tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post9149546763087066917..comments2024-03-27T17:15:37.606-04:00Comments on Triablogue: Are invertebrates living organisms?Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17809283662428917799noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post-22690457427062479612016-01-31T13:17:59.178-05:002016-01-31T13:17:59.178-05:00I don't suspect the particular line of YEC rea...I don't suspect the particular line of YEC reasoning described in the OP can stand under technical scrutiny.<br /><br />Probably YEC-ists are guilty of overreaching somewhat in their apologetic efforts to defend the literal, historical accuracy of the OT creation account, and harmonize that account with both the OT and NT testimony that death entered the theretofore perfect creation through the entrance of sin, and subsequently the curse of the Fall.<br /><br />I'm very sympathetic, but I think there are better lines of reasoning to follow in defense of Scripture than to attempt to build a doctrinal edifice on such a shaky foundation as this via hairsplitting and lingustic gymnastics.<br /><br />Certainly blood is a powerful and evocative image. Visceral. Shocking. Everyone understands it intuitively at the most fundamental level.<br /><br />Plainly there was some type of animal sacrifice (which we would surmise was bloody) involved in God's clothing of Adam and Eve after they had fashioned their own works-righteousness garments - although it's possible He simply created animal skins ex-nihilo that seems unlikely as there was probably an object lesson here. <br /><br />Righteous Abel's blood cried out from the ground after the world's first "in cold blood" murder.<br /><br />Stubborn, hardened Pharaoh watched as the Nile was turned to blood, and in the last times yet to come - days of vengeance and the wrath of the Lamb - blood figures powerfully in the events of that great and terrible Day of the Lord.<br /><br />Obviously for Christians the scarlet thread of redemption that flows throughout the Bible is that old, old story of a fountain filled with blood (and healing) flowing from a fatally wounded Savior's side. The Lamb of God slain from the foundations of the world.<br /><br />So to me it seems practically banal for Christians to attempt to co-opt the deep, rich, and theological Biblical usage of the term "blood" (not that it doesn't also employ the term literally and physically as it obviously does) in a misguided effort to bolster an obscure and flimsy ad hoc argument.<br /><br />On the other hand although there are likely better arguments, I don't think this one is particularly damaging or harmful, and it's probably primarily reflective of an intramural debate within the church between YEC-ists and OEC-ists.<br /><br />CRhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03231394164372721485noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post-80794417407757465692016-01-31T06:58:06.024-05:002016-01-31T06:58:06.024-05:00Hm, if YECs wish to get a little bit more technica...Hm, if YECs wish to get a little bit more technical:<br /><br />1. For starters, we could further parse "blood." Blood is made up of much more than just hemoglobin. It's also made up of a variety of leukocytes aka white blood cells (e.g. neutrophils, monocytes), thrombocytes aka platelets, blood plasma (which is the majority of what constitutes blood), proteins like albumin, immunoglobulins aka antibodies, electrolytes (e.g. sodium, chloride), clotting factors, and so on.<br /><br />2. Why is "life...in the blood"? I presume the main answer is because hemoglobin is the part of blood which carries oxygen (and nutrients) around the body.<br /><br />However, myoglobin, which is present in the human heart and skeletal muscles, similarly acts as an oxygen carrier. Does that mean "life" could be in myoglobin just as well as hemoglobin? Yet myoglobin isn't normally "in the blood" but rather in the muscles. Is "life" therefore "in the muscles"?<br /><br />By the way, yes, hemoglobin binds oxygen, but hemoglobin likewise binds carbon monoxide and in fact even more avidly than it binds oxygen. This is why, for instance, exposure to car exhaust or smoke from fires or gas heaters can lead to carbon monoxide poisoning. <br /><br />3. At the risk of oversimplification, hemoglobin uses iron to bind oxygen, while hemocyanin (in invertebrates like mollusks and arthropods) uses copper to bind oxygen. The main relevant difference is iron vs. copper. <br /><br />Are we therefore saying "life" is "in the blood" because vertebrates use iron whereas "life" is not "in the blood" because these invertebrates use copper? If so, why is this the relevant distinction between "life" being in the blood and "life" not being in the blood? What does iron have that copper doesn't have which makes iron "life" but copper not life, even though both can bind and transport oxygen around the creature's body?rockingwithhawkinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10550503108269371174noreply@blogger.com