Three Seeds Went To Sea, Sea, Sea To See Where a Seed Could Seed, Seed Seed . . .

Hi guys, welcome to today’s post. As always, before I get to the new stuff, I’ll give updates on the old stuff.

First of all, the Christmas play, “A Big Misunderstanding,” is still on hold until we get some actors. December is approaching very fast, so if we don’t get actors soon, we might have to wait till next year! And everyone knows that’s way too long to wait. So if you would like to help, please contact me at animaladventures@aol.com to get locations, times and other need-to-know information.

The stop-motion film I will be working on, “Animal Face-Off: Hippo vs. Bull Shark”, will begin production during the first week of October (Lord willing). So it’s not that long to wait. I am also working on another great work, that will come out after I finish the Face-Off series. I don’t want to give away too much, but I will say it’s very cool.

Boy time flies doesn’t it? It’s fall already! For those of you that don’t know, fall began on the 22 of September, five days ago. A lot of things are getting ready for the season. Humans are gathering food from gardens and fields, and we are also getting ready for a big holiday: Halloween (I don’t celebrate Halloween, but we’ll talk about that a little later). Nature is getting ready for the change from summer to autumn as well – God gave the leaves on the trees the ability to change colors. Some trees shed their leaves, others just lay dormant. Some plants will wither and die. Animals are also getting ready for the change. Bears will be entering hibernation and some birds will be flying south for the winter for instance. Every day around 7:30ish a.m., while I am typing something on my computer, I will hear Canadian Geese honking as they fly over my house. I suspect I won’t see them any more soon until spring arrives once again.

Trees and other plants have an agenda of their own: get rid of their seeds so they can be ready to reproduce in the spring. But how do they do this? Well, many get rid of their seeds in a way of deception. Some for instance encase their seeds in delicious-looking (and tasting) nuts. This is when a cute little mammal comes into the scene: the squirrel! We have bunch of these guys living in a giant oak tree in front of our house. They chitter and jump around up there all the time. They now how to make a mess too! Acorns and leaves litter our driveway. Sometimes, an acorn will hit me square on the head! (But unlike Chicken Little, I don’t go around screaming, “THE SKY IS FALLING!!!”) As we all know squirrels will go nuts for . . . well, nuts! They spend a lot of their time collecting them and storing them underground. But sometimes the squirrel will forget a few nuts, so the nut has the opportunity to grow into a mighty tree! Squirrels are also being “green” this fall. Next time you go outside, see how many squirrels you can spot in a tree. If you’re quiet, you might even see them bury a nut for later.

As we all know, squirrels love these things!

Fruit has always been tempting to eat. Even back in Genesis, Satan tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit God instructed not to eat. Of course, today for the most part it is good to eat fruit (it wasn't that Eve eating the fruit was bad, it was the disobedience that was bad, but that's a whole other topic!). When humans eat fruit, they normally just spit the seeds out in the trash, depending on the type of fruit (it's very hard to spit banana seeds out, they are just too tiny). But animals don’t spit their seeds out a lot. They normally eat the fruit, seeds and all. Birds often eat fruit, but while the fruit’s flesh deteriorates in the stomach acids, the seed stays intact and comes out when the bird takes a “bathroom break”. The seed then falls to the ground and is ready to sprout, often times miles from the parent plant. The bird droppings even act as fertilizer for the baby seed. Some fruity seeds include, peaches, apples, bananas, raspberries, blueberries and sunflower seeds. This rule exists in other places too. Take the African Savannah for example. Antelopes, impalas, and giraffes can take seeds many miles across the Savannah! When you go outside, look for trees or shrubs with fruits on them. You can open the fruits up and check out the seed package inside.

The fleshy fruit surrounding the seed of a peach

Back to North America! Some seeds prefer a different method of getting around. Small seeds such as jewelweed, violets, and witch hazel come in little, leafy seedpods. Then at just the right moment, the seedpod will pop open and little seeds go whizzing through the air and land far from the parent plant. Neat trick! You can try out this trick! Try touching a seedpod and if it’s the right time, the seeds will pop and fly off to a new destination!

These pods look about ready to pop!

Some seeds like to get places a little quicker than that. They prefer to stick to moving objects, literally! The seeds of sticktights, burdock and a bunch of others have seeds called burs. You know those spiky objects your dog comes home with in its fur and they take forever to pull out? Those are burs. The bur trick of moving from place to place is to hitch onto to a passing object, such as a dog, a cat, a deer, or even your clothes. You probably guessed that the little spikes on burs keep them clinging on, and you would be correct. The burs simply stick onto whatever they stuck to until they either fall off or the animal (or person) scratches it off! Next time you get a bur on your dog or yourself, instead of throwing it in the trash, look at it closely in a microscope to see what these little guys look like up-close and personal (just don’t get pricked on those spikes!).

Did you know burs gave inspiration for Velcro?

Another way seeds get around is by whizzing through the air. Instead of falling off the tree, maple seeds just get carried off by the wind to lands afar. They have curved “wings” that help it spin in the wind like a helicopter blade does. My sister, Halle and I used to play with them all the time. We would pick up a bunch of them and throw them up in the air and watch them spin! What fun that was! You can give it a “whirl” too, just get some spinners and toss them in the air and watch the fun!

These little guys will appear to "flutter" to the ground after falling off a tree

The only problem with the “whirly seed” trick is that the landing has got to hurt if the seeds could feel pain, they would probably scream after falling. One seed doesn't just float in the air and plop down, it gently descends down to earth. You may often blow the seeds of dandelions, milkweed and other plants. These plants have their seeds in, or connected to little tufts of fine, silky hairs. Normally these hairs are tossed about by the wind before gently drifting down to the ground and growing up where they land. However, you can help with this process too! Just get a little dandelion seed and blow really hard. See how far you can get it. You could even have a dandelion race with your friends (just don’t breathe in or you’ll get a mouthful of fluff!).

If you were to blow on these,  they'd go up, up, up and awa-a-a-a-a-ay!

While drifting in the air and gently descending down is really fun, what happened if the seed fell in a pool of water? A pond? A lake? A sea? An ocean? The poor little thing would probably not have the opportunity to reproduce. Spinners, burs, and acorn-like nuts can’t travel across bodies of water easily (some fruity seeds can because they are inside an animal’s body while traveling). So therefore, most air-floating seeds can’t cross large bodies of water without falling in it. But some seeds can cross large bodies of water, even oceans. Some seeds such as coconuts can do this. So when a coconut falls into the water, it can float to new places such as islands. Talk about wide-spread! Coconuts aren’t the only water-floaters rocking the dock! Try to get some seeds where you live, toss them in a puddle or a pond and see if they float. (now hearing the rest of this posts title makes sense: . . . but the only place they could seed, seed, seed was the bottom of the deep blue sea, sea, sea! See?)

A Coconut sprouting a leafy stalk

Wow, seeds are way more impressive than what meets the eye! They really know how to get around don’t they. Seeds are just another example of a beautiful creation God has made for us to enjoy! 

Thanks for joining me today. Be sure to check back next Thursday to see what’s what in the amazing world we live in. Goodbye!

PS: Have a puzzling question about myself, nature, animals (including dinosaurs), Creation, God, my book, “THE KING ON ACROSS”, or etc.? Post your question as a comment or send an email to animaladventures@aol.com.

PS 2: Can’t get enough of nuts? Then you and squirrels have a lot in common! Check out the latest headline of Smiley’s News to see what my buddy Mr. Smiley has to say!

PS 3: Don’t forget, if you want to take part in the Christmas play, “A Big Misunderstanding,” send me an email.

PS 4: Ok, no one thinks this joke is funny, but maybe you will: Why didn’t the Sloth Bear cross the road? I’ll answer the joke next week.

PS 5: Please help expand our wiki: Exploration Books Pedia! It's free and fun!

Polly Want Lamb Chops?

Welcome back everyone. Today we’ve got a lot of cool and wacky stuff to go over, so let’s get started!

First of all, the Christmas play I wrote, “A Big Misunderstanding,” is sort of on hold. We only have three actors so far (two of which being my sister, Halle, myself and another youth). We really need to get this play going though, considering we plan to produce it on December 8^th. So if you’d like to help with this production, please send an email to me at animaladventures@aol.com.

Other than that, what else is going on . . . hmmm . . . oh! I remember! My next stop-motion movie: Animal Face-Off: Hippo vs. Bull Shark will be coming up soon. I plan to start “filming” during the first week of October and then after that it should (Lord willing) be easy-peasy lemon-squeazy. But how much do you really know about each contestant? Well, we will take a really close look at each animal soon, but today we’ll learn a few things about each animal.

The Hippopotamus is a large herbivore living in the rivers, lagoons, lakes and ponds of Africa. It has huge jaws and large canine teeth. These are mainly used for fighting other males. They may look fat and slow, but don’t be fooled – an angry hippo can run at over 30 mph! And hippo’s aren’t fat either, most of that bulk is actually made up of muscle and bone and almost no fat.

The Bull Shark has the highest testosterone level of any other animal ever measured (since dinosaurs are extinct, we obviously can’t know how much testosterone they had). These sharks have killed more people than any other shark, including the Great Whites. This shark has also had some interesting remains in its stomach – hippo flesh!

Who Will Win?!?

Hippopotamus

vs.

Bull Shark

So which contestant will win the fight? Well, you’ll just have to wait till it’s all finished in a few weeks!

People just love birds. One of everyone’s favorite types is no doubt the parrot. Parrots are very smart birds. We can train them to talk and recent tests even prove that at least some parrots actually know what they’re saying instead of just calling out words! God made these birds for us to enjoy. Parrots come in a wide range of sizes, from small Budgerigars to the giant Kakapo. Haven’t heard of the Kakapo? Well, it’s this large green parrot that lives on New Zealand. It’s not very parrot-like at all; it can’t fly! Most parrots, as we all know, can fly very well. We often like to have them sit on our shoulders, especially pirates. But one species of parrot is bound to surprise you. 

A Kea sitting on a rock.

This Kea Parrot is about to land on a white car. As you can see, the undersides of its wings are a beautiful orange color.

It’s called the Kea, a small green parrot (about 19 inches long) living in New Zealand. Most parrot species are loved by millions, but not the Kea. It denies normal parrot behavior and is rather . . . “mischievous”. First of all, it likes to live in urban areas where they will tip over trash cans, break car windows, invade camping sites, and play with windshield wipers to the point of breaking them! (So they’re sort of like foxes on the wing) Another thing that makes this parrot unique is that instead of living in the lush tropical forests, it lives in the snow on the alpine slopes. Keas are the only parrots known to live in this kind of habitat.

But probably the most surprising thing about the Kea is that instead of asking it, “Polly want a cracker?” you may want to ask, “Polly want a lamb chops?” This parrot will eat fruit, but lately, they've decided to go . . . no . . . it couldn’t be . . . could these guys be turning . . . CARNIVOROUS?!? Strange but true, in the spring, summer and fall, they normally eat daisies, berries and other fruits, nectar, pollen, insects and etc. But Keas have been seen actually eating not only stuff from trash cans (which is why they tip them over in the first place), but they also will eat carrion. In winter, these foods are harder to find. The rampage began in the 1800’s when people introduced sheep to New Zealand and the Keas started to eat carrion of dead sheep. Then they really went on the rampage! Keas are believed to have actually killed 200 or so sheep in a single night (in 1884) and 15,000 sheep in a season in. Just when you saw some animals appeared to be giving meat up like the lions did in a post I wrote a couple of weeks ago, another animal switches onto meat.

How on earth do they kill sheep anyway? Well, they fly over to the sheep and start pecking at sores and I’d assume the sheep eventually died of shock and blood loss. Four main theories arose as to why the Kea transformed almost overnight to be a sheep-killer:

A Kea damaging a car.

1. They just switched from eating insects to eating sheep
2. There were maggots in the carrion they were eating so this is when they developed a taste for meat/ 
3. The Vegetable Sheep theory is: Keas thought the sheep were plants when they were lying down so they just accidentally ate a sheep and thought, “Hey, this tastes pretty good! We should do this more often!”
4. The bird’s diet changed because of theory adaptability, intelligence, curiosity and mischievousness

The last theory I mentioned is the one most scientists believe is most likely. Many scientists believe they also used to feast on Moa carrion too (Moas are giant birds that went extinct a few hundred years ago). Boy, I’m sure glad these birds don’t prey on people! If they did, we’d all be in big trouble no doubt! Because of their sheep-hunting behavior, the Kea was hunted and actually became endangered. The good news is, this bird received full protection in 1986.

Fortunately for all sheep-kind, Kea predations on livestock have gone down drastically. They are getting rarer and rarer over the past few years. However, occasional Kea attacks on sheep are still being reported, and most of these attacks are on sheep that are old, weak or sick (but some people sometimes will find healthy sheep with Kea wounds). So it seems as though the Kea is finally calming down . . . at least for the moment . . .

But don’t you start thinking this is the end of it! Kea’s aren’t the only so-called herbivores that weren’t told they are supposed to eat plants! A farmer in India lost 48 of his chickens. He suspected some dogs had done the deed, so he and his brother went out one night to catch the culprit. Boy were they in for a surprise when they saw his cow named Lal sneak into the chicken coop and started to grab and eat the chickens! How shocking in deed. So it turns out those cows promoting Chick-Fil-A aren’t only promoting the business, they’re also eating at the business!

Another example would be the was when someone took a trip to Kangaroo Island in Australia, the person dropped a BBQ steak sandwich. Then two grey kangaroos came in and devoured the sandwich, bread, meat and all.

In 1992, a wild Panda Bear killed and ate 26 goats before being captured and studied. In 2002, a British researcher got quite a shock when she saw a sheep snatch an oblivious grouse and devoured it whole! 

Another sheep was seen gobbling up nine chickens. There’s even a horse that actually will chase down chickens and eat them whole. And believe it or not, when a film crew was filming a migration of Wildebeest in Africa, they were migrating through a river where our “friendly” hippos live. Some wildebeest were killed by crocodiles who also inhabit the river, but before some of the crocodiles could eat, hippos came in and started eating the carcass!

Should I go on? Just as many carnivorous animals will have a vegetarian diet, many animals have become carnivorous herbivores. This, as horrifying as it may be, is a reminder to us that all animals were originally designed to eat plants as it says in Genesis. But after the first people rebelled against God, animals could go either ways. Most chose to go herbivorous because that was what their bodies were most designed for, but others chose to become carnivorous. Of course though, as we just learned, animals can change their diets. Fortunately most animals tend to stick with the diets that best suits their bodies (for instance, while horses can eat chickens, they must have a hard time tearing the bird apart with those dull teeth). Most animals probably would get sick if they tried to eat food that doesn’t suit their body. However, even in this fallen world we live in, God has promised us to one day, restore His beautiful creation.

Well, this must have been an eye-opener for a lot of you! It was for me when I first learned this stuff. That’s all for now, so until we meet again, I’ll look forward to seeing you next time. Bye!

PS: Have a puzzling question about creation, animals (including dinosaurs), myself, my most recent book “THE KING ON A CROSS”, a stop-motion movie or etc.? Post your question as a comment or send me an email to animaladventures@aol.com.

PS 2: Don’t believe anything I said about these carnivorous-herbivores? Check out these links: Carnivorous Cow, Bird-Killing Sheep, Wild and Woolly! and Air Attack.

PS 3: Want to see my latest stop-motion film, “Animal Adventures Presents: Animal Face-Off: Lion vs. Tiger”, or my next-to-latest film, “Jurassic Park: TheGame: Triceratops Trouble” either by clicking the links or by going on Youtube.

PS 4: Want to see the latest headline? Go to Smiley's News

Animal Face-Off: Lion vs. Tiger!

Hello everybody, thanks for stopping by today. Now I’ve got some good news and some bad news. Bad news first: we lost our “Zoey” for the Christmas play I wrote, “A Big Misunderstanding.” But even though this is pretty bad, there is something good to come out of this. Now a part has opened up. So that means we still need the parts of Kate, Mira AND Zoey, along with the 12 other NON-SPEAKING ROLES. So if you like acting and are close enough to take part in this production, please contact me as animaladventures@aol.com for locations, times and other need-to-know stuff.

Now, I know how you have been waiting anxiously for the good news, here it is: “Animal Face-Off: Lion vs. Tiger” is here for you to view today! This is the third stop-motion movie (or short film) I’ve made, the first one being “Dinosaurs – The Mission.” I didn’t put that one on my blog because it isn’t really that good. As a matter of fact, it’s quite the contrary. But my second one, “Jurassic Park: The Game: Triceratops Trouble” is on this blog for viewing. But enough about stuff I’ve already done, let’s talk about this film. Later, if you want to view it on Youtube, it is on my Youtube channel: ANIMALADVENTURES CHANNEL, where you can see it and the other films I have on the channel (if you choose to watch the whole channel, please check out www.answersingenesis.org to learn some facts from a creation world-view). So, after all these many weeks of waiting, let’s see which jungle cat, the lion or tiger, will win in a virtual face-off right now. Be sure to . . . what? Oh, Ok, I won’t keep you any longer; let’s see the outcome of the fight:

Well now, that was interesting. That cat really nailed the other one down didn’t it? As it said in the video, please be sure to check the next stop-motion film: “Animal Face-Off: Hippo vs. Bull Shark.” I will probably start production on that film a few weeks from now (perhaps it will be finished sometime in October). Also please tell me how you liked the film you just watched by posting a comment or emailing me the feedback.

As for what else is going on around here, well, not much. With the play on standstill we can’t really do much with it until we get some more actors. My next book, the dinosaur one, is also on standstill. My editors have yet to read it because of their busy schedule. But once they read it, Lord-willing, I will be able to publish it. I hope to publish it by the winter of 2014. I’m not saying it will necessarily take that long to publish, but that’s my deadline and Lord willing, it will get finished before that time.

After the Animal Face-Off series, I have some great stop-motion films planned. By that time, I will hopefully be finished with these “practice films” so I can move onto the big stuff. I am working on an episodic mini-series that I hope to “produce” after the Animal Face-Off series. I don’t want to give away too many details yet (that spoils the surprise) but I will say that it’s going to be a great work once finished.

So that’s all the new stuff happening around here. Be sure to check back next week for more cool stuff. See you next time!

PS: Have a puzzling question about me, my latest book “THE KING ON A CROSS”, animals (including dinosaurs), stop-motion movies, Creation or etc? Send me an email to animaladventures@aol.com or post your question as a comment (If you send an email, PLEASE SAY IN YOUR EMAIL THAT YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS BLOG SO I DON’T THINK IT’S SPAM).

PS 2: Be sure to check out our wiki website, ExplorationBooks Pedia and the latest headline on Smiley’s News.

PS 3: Want me to write a post on a specific topic? Have a stop-motion movie idea? Send me an email.

The Mighty Tiger

Boy, I have made a lot of progress with my latest stop-motion movie, “Animal Face-Off: Lion vs. Tiger.” But before we get onto that topic, let’s talk a little bit about what else has been going on around here.

The next rehearsal/casting call for the Christmas play, “A Big Misunderstanding” is going to happen on September 8^th. We still need to fill in the speaking roles of Mira and Kate, and the other 12 non-speaking roles. I am really excited to get this project underway. If you would like to participate (and are close enough to help), please send me an email to animaladventures@aol.com, for locations, times and other need-to-know stuff.

 Now I can talk about the stop-motion movie: and it is 100% finished! I will show it on next week’s post. First though, I wanted to talk a little bit about the Panthera Tigris or, aka the “tiger”, since we talked about the lion last week. Not many people know this, but there were actually nine subspecies of tigers that have lived on the continent of Asia:

Bengal Tiger

Indochinese Tiger

Siberian Tiger

Malayan Tiger

Sumatran Tiger

South Chinese Tiger

Javan Tiger

Caspian Tiger

The only free Bali Tiger picture I could track down

 Today, there are only six species; the Caspian (which went extinct in the 1970's), the Bali (which went extinct in 1937) and Javan Tigers (which also went extinct in the 1970's) are all gone, which is why the pictures I found are in black and white. We’ll talk about why in just a minute. Now technically, tigers actually are related to lions, as only a single pair of cats came off Noah’s Ark after the Flood. And this cat kind had the DNA in it for ALL the later species of cats. And from this cat kind, a species called the tiger emerged from a process of natural selection. Natural selection is NOT evolution, by the way. However, today I wish to stay on the tiger topic, so for more on natural selection, check out one of my previous posts entitled “Return of the Great Mammoths”.

Now, where was I? Oh yes, I remember. Tigers all descended from the cat kind and from there they spread out over Asia and diversified into the different sub-species of tigers. A subspecies is different from a species. “Subspecies” is a term that is used to describe the differences within a species of animal, in this case, the tiger.

Tigers habitats very greatly. They live everywhere from the lush tropical forested, almost swampy habitats, to the freezing cold Polar Regions called the Taiga. They also hunt a wide range of prey, including wild pigs, monkeys, orangutans, deer, baby elephants, you name it!  They use those black stripes to camouflage into the dense jungle. Did you know that tigers are the only cats to have orange skin? Yep, the fur is not the only orange thing on this cat. Tigers also can be white. This is caused by a genetic mutation. However, no matter how hard you look, you will never ever see an adult white tiger in the wild. Why? Well, because they are too easy to spot in the dark jungles. A predator can easily spot a baby tiger and eat it. And even if the baby white tiger managed to survive predators, it wouldn't be able to catch enough food because prey would see it from a mile away. Now if these white tigers lived near, let’s say the North Pole and they had a thick coat of fur, they would be quite common in the wild. But apparently, God didn’t want these cats in the North Pole. So if you’re looking for a white tiger, try the nearest zoo.

You have probably heard about a famous extinct cat called the Saber-Toothed Tiger. It probably got this name, not only because it has saber-teeth, but also because of its resemblance to a tiger. But guess what, the name “Saber-Toothed Tiger” is really a misnomer, since these cats are only distantly related to tigers. This is why scientists prefer to call them “Saber-Toothed Cats”. By the way, since we are talking about extinct cats, this is probably a good time to bring up the topic of why some subspecies of tiger have gone extinct. The answer is that they were overhunted. Who could dare over hunt the beautiful tiger? Well, their beauty is also their downfall. Many hunters over the years have hunted these cats for their coats. Fortunately, some ingenious people noticed that tiger populations were in decline, so they had the tiger put on the Endangered Species List so it was illegal to hunt the tiger. Now they’re safe . . . right? Not quite. See, there are still people who will illegally go out and kill tigers. These evil hunters are called poachers. Even today, tiger skin and bones will fetch a pretty price in some countries. You may be wondering why on earth so many folks would want tiger bones (and most of these people don’t wish to display the tiger bones in a museum or something). In many cultures, people believe that tiger bones have medical capabilities and are crushed up to use as medicine! Really, I’m not joking around! And believe it or not, these so-called “medicines” don’t really work, so they have no practical use to the buyer (but apparently, the buyers don’t know that). The South Chinese Tiger is really on the brink, it is almost extinct in the wild. The majority of these tigers is in captivity. And even the ones in captivity only came from about six individuals, so the gene pool is very small. It is already too late to save the Bali, Caspian and Javan tigers, but what can we do to save the other six species of tigers?

Well, people have set up national reserves to protect the living space for these predators! Also, people have been breeding tigers in captivity so that their numbers can eventually go up. In the past few years, tiger numbers world-wide are starting to become stable. There is also a way that you can help! How? Well, tell your friends and family not to buy tiger products and to also tell other people about the tiger’s plight. You can even send money to special organizations who help tigers (I’m not saying use money that would otherwise go in the offering plate at church. Give 10% to God, the creator of the tiger and then use some for the tigers themselves). By doing all these things, we can save one of God’s creations, the tiger, from extinction!

Well, that’s all we have to tell about for today. Be sure to check back next week for more updates, animal facts and other cool stuff! Bye for now!

PS: Have a puzzling question about me, animals (including dinosaurs), Creation, God, Christianity, my book, “The King on a Cross,” or etc? Want to just get some information in general? Post your question as a comment or send me an email to animaladventures@aol.com.

PS 2: Be sure to check back next week to see which animal will win in "Animal Face-Off: Lion vs. Tiger!" To see the last stop-motion movie I made, click here.

PS 3: What's the latest news headline? Check it out on Smiley's News.

The Blood-Thirsty Lion?

Sorry I’m a little late folks. Now normally this blog is updated every Sunday (or Monday), we’ve been having trouble with internet capabilities so I might be a bit behind on occasion. I also might have to switch my updating day to Thursday, so please bear with me.

My latest stop-motion film project: Animal Face-Off: Lion vs. Tiger is going well. I am just waiting for the script to be printed so I can get started. So I’d say it’s about 20% finished.

Also, our next practice for the Christmas play I wrote entitled, “A Big Misunderstanding,” is scheduled for September 8^th. For exact dates and times be sure send me an email to the address near the end of this post. We still have two major speaking roles to fill (the parts of Mira and Kate), along with the 12 other non-speaking roles. So if you like acting and are close enough to come, please do so!

What a lot of people don’t know about me is that I also do a lot of research on upcoming movies. And from my research I have found out that there are quite a few movies coming out in the near future that most people only hear about a few months prior. Pixar is making quite a few of these movies. Recently, they came out with a movie called “Brave” (I haven’t seen it so I can’t give a review). The movie they plan to have out next goes with another movie they produced in 2002 that was really a landmark for the series. This movie was none other than “Monsters Inc.”  Well, the guys at Pixar have decided to create another Monsters Inc. movie. However, there’s a catch to this movie, and it is explained in the movie’s “slogan”. It says: “Since the very first bedtime, all around the world, children have known that once their mothers and fathers tucked them in and shut off the light, that there were monsters hiding in their closets, waiting to emerge. But what they don’t know . . . is that those monsters weren’t always so scary, they had to go to college first.” Yep, this movie’s not a sequel to Monsters Inc., it’s a prequel. This movie takes place ten years before Monsters Inc. The movie is coming out in the summer of 2013. Other movies Pixar are hoping to create are

•        The Good Dinosaur
•          Planes
•          Possibly a sequel to “Finding Nemo” (this has yet to be confirmed)
• The Untitled Film that goes into the head of a little girl

Check out the teaser trailer below:

Anyway, back to the present. With the Animal Face-Off movie coming up, I decided we could look at these two animals for a little while. So, let’s take a closer look at the Panthera Leo, or “Lion.”

Think you know everything about the “King of Beasts”? Well, we’ll see about that! First of all, some of you might be thinking that lions and tigers don’t really meet in the wild because they live on two separate continents -- lions in Africa, tigers in Asia. For the most part, that’s true, today at least. But back in the day, lions were quite numerous on both continents. Their range went from the Kalahari Desert in Africa all the way to South East Asia! The Bible even talks about this to some extent, as you will recall that the shepherd boy David killed a lion when it came to attack his flock of sheep (with God’s help of course). Another account of lions in the Bible was when Daniel was put into a den of lions when he refused to worship the king. And another event was when a disobedient prophet was killed by a lion (1 Kings chapter 13). This prophet (the Bible doesn’t give us his name) was told by God to go deliver a message to a town and he was told not to eat a thing. After delivering the message, he visited a old prophet who insisted that God said he could eat now. Then the old prophet really did get a message from God: that the unnamed prophet had disobeyed by eating on his trip. Then God had a lion kill him. So after looking at these and countless other ancient accounts (in and out of the Bible), it would be impossible that lions did not live in the Middle East.

The "Panthera Leo's" former and present habitat.

Lions were revered in many countries. They are very dangerous animals as we all know. Now, let’s pretend you had a pet lion. What would you feed it? Meat of course! I mean, lions are carnivores so they have to eat meat to survive because they simply can’t digest plants and other non-meats . . . right? Well, I guess nobody told “Little Tyke” that. From 1946 to 1955, a female African lion was owned by Georges and Margaret Westbeau. They nicknamed the lion, “Little Tyke”. She was born and raised in America. Now they fed this lion liked a strange diet: grain, raw eggs and milk. If even one drop of blood were added to her milk, she would sniff it and walk in the other direction! This is a meat-disliking carnivore! What’s wrong with her? Folks were sure that lions had to eat meat to survive, but Little Tyke proved this was not the case. For her whole life of nine years, she didn’t eat a single speck of meat. Little Tyke isn’t the only “vegetarian-carnivorous” lion. 

In 2002, Lea, a lioness arrived at Rhino & Lion nature reserve all the way from Rome in Italy. Like Little Tyke decades before her, Lea didn’t eat red meat either. Instead this seven year old lion was raised on a diet of potatoes, green vegetables and cheesy pasta (speaking of cheesy pasta, I’m feeling hungry just thinking about it). There was just one food however she liked more than any other: spaghetti. Then it’s no wonder she got the nickname “Spaghetti Kid”! Now only was she picky on what she liked, she was also picky on how what she liked was prepared. When her new keepers fed her spaghetti with cut tomatoes, she refused to eat. The keepers had to be corrected: Lea only like tomato sauce, not cut tomatoes. So she’s a “picky-vegetarian-carnivore”. Apparently the keepers didn’t feel good about this diet so they were able to switch her diet to red meat within a week.

These images were taken from http://creation.com/lea-the-spaghetti-lioness

Some lions don’t like eating meat, as we just learned. However, some lions even have trouble killing the meat. In 2002, one wild lioness named ­­­­Kamunyak (which means "blessed one"), did a weird thing with a baby antelope she just caught. Instead of killing it like she normally would, she started to take care of it! Many people were surprised that a ferocious killer like Kamunyak could actually take care of her prey. Scientists were astonished! Kamunyak was so devoted to the baby antelope that she even neglected her own health to ensure the baby was protected. Unfortunately however, the baby was killed by a roving male lion (that’s just plain tragic! I’m going to have to give that male lion a call and tell him he just upset hundreds of people!). But one baby wasn’t enough for Kamunyak. She adopted five more baby antelope, and while they didn’t survive nearly as long as the first, we can plainly see that this lion was not the ferocious killer that we’d expect her to be!

Lions refusing to eat meat, lions caring for their prey . . . hmm, this is strange! This has never happened before in the history of the planet! Actually, it has. As a matter of fact, the Bible clearly states that this sort of behavior isn’t new. It is actually rather . . . old. In the book of Genesis, chapter 1, verse 30: “ ‘And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground – everything that has the breath of life in it – I give every green plant for food.’ And it was so.”  This is God’s voice commanding every animal on the planet that they were to eat fruits, vegetables and other plants. You see, God created everything to be perfect. Even the lions, or whatever cat God created, was to eat plants. However, when man sinned all of Creation was cursed and everything became corrupt. But let’s look at another book of the Bible, Isaiah 65:25: “The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox . . .” This is a section of the book of Isaiah that explains not the past or present world, but a future. This future world is different than anything we have experienced before. If you read on in the book of Isaiah and Revelation, you would see that this new world is when God creates a new heaven and a new earth. There will be no more sin, curses, death, disease, struggle, hardships, sadness, pain, etc, etc, etc. And it appears that in this new world, God will create animals that will eat plants, just like Lea and Little Tyke did. And best of all, we will be able to see God Himself. Boy, I’d better book a permanent visit to this new world. Wait a minute, I’m already booked! Would you like to be booked to this permanent visit too? Well, first you should know that God has a problem with sin, the bad things that we do. And believe me, we “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23 (and yes, that includes me, too). Sin would include things like stealing (even a rubber band of CD), hating someone (God compares hatred to murder), being disobedient to parents, lying (even the so-called “white lies”) and committing adultery (God says that even looking at a person with lust is committing adultery). A common way people sin every day is saying the expression “Oh my God.” This is misusing God’s holy Name. People who use God’s name as a curse word have also sinned. Due to all the sin we’ve done throughout our lives, we don’t deserve to even book a visit to this new world. Instead, we deserve a booked permanent visit to Hell. Fortunately, God doesn’t want us to miss out on this permanent holiday destination. Instead, God provided a way for even us sinners to get to Him. He sent His only begotten Son named Jesus Christ to take the punishment we deserve: death, even though He did nothing wrong. However, three days later he rose again and went back up to live with His Father. Would you like to book a permanent visit to the new world? It’s not hard to do. You just need to follow these simple steps that are as simple as A-B-C:

·         A: We must Admit to God that we’ve sinned and turn away from it

·         B: We must Believe that Jesus is God’s Son and accept His gift of forgiveness

·         C: We must Confess out faith in Jesus as our Savior and Lord and live our life for Him.

See? Can’t get much easier than that! Would you like to make those steps right here? Right now? Well, say this quick little prayer to God:

“Dear God,

I know that I’m a sinner, and I also believe that Jesus is Your Son and that He came into the world to take a punishment I cannot pay. Please come into my heart today, oh God, and help me to live for You for the rest of my life, amen.”

If you said that prayer and meant it with ALL your heart, you are now officially booked into that permanent trip to the new world! Congratulations! Please be sure to send me an email to the address near the bottom of this post so that we can help you get on the road to living a brand new life with God as a Christian.

Oh! I almost forgot! The “new world” isn’t quite open for business yet! However, after we die, God has provided a perfect place for us to wait for its opening. A cool place called heaven! Oh boy, won’t this be exciting! A permanent holiday destination that’s absolutely free. Thank you for joining me today and be sure to check back next week for more cool stuff. Good bye!

PS: Have a puzzling question about creation, animals (including dinosaurs), God, Christianity in general, myself or any my stop-motion movies or my newly released book: “The King on a Cross?” Post your question as a comment or send me an email to animaladventures@aol.com. You can also do the same if you’d like to start your walk with Christ.

PS 2: Don’t believe what I said about those lions? Check out these links: The Lion that wouldn't eat meat, Spaghetti Lion, and Heart of a Lioness.

Return of the Great Mammoths

Welcome back folks! The Christmas play is going great so far. I'd say it's about 30% done. We officially have the parts of Zoey (played by one of our youth at church), Kim (played by my sister Halle), Jack (played by a youth at church) and Ben (played by yours truly). Along with the 12 NON-SPEAKING ROLES, we still have two female parts to fill, Mira and Kate, two new characters to the "Kim and Zoey" franchise. To check out the book that started the "Kim and Zoey" series (which isn't really a series yet since there's only one book out so far) click this link: The King on a Cross. Of you like acting, please feel free to send me an email to animaladventures@aol.com.

Some news on the next stop-motion film: I have completed the script and will start "filming" it soon.

By the way, before I get any further, I'd like to say I have officially opened a new blog! It's called "Smiley's News". You can reach it by clicking on this link: Smiley's News or by going to smileysnewspaper.blogspot.com. This blog is the news paper of Mr. Peter Smiley. While some parts may be fictional, it is a fun read and contains some facts as well. Go check it out! (After you finish reading this post of course).

This summer, a new movie came out into theaters. It's called Ice Age 4, or better known as Ice Age: Continental Drift. I have pretty much have no idea what the plot is since I haven't seen the movie yet, but I do hope to get it on DVD from Netflix. Anyway, one of the main characters in the movie is Manny, who is a Woolly Mammoth. Now, when most people think of mammoths they think of Woolly Mammoths, but there are many types of mammoths and they have living relatives: the elephants. The elephant family tree is HUGE! As a matter of fact, there were well over 600 species of elephants roaming the globe thousands of years ago,  but today, I'll stick to the mammoths. Here are just a few species:

Columbian Mammoth

Southern Mammoth

Imperial Mammoth

Woolly Mammoth

Woolly Mammoths are the mammoths that are normally depicted in popular culture around the world in movies (such as Ice Age 4), video games, computer games, books and etc. They went extinct at the end of the Ice Age about 3,500 years ago, about 500 years before Moses (and the Ice Age fits perfectly into the Biblical world-view). These behemoths roamed the snowy plains of Northern Siberia, Asia and North America. While there are still rumors floating around that mammoths still survive somewhere on the planet, the most likely conclusion is that they are extinct. And unfortunately we will never get the opportunity to see one . . . right? Would you be surprised to see a Woolly Mammoth walking in your backyard? What if I told you extinct doesn't have to be forever? Well, some scientists are thinking seriously about bringing the mammoth back from the brink by cloning them! How can they do this? You see, unlike most extinct animals, mammoths left a lot more than a few fossils to prove their existence. When these animals died many years ago, they were quickly covered, many probably were either buried in dust storms or sunk in sticky mud in lakes or ponds. After the animal drowned, they didn't have time to rot and so today, we actually find mammoths underground in the permafrost of the northern regions of our planet, including the fur and flesh! They are practically frozen in time! After excavating these mammoths and bringing them to labs, scientists have been able to actually extract DNA from these creatures. But there's one problem: just having DNA won't help, because in order to clone something, you also need a way to get a baby animal. However, mammoths have living relatives: the elephants! Scientists have many possible methods to hopefully clone a baby Woolly Mammoth. These methods can get very confusing, even for me, so I'll go through one of their less complex methods:

1. First, they extract reproductive "stuff" from a frozen male mammoth (I won't explain what exactly because some of our readers might not be ready for it)
2. Then they implant this "stuff" in a female Asian Elephant
3. Hopefully, the embryo will grow in the mother elephant and she will give birth to a half mammoth, half elephant calf aka a "mammo-phant"!
4. After breeding many other baby "mammo-phants", they will breed the calves that most resemble their ancient relative and over time, their offspring will resemble a baby mammoth and they won't be extinct!

"But wait a minute," you say, "wouldn't an "mammo-phant" turning into a mammoth be evolution?" Well, no it's not. Being a born-again Christian, I don't believe in evolution and millions of years. Instead, I believe that the Bible is to be taken literally when it talks about Creation. The Bible says God created ALL land animals on Day 6 of the Creation week. Well, when God made elephants, he didn't make Asian Elephants, African Elephants, Woolly Mammoths, Columbian Mammoths and etc., etc. all during that Creation week. No, God probably only made a particular type of elephant or mammoth. And this mammoth or elephant carried the DNA for all other elephants and mammoths that would later rise from natural selection. Natural selection is NOT evolution, as evolutionists would like us to believe. Instead of an organism rising out of . . . well . . . nothing and gaining more "genetic information" over millions of years as evolution teaches, natural selection is when an organism loses "genetic information" over time instead of gaining it. So if elephants "naturally selected" from mammoths, an elephant couldn't "naturally select" back into a mammoth (we don't really know if elephants descended from mammoths or not, I just used this example so you could understand better). So no, a "mammo-phant" turning into a mammoth is not evolution. See these articles on Answers in Genesis for more information: Cloning the Woolly Mammoth, Zonkeys, Ligers and Wolphins . . . oh my!

So back to the cloning of the mammoth (and by the way, there are other possible cloning methods that would not involve a "mammo-phant". Instead, they would give us a 100% Woolly Mammoth). I am quite excited about the possibilities of seeing a real, live Woolly Mammoths. Scientists expect to bring the mammoth back from extinction within another five or six years! I hope they succeed, don't you? After that, what's next? Tasmanian Tigers? Dodos? Saber-Toothed Cats? Tyrannosaurus rex? The possibilities are endless!

I really hope you enjoyed reading this post as much as I did writing it. Be sure to check back next week for more cool stuff. Good bye!

PS: Didn't get enough mammoth facts? Don't worry, I'll write some more mammoth posts soon.

PS 2: Have a puzzling question about animals (including dinosaurs, mammoths, lemurs and etc), Creation, my books, stop-motion movies, or etc? Send me an email to animaladventures@aol.com or post your question as a comment. IF YOU SEND ME AN EMAIL, PLEASE SAY IN IT THAT YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS BLOG SO I DON'T THINK IT'S SPAM!

Leapin' Lemurs!

Alright, we've got a lot to go through today, so get your seat belts on tight! It's going to be a bumpy ride! (Of course that's a complete exaggeration but you get my point) You will recall that I mentioned the casting call last week. How did that go? Well, not good at all. I sat for three whole hours sitting on a very uncomfortable bench waiting for someone to show up. No one did. So we had another one right after church, and thankfully we've got some actors! Of course, we can still use more actors. There are four more speaking parts to fill and about 12 NON-SPEAKING ROLES we have to be filled. So if you want to take part, it's not too late. Just stop by Vassar Road Baptist Church after service (or you can stay for service) and we'll see what part fits you best.

By the way, how did you like the stop-motion film I made that was in the previous entry? You can post your opinion as a comment. You may be wondering if I have another one. Well, I do, but I have had trouble getting it onto the computer. But I am working on my next one. It's the first of a series called "Animal Face-Off" and this first episode is called "Lion vs. Tiger". This series is based off of a series that appeared on Animal Planet a few years back (like I said in my last entry, I'm still making short films as practice). If it seems rather weird that lions and tigers would fight because of where they live, well, this fight does happen in the wild (lions and tigers both live in Asia). As a matter of fact, ALL of the animal fights in the series DO happen in the wild, but we rarely witness them. So what I intend to do in this series, is recreate these fights (don't worry, they don't get too graphic) and see what the outcome will be. So it's time for:

WHO WILL WIN?!?

vs.

So what this is is a poll to see what animal you guys think will win the fight. (Now I have done my research to ensure the fight is as accurate as possible) This episode of Animal Face-Off is Lion vs. Tiger. So what you can do is do your research and then post a comment that says which animal you believe will win. Then sometime in September, I'll show the video of the fight.

As you'll recall in the book of Genesis in the Bible, God created all the land animals on Day 6 (this includes dinosaurs). These animals would have included an animal we all know and love - the lemur. Now lemurs might look like monkeys, after all they are both primates, but lemurs and monkeys are not related, contrary to what those brainwashed evolutionists say. Lemurs are actually prosimians. Prosimians (Pro-sim-ee-ans) is a group of primates that along with lemurs also includes tarsiers and bushbabies. The most famous lemur is no doubt the Ring-Tailed Lemur, but there are over 100 other species of lemurs living on the earth today. All can be found on the African island of Madagascar. Here are a few examples:

Grey Mouse Lemur

Black and White Ruffed Lemur

The Indri Lemur

Aye-aye

Golden Bamboo Lemur

Verreaux's Sifaka

Ring-Tailed Lemur

Unlike monkeys, lemurs can't hang from their tails. But they are very handy for balance while scampering among the tree branches. The largest lemur is the Indri (as seen in one of the pictures above) and the smallest is the mouse lemur (also seen in one of the pictures above). The mouse lemur is only 11 inches long! This makes it not only the smallest lemur, but also the smallest primate.

Lemurs live in groups called troops and they are normally (but not always in some species) lead by a dominant female. Unlike most primates, this is a female-ruled society. The males don't just sit back and relax however, they help in fighting rival groups over territory. And when the males fight, boy, you might want to get a close-pin! Males don't just use their hands and feet to fight, they use stink! You see, God made these guys with special scent glands on their wrists. They rub them on their tails and then they wag their tails around to try and frighten the other lemur troop away.

These furry primates also live in a variety of habitats too, from cacti scrub-land areas, to dense tropical rain forests. They also eat a lot of different types of food, including leaves, flowers, fruit and insects. Mmmmm, sounds yummy! Some lemurs have more centralized diets e.g. the Bamboo Lemur (see the above pictures) mainly eats bamboo.

Lemur's vary greatly in size today. But back in the day, lemurs had even greater size ranges. Take the Megalatopus for example.

This lemur was one of the largest ever. It grew as big as a gorilla and weighed about 400 pounds! It was perfectly at home in the trees. Lemurs made it to Madagascar probably by floating on rafts of vegetation after Noah's Flood. Then using natural selection (which is very different from evolution by the way, but I'll discuss that later) they changed into a variety of different forms. However, about 2,000 years ago, the giant lemurs were doomed when humans arrived to Madagascar, they cleared much of the land and cut down many of the trees giant lemurs needed to survive. The smaller lemurs managed to cling on, but the bigger lemurs needed more food and would have needed to cover vast areas to find it. On the ground giant lemurs were not comfortable, they were most at home in the trees. So unfortunately they went extinct. However, we still have over 100 species of lemurs today (and scientists are STILL finding new species), but if we are to have them in the future, we must preserve their habitat and be good stewards of the earth like God instructed us to be in the book of Genesis all those thousands of years ago.

That's all for now! Catch you next week!

PS: Don't forget to take part in our poll about the Lion vs. Tiger.

PS 2: Have a puzzling question about animals (including dinosaurs), Creation or etc? Or just some various question about me, my book, "The King on a Cross" and stop-motion movie projects and the such? Post your question as a comment or send me an email to animaladventures@aol.com. PLEASE SAY IN YOUR EMAIL YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS BLOG SO I DO NOT ACCIDENTALLY THINK IT'S SPAM!

PS 3: Also don't forget to check out that other poll we're having that I had mentioned a few weeks ago.

PS 4: Please help expand out wiki: Exploration Books Pedia. We really need the help. It's cool, fun, easy and free!

PS 5: Have an idea for a stop-motion movie or a book plot? Send me an email.

PS 6: This blog is updated at least once a week, so be sure to check back then. Bye for now!

A New Movie

This has been an exciting week for me! First, let me talk about the results for the quiz/poll. And . . . well, unfortunately, no one really took part in my poll. So until we get some results from that, I will postpone it.

Anyway, a lot of you might not know that when I'm not working on future books or plays or puppet skits, I am also working on stop-motion films. (For those of you who don't know what a stop-motion film is) A stop-motion film is a film done by taking pictures of objects, and when you run them together really (and I do mean "REALLY") fast to make it look as if it's moving. It's not used that much in today's time because CGI (Computer Generated Images) is now most often used, but since I don't have the knowledge to do CGI, I work with stop-motion. For some high quality stop-motion movies, check out Christmas classics such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and The Little Drummer Boy. As I was saying, the movie I made is entitled "Jurassic Park - The Game - Triceratops Trouble". Another thing you may like to know is that this film is also found on my Youtube channel entitled "animaladventure's channel". If you choose to look for my movie that way, you'll find it as the last movie on the channel (and if you choose to watch all the movies on my channel, please check out Answers in Genesis for information from a creationist world-view). If you don't feel like going through all that trouble, just click play on the image below to see my movie:

This movie, is based off of a demo scene for the recently released "Jurassic Park: The Game". My goal wasn't to merely create a short film, but to get used to using stop-motion before moving on to films that are completely all my own idea. So this is what I like to call a "practice film". Want to know how to make your own stop-motion film? Send me an email to animaladventures@aol.com. Believe me, making these films is really easy.

Just yesterday (which was August 4th) we had an event called Family Fun Day at my church, Vassar Road Baptist Church. It was REALLY fun! We had snow cones, popcorn, hot dogs, a puppet show, face-painting, live music, a bouncy castle, "fishing" games, bowling, bean bag toss and etc. My family and I sang some of the live music, my sister, Halle and I helped out with the puppet shows, and Halle and a few other girls from church did face paintings. I even got a whale painted on my cheek. God made it an awesome turn out! If you feel bad that you missed, you don't have to be. There are plenty of other events at church going on. For instance, there's the casting call for the Christmas play yours truly entitled "A Big Misunderstanding" that's going to be held on August 11th, 9:30 am. to 12:30 pm at Vassar Road Baptist Church. There are five to six speaking roles and about 12 non-speaking roles. If you like acting, be sure to come check it out. The play itself will be held on December 8th. The exact time is not confirmed yet. And if you want to do another event, there's also Trunk-or-Treat, that's to be held on Halloween night at Vassar Road Baptist Church, the time is also not confirmed yet.

So that's what's been going on around here. Be sure to check back again soon for more news, blue zebus and sales on canoes! (That was intended to be a joke, you can laugh, ha, ha, ha) See you next time, goodbye!

PS: Have a puzzling question about creation, my books, animals (including dinosaurs), our church projects or etc, please post your question as a comment or send me an email to animaladventures@aol.com. Also, if you   send me an email, please say in your email that you know about this blog so that I don't think it's spam.

PS 2: For exact dates and times of events, also send me an email.

PS 3: Please help expand our wiki: Exploration Books Pedia, it's free, fun and cool!

What came First: The Ape or the Man?

Welcome back to my blog. I have decided to do something a little bit different and very exciting today. We are going to do something like a pop-quiz/poll. Here's how it's going to work: I'm going to ask a few questions and you can put the answer you believe is the right one in a comment. Then next week I will give you the answer. Alright? Hello? Oh, sorry, I forgot that you can't answer like that because this thing isn't live. (That was meant to be a joke, you can laugh) So here are the questions of the week:

1. True or False: Dinosaurs went on Noah's Ark. If true, how did Noah get the mighty beasts on?
2. True or False: Dinosaur fossils formed millions of years ago
3. What came first: The man or the ape?
4. True or False: Science (including dinosaurs) and the Bible just don't mix

So next week I will reveal the answers to you.

A lot of stuff has been going on at Vassar Road Baptist Church. The "Family Fun Day" event that is to be held on August 4th, 2012 from 10 to 2 pm is coming along great. All the cool games, music and puppet shows are coming into order. My family and I will also be singing some songs for the event. We might even be able to have live music! That's cool! Best of all, this totally FREE event is going to be held either rain or shine. So prayerfully we'll have clear skies that Saturday.

The casting call for the Christmas play entitled "A Big Misunderstanding" is also still scheduled.

People often ask themselves why they are here on the earth. While there is lots of speculation about that, one   theory scientists have come up with really seems rather . . . "out of this world". Many evolutionary scientists believe we were placed here by higher intelligence in the form of . . . space aliens! Now that is just plain hogwash. Unfortunately for evolutionists, there is no evidence for intelligent alien life out there is space.

Most evolutionists are more "down-to-earth" when dealing with the matter of where we came from. They believe that the fossils have the answer to this riddle. After looking at the various fossil finds, they have concluded that human beings evolved from apes. Now what IS their "proof"? Well, one of these so-called "proofs" is a fossil skeleton from Eastern Africa. The skeleton is that of an ape called Australopithicus named "Lucy". Lucy is only about three feet tall and many scientists believe that she is the starting point of mankind, not because of her skin, which was hairy, or her brain which is only a third of the size of ours. Scientists believe that Lucy and her kin are the starting point of mankind because they walked upright like us. So maybe the reason why we are here on earth is to make apes look really cool!

No, of course not. That's too silly. When evolutionists declare humans evolved from apes, they often include the fact that ape DNA is around 99% similar to human DNA. Well, that must prove we're related to apes, right? No it doesn't. There are a lot of things with similarities but really have nothing to do with the other. For instance, a watermelon is 99% water, a jellyfish is 99% water and a cloud is also 99% water. Now do these things have anything to do with each other? No.

Besides, we don't even really know if Lucy and her relations walked upright anyway. If you will look at Lucy and her relative's hips, you will see that they are of a different shape than a human's and they would be uncomfortable walking upright like us. However, it does appear that Australopithicus did  have a more upright posture then many living apes. See this link for more information: "Did Lucy walk like us?".

So it turns out Lucy and her relations were just normal apes. Unlike what the evolutionists suggest, we are VERY different from the apes, and from ALL other creatures on earth actually. As the Bible describes in the  book of Genesis, chapter two, we learn that God made us in the image of Himself. This doesn't mean we look like God, but instead this means that we have many of His qualities. For instance, we have things that no animal has, like an eternal soul. When an animal dies, its soul dies with it. But when a human dies, our soul lives on. Now after we die, there is no place in-between Heaven and Hell. Both locations are very real. The Bible also says that we can choose which place we wish to go. To go to Heaven, we must accept that we are sinners (you will remember that the first man and woman brought sin into the world and that sin sort of like a genetic trait) and accept Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior of our lives. Only YOU can make that choice. (If you wish to make that first step to Christ, please send me an email at animaladventures@aol.com)

Wow, we sure went through a lot today! We took a quiz, got a briefing of what's happening at my church and we learned that humans are made in God's image and apes are made in the image of . . . well, apes! This blog is updated every week, so be sure to check back often to get the latest scoop and a bunch of other stuff. See you next time!

PS: Have a puzzling question about Creation, animals (including dinosaurs), Christianity or etc? Post it as a comment or send me an email to animaladventures@aol.com.

PS 2: For dates and times of events at church, please post your question as a comment or send me an email to the address you see above.

PS 3: To check out my latest published book, check out this link: The King on a Cross.

PS 4: Please help expand our Exploration Books Pedia by clicking on this link: Exploration Books Pedia. It's free, fun and helpful. You don't even have to sign in.

PS 5: Don't forget to take our poll. We will be answering next week.