New Light on Old Fossils
In a recent issue of the “New Scientist” attention is drawn to experiments carried out by a team of palaeontologists, led by Derek Briggs, at Bristol University which demonstrated that bacteria are able to turn flesh into stone within a few weeks. The team set out “to produce mineralised ‘fossils’, without having to wait hundreds of millions of years”. We are told that “they placed shrimp and prawn carcasses in containers of artificial seawater, then inoculated the containers with water from the Firth of Tay in Scotland, a site characterised by the activity of both aerobic and anaerobic bacteria. . . . Mineralisation started within two weeks and continued for at least four weeks. Briggs and his colleagues found that blocks of muscle tissue, individual muscle fibres and eggs were replaced by calcium phosphate particles less than 1 micrometre across. In mineral composition, textures and features, these phosphatised shrimps and prawns were very similar to the shrimps found in the stomachs of the fish from the Santana Formation in Brazil.” The Brazil fossils are reckoned to be 120 million years old! Without realising it this team of scientists has, in its own way, confirmed the truth of the Biblical account of creation and Noah’s flood. The fossil records do not prove the world to be millions of years old; they were formed at the time of the flood and under conditions similar to those which were reproduced in the laboratory at Bristol University.
— J. McL
Rome and the Labour Party Leadership
A writer in the “Daily Telegraph” has facetiously spoken of the Roman Catholic Church as “the Labour Party at prayer”. He, no doubt, was
thinking of how the Church of England was, in a similar way, in the past, often referred to as “the Tory Party at prayer”. There may be more truth in what he wrote than he is aware of. Having made such significant inroads in Royal circles it ought not to surprise us if attention is now directed towards political leaders. This particular scribe tells us that over the course of the Labour Party’s leadership election campaign Mr Tony Blair was prayed for at “Sunday” masses. It was already well publicised that Mr Blair’s wife was an ardent Roman Catholic; now the parish priest at the church where she worships has let it be known that “prayers were offered at Sunday masses” for her husband’s success in the leadership contest. A few days after the result, this priest, we are told, was celebrating a special mass of thanksgiving. “I offered prayers”, he said, “to thank God for the result”. We are further informed that this priest was not the only one of that fraternity who was engaged in this activity. And what about Mr Blair himself? Well, he is apparently an Anglican — “of the High persuasion” — so if he decides to move Romeward the step will not have to be a very wide one. In fact, he must be almost there; how else can he feel at home in the midst of idolatry, “hearing mass” in the company of his wife and children, and even often recruited, we are told, to read the so-called lessons? — J. McL
Rome and Politicians
A columnist in the “Daily Telegraph” informs us that Cardinal Hume, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, is urging people to show greater goodwill to politicians in what he calls their “high and noble calling”. We are then told that perhaps this advice should be interpreted in the context of the decision of the Heritage Secretary to award £1,500,000 of Government money ‘for the shoring up of Liverpool’s Roman Catholic Cathedral, as well as £465,000 for repairs and conservation to Westminster Cathedral.’ The shelling out of taxpayers’ money on that scale to an organisation whose coffers are already full is, in our view, nothing short of scandalous. Yet we may be sure that the cross-party Public Accounts Committee which usually closely monitors expenditure of this nature will simply nod this item through. — J. McL