Mike's Creation Blog

From time to time, I will scan various sources of scientific news. When I see an indication that there is more to the story then what is published, I will comment on Mike's Creation Blog to point out how the story could relate to Biblical origins. I will present alternate explanations that I see are possible from looking at the data as presented in the news articles themselves and, of course, my own background of information. 

My other pages cover topics that are more scientific in nature. They have been studied in more detail and they are also presented in a more robust manner that requires more explanation

Virtually all science stories are given from an evolutionary position and the evolutionary connection is presented as fact. It is my hope that Mike's Creation Blog will show alternate Creationary positions that might even fit the data better than the evolutionary position.


Stepping Reflex of an Infant

Degeneration of Man

About one or two days after birth, babies start to exhibit the Stepping Reflex. If you hold a young infant upright by holding it under its arms so that its feet will touch or press on a flat surface, you will see that he or she will try to walk. One foot will go in front of the other, walking in a heel to toe movement. You might help the baby walk better by having it lean forward a little.  Infants which are preterm might not exhibit this reflex.

Doctors do not know what to make of the stepping reflex because it is not seen as being useful. The Stepping reflex is lost anywhere between two to four months. Yet, the Baby will not really begin to walk until maybe the 13th month or so. At four months, the infant is just learning and getting strong enough to turn itself over. It hasn't even been able to sit up on its own. So, why would it have a reflex that would help it to walk at such an early age?

There is ample evidence in the Bible showing that mankind has become much weaker since the time that Adam and Eve lived on the earth. Life on this planet has degenerated from some original energetic level of vitality that no longer exists today. Look at the graph on the left or above. People once lived 930 years or more. We are presently living at a time when people live a much shorter period of time. What would it have been like to live 930 years?  

Was the length of their life-span the only difference they had over us? Or did they have stronger, healthier, and more energetic bodies as well? They lived ten times longer than we do now; Did they also have bodies that were also many times stronger than what is normal today?

In todays world, it is thought that the stepping reflex only mimics the process of walking since the baby will actually start walking much later in life. It happens long after the baby will have completely lost its stepping reflex. But I believe that the Stepping Reflex is a good piece of evidence, showing that man was initially strong enough to allow an infant to start learning to walk within days of it's birth. I think it extremely possible that initially, babies developed much faster. We have the example of many animals that are able to walk within hours of birth, even large animals. So, in the antediluvian world, before the flood, Human infants must have been able to use this reflex in learning how to walk much sooner and faster than can be done today. 

The Stepping Reflex was not given to man, only to be lost because infants are not yet ready. It would not be like God to have given mankind a non-functional learning mechanism. I believe that infants were initially given the Stepping Reflex at a time when they needed it, to help them walk from the beginning of their life, thus the reflex helped to speed up the process of learning. 

Today, in our weakened condition, the Stepping Reflex is no longer useful. The baby looses the reflex long before it is strong enough to use it. So, today, babies can only begin to walk when they are older. They now have to learn through a more laborious learning process instead of the much faster and easier reflex process. 

I think the presence of the stepping reflex so early in life only serves to show us how much faster human babies must have learned to walk when Adam and Eve walked the earth.