building one to be called the ICR Discovery Center for Science and Earth History. They have just had a groundbreaking ceremony and construction is to begin this month. They describe it as "a world-class 'teaching museum' designed to showcase the remarkable scientific evidence that confirms the Bible." You can take a virtual tour of it here: http://www.icr.org/museum-tour/ . Any donations from the Christian community that might come their way will be welcome; there is a $4 million matching-funds challenge ongoing. The overall cost of this museum is estimated to be over $23 million, but they admit that, as for all projects like this, it may well cost more before it is done.

And of course there is the famed Creation Museum run by Answers in Genesis in Petersburg, Kentucky. They now have a fullsize Ark replica at the Ark Encounter site (about 44 miles away in Williamstown, KY), and are adding facilities and exhibits and attractions at both places at quite a rate. The museum turns 10 years old this month. (Where has the time gone?) And yes, all this costs money. They will also be glad to take your donation! A note: Walt Stumper of Answers in Genesis tells me that the Museum of the Bible (see above) is a partner with the AinG Creation Museum, and sends AinG rotating exhibits every 6 months. Also, he says that there is a large permanent Museum of the Bible at the Ark Encounter, titled "The Voyage of a Book." Among other things it features artifacts from missionaries. If you want to know what those are, you will have to go and see them!

Personally, I have never met a museum that I didn't like, and have happily browsed some really interesting ones in many far countries. Size of the collection does not  necessarily correlate with how fascinating a museum is, either, and some of the ones that I really liked were very small. And there are some quirks. For instance, the museum entrance at Luxor, Egypt, featured a stern-looking soldier with a wicked-looking gun across his knees (this was some years ago). Presumably it was meant to make us feel safe, although I'm not totally sure that it did.

I saw the "Jonah" movie (film) that was shown on only one date, May 2, 2017, at theaters throughout the country; I had learned about it thanks to an email notification that Ken Ham sent to me and presumably everybody else on the Answers in Genesis mailing list. It's essentially a filmed version of the Jonah show that is being staged live for a run right now at the Sight and Sound Theater in Lancaster, PA (until October 14, 2017). Their productions are absolutely amazing! Jonah impressed my New York friend who has been to all the shows in the Big Apple (New York City). For information about their production schedule on this and other shows at their locations in both Lancaster and Branson, MO, go here: https://sight-sound.com/ . Seeing the movie wasn't quite the same as being there for the live stage performance, of course, but it was still very good, and it brought the story of Jonah to life. The audiences in Lancaster must be truly awed by that humongous fish that swims through the air over their heads. By the way, the filmmakers spared us the details of Jonah's ejection from the fish onto dry ground. Just as well, what with the popcorn and all...

In other creationist movie news, Creation Ministries is in the process of producing a film on UFOs, titled "Alien Intrusion." It's being billed by them as "a full-length movie treatment of the Amazon top-50 selling book Alien Intrusion: UFOs and the evolution connection." You can see a trailer here: http://alienintrusion.com/ . This book by Gary Bates has been out since 2004, but is now in an updated and expanded edition. I recommend the book, which is an eye opener on Satan's activities in the world today.

A sad piece of news is that one of our fine creationist scientists, Dr. Jack Cuozzo, has died. His major contribution to creationism is his brilliant work in showing that the Neanderthals were the long-lived people of the Bible. I've written a tribute to him here.

Wishing God's blessings on you for the coming months,

Anne Habermehl, B.Sc.
Creationist researcher, author and speaker
Cortland, New York, USA

*I've been unable to get the full pdf of this paper onto this web site. On request, I'll send it as an attachment. See here for how to email me.

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First newsletter, July 2015.
Second newsletter, October 2015.
Third newsletter, January 2016.
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Fifth newsletter, September 2016.

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