This is part 3 of 4 from chapter 2 of my book, Biblical Glasses. This section deals with the fossil record. As an analogy, we can figure out how far a car has traveled if we know that it started out with ten gallons of gas in its tank, gets twenty miles per gallon, and has five gallons of gas remaining in the tank. Five gallons of gas have decayed at the rate of twenty miles per gallon; therefore, the car has traveled 100 miles. If all of these assumptions are true, then the results are accurate. If any of the assumptions are false, the results are worthless. For example:
The fossil record is basically “billions of dead things buried in rock layers laid down by water all over the earth.” It is evidence of past plant, insect, animal, and even human life. Many people think fossils are formed very slowly, over long periods of time (hundreds, thousands, millions, even billions of years), but in recent years, scientists from both evolutionary and creationist bias have agreed that fossils are created very quickly, often within days or weeks and certainly no more than months.
In fact, fossil finders have recently unearthed fossilized clocks, boots, hats, and barbed wire, as well as a petrified dog and a fossil of a fish giving birth, demonstrating fossils form quickly in nature. Petroleum, which had been thought to take hundreds of thousands of years to form, can be made in laboratory environments in minutes! Fossils are formed by compression and rapid burial, most easily by vast amounts of water. The way fossils are formed certainly supports Biblical creation, as the flood in the time of Noah likely caused the majority of the fossils in existence today, but this formation method does not necessarily disprove evolution. Evolutionists now say there could have been lots and lots of mini floods through the billions of years of history.
Geologists came up with the geologic column to show the various rock layers and the typical creatures fossilized in them. The column includes the following layers and their estimated evolutionist ages from oldest to youngest:
- Precambrian (4.6 billion–544 million years old)
- Cambrian (544–505 million years old)
- Ordovician (505–440 million years old)
- Silurian (440–410 million years old)
- Devonian (410–360 million years old)
- Carboniferous (Mississippian and Pennsylvanian eras: 360–286 million years old)
- Permian (286–248 million years old)
- Triassic (248–213 million years old)
- Jurassic (213–145 million years old)
- Cretaceous (145–65 million years old)
- Tertiary (65–1.8 million years old)
- Quaternary (1.8–.01 million years old)
Looking from the Precambrian era to the Quaternary era, evolutionists claim to see smaller, less developed creatures leading up to larger, more developed creatures. Given an incredible time scale, they say the smaller, less developed creatures evolved into the larger, more developed creatures. However, there is no evidence in the layers, like erosion, to support long time periods! Fault lines cross through all the rock layers as additional evidence of no lengthy time lapses between layers. In fact, unconformities and para-conformities show unexplainable gaps in the rock layers.
Fossils thought to be extinct from the Devonian era are found in the Quaternary era; fossils that should not be found until the Cretaceous era are found in the Silurian era. Clam fossils are found in abundance in every layer. All existing fossils are those of fully formed creatures. There are no transitional fossils necessary for evolution. There are no living transitional forms either.
Polystrate fossils, mostly trees, stand upright through several rock layers. Either these tree trunks stood for billions of years without decay (according to evolutionists), or these tree trunks were buried rapidly by mud, dirt, silt, sand, and water during Noah’s flood. This evidence alone should be enough to thwart evolution, but somehow the evidence gets overlooked.
Creationists consider the geologic column misleading, but they still use it as evidence for creation. Looking from the Precambrian era to the Quaternary era, creationists claim to see water-dwelling and less mobile creatures leading up to land-dwelling, more mobile creatures. The time scale for the creationists is a matter of weeks, as the majority of the column was laid down during a cataclysmic worldwide flood. What little order exists in the sequence of fossils is primarily due to burial of successive ecological zones, the ability of larger animals to escape to higher land, and the sorting action of water. In other words, the flood caused the earth to be a massive graveyard around 2450 B.C.. All of the creatures fossilized in the rock layers lived together, including dinosaurs!
After the flood waters wreaked havoc for several months on the earth, the waters slowly subsided, and the earth as we know it today was formed. The natural evidence for the formation of the earth lies in earthquake and volcanic activity, sure to be extreme during the flood. The Bible says in Genesis 7:11-24:All the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. On that
very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and
the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. They had with them every wild
animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every
creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird
according to its kind, everything with wings. Pairs of all creatures that have
the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark. The animals going
in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then
the Lord shut him in. For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as
the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. The waters rose
and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the
water. They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the
entire heavens were covered. The waters rose and covered the mountains to a
depth of more than twenty feet. Every living thing that moved on the earth
perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the
earth, and all mankind. Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in
its nostrils died. Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out;
men and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds of
the air were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the
ark. The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.
There is no complete geologic column anywhere on earth; nonetheless, one interesting piece of evidence lies at the top of Mount Everest. There we find millions of bottom-of-the-ocean-dwelling clam fossils. Evolutionists say the bottom of the ocean rose up to become Mount Everest over billions of years. While their timescale is off, they are semi-correct; God raised up land masses that were, at one time, under water. Creationists relying on the Bible say the flood covered the entire world, even the highest mountains, to a depth of more than twenty feet (see Genesis 7:17-20). Mount Everest certainly was not as high then as it is today; but, interestingly, the pre-flood earth may have been significantly flatter, in which case, there would be enough water currently on the earth to cover it to a depth of 8000 feet. It was conceivably during the water’s subsidence these clams were left to become fossils on the world’s highest mountain, as evidence of the truth of the Bible.
Scientists agree the best place on earth to look at these rock layers and fossil formations is the Grand Canyon. Creationists and evolutionists marvel at the amazing natural formation, which is 277 miles long, a mile deep, and between four and eighteen miles wide. Most people have heard that the canyon was formed by the Colorado River over millions or even billions of years, but that is simply not true. In fact, it is not even possible, because the origin of the Colorado River is lower in elevation than the top of the canyon! That means for evolutionists the Colorado River would have had to flow uphill to carve the canyon. Water does not flow uphill!
Creationists suggest the rock layers were laid down during the flood, and the canyon was formed later. Perhaps the Kaibab Upwarp, a large plateau near the beginning of the Grand Canyon, acted as a dam for three lakes occupying much of present day Utah, Colorado, and northern Arizona. These lakes catastrophically broke through the Kaibab Upwarp, and the Grand Canyon was cut out by the drainage of these lakes through this breach in the dam.
Further evidence to support this damn breaking was recently shown: A small canyon, nearly a replica at 1:40 scale of the Grand Canyon, was formed this same way, in only one day, as a result of the eruption of Mount St. Helens! If a localized volcanic eruption can cause a large canyon in a single day, certainly a worldwide flood could have caused a larger canyon in a matter of weeks.
There is plenty more to examine about the fossil record, like the dragonflies with over two-foot wingspans, the giant beavers, and the twelve-foot tall humans, but the real key behind the fossil evidence is the age of the fossils and rock layers. Dating methods are extremely important to examine and understand, because they are ultimately the key to evolution. Evolution requires billions of years, so any evidence refuting old age claims effectively shows evolution is false. Few non-scientists dispute the dates of fossils and rocks, etc., because they feel like dating methods are too difficult to understand. There is definitely some complexity in dating methods, but I will try to simplify the procedure’s explanation.
Think back to your elementary school science classes and picture the Periodic Table of Elements—with hydrogen, helium, oxygen, carbon, potassium, lead, gold, etc. Everything in the universe is comprised of combinations of those elements. For example, water is comprised of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. Some of these stable elements have unstable versions called isotopes. Dating methods rely on unstable parent isotopes that decay until they become stable daughter elements. Some examples are: Uranium 238 decaying into Lead 206, Potassium 40 decaying into Argon 40, and Carbon 14 decaying into Nitrogen 14. Theoretically, if the half life, the decay rate, of an isotope is known, then the difference between the original amount of an isotope in a fossil and the amount in the fossil today can be used to calculate the fossil’s age. It is assumed the half life of Uranium 238 is 4.5 billion years; it is assumed the half life of Potassium 40 is 1.25 billion years; it is assumed the half life of Carbon 14 is 5730 years. You can already see that this idea requires several assumptions.
We only can know for sure how much of the element remains in the fossil today (i.e. how much gas is currently in the tank). All the other information is based on speculation. If you knew these conditions were speculative, would you still promote the idea as fact? Evolutionists know about these assumptions, yet they still claim their stance as truth. Even worse, anytime evolutionists get dates that do not work with their theory, they throw the dates out, rather than throw their theory out!
· If we guessed the starting amount of gas in the tank wrong, our answer is wrong.
· If gas was added during the trip, our answer is wrong.
· If gas leaked out of the tank, our answer is wrong.
· If the gas mileage was estimated wrong, our answer is wrong.
· If the gas mileage varied over the trip, our answer is wrong.
Just like the assumptions made above, the following assumptions on radioactive dating methods are:
· The atmosphere had the same element concentration in the past as it does today.
· The production of parent elements has always been constant.
· The original element amount and ratio in the fossil or rock is known.
· The decay rate is constant.
· No contamination has occurred.
· No daughter element was originally in the fossil.
· The only element loss is due to the decay process.
· The decay rate was determined accurately. (Decay rates are constantly modified and criticized to get desired results.)
A living mollusk only a few years old was dated radioactively as being 2300 years old. Part of a mammoth carcass was dated at 15,000 years old, while another part was dated at 21,000 years old. A dead seal, recently killed, was dated as having died 1300 years ago. Living snails had shells dated as being 27,000 years old. Dating methods are speculative, conflicting, and inconsistent at best!
Despite the assumptions and flaws in dating methods, science has still learned a great deal about the elemental make-up of the universe. In fact, everything science has truthfully observed supports creation. For example:
· World population is too low for old age, and its growth rate suggests that the earth is less than 10,000 years old. The entire world population standing side-by-side would fit in the city limits of Jacksonville, Florida—twice!
· Stalactites and stalagmites have been thought to take millions of years to form, but they have recently been observed growing at rates of fifteen inches per year.
· The Carbon 14/Carbon 12 ratio is not yet at equilibrium, indicating the earth is less than 10,000 years old.
· The decay rate of the earth’s magnetic field indicates the earth is less than 10,000 years old.
· The amount of Helium in the atmosphere is still increasing, limiting the earth’s age to 10,000 years.
· Coal and oil deposits are nonrenewable resources, because they were formed by the flood and are not renewing or forming new deposits anymore.
· Ocean and river delta sediments support only about 4000 years of age, fitting with Noah’s flood.
Even Charles Darwin was skeptical. “In a letter to Asa Gray, a Harvard professor of biology, Darwin wrote, ‘I am quite conscious that my speculations run quite beyond the bounds of true science.’” He also said:To suppose that the human eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting
the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and
for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed
by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.
Finally, Darwin had concerns regarding several simple ways to disprove his theory. One of those ways was to show that symbiotic relationships existed. Darwin said, “If it could be proved that any part of the structure of any one species had been formed for the exclusive good of another species, it would annihilate my theory, for such could not have been produced through natural selection.” Of course, since Darwin made this statement, many symbiotic relationships have been observed. Several examples include: Small cleaner fish swimming into the mouths of carnivorous larger fish (i.e. sharks and barracuda), pollinating insects and flowering plants, algae living on the backs of spider crabs to camouflage them from predators, bacteria living in human intestines to aid digestion, and protozoa living in termites to digest wood the termites eat and provide food for the termites to digest. These amazing relationships simply cannot be explained by evolution; they point to a Creator.
Now I do not mean for my discussion of natural selection, mutations, and fossils to be conclusive or exhaustive; I intend for it be a building block for your own further study. There have been thousands of volumes written by experts on these topics, and I certainly encourage a continued investigation of the evidence to add to your knowledge on these topics. They are critical for understanding both our beginning and our destiny. See Appendix B for several recommended readings on this topic.
Despite the staggering amount of evidence against evolution, it is unfortunately taught in schools as the truth. By 1963, the ACLU had the theory of evolution taught in schools as truth and supported by taxpayers’ money! That means we have been supporting the teaching of evolution in public schools! Children learn it right from the start and see no reason to question it, because they are not given another option.
In support of learning the truth, I see no reason why both viewpoints should not be taught. If evolutionists are so certain their theory is fact, why do they fear allowing the so-called creation story to be taught as well? Perhaps they realize evolution cannot stand up when closely scrutinized against the truth of God’s six day creation. By teaching both viewpoints, students would have an opportunity to investigate the evidence and come to a conclusion based on reason and logic. That is called learning! Sadly, not much of it is occurring today.
Scientists use the evidence for a young earth and add billions of years to get evolution. While many people are effectively brainwashed to believe it, there are those who know better. Over the past 150 years, evolution has gone nearly full circle—from a ludicrous hypothesis, to a possible theory, to a probable truth, back to a possibility, and now to an idea people are not so sure about. We are hearing more and more about the idea of intelligent design. It teaches that a greater power had to have had something to do with the creation of the universe because of the overwhelming evidence. There is so much order in the universe that it had to be designed!
Science has been caught numerous times teaching falsehoods about evolution. For example, public school textbooks (and most private school textbooks) contain only Ernst Haeckel’s drawings, not the actual photos, of human and animal embryos, which attempt to show similarities in an effort to prove evolution from a common ancestor. See the drawings (on top) compared with the actual photos (on the bottom) below.
Despite the farce of evolution, the bottom line is that many people still believe in God. In fact, over ninety percent of Americans admit regularly praying to God. There is a sense evolution could not have occurred on its own. Those who do not really know what to think often get stuck believing the idea of theistic evolution.
Theistic evolution maintains God’s existence but suggests He plays a passive role in the world. Theistic evolutionists might say God started the Big Bang knowing everything would turn out the way it did; He just sat back and watched it happen. Theistic evolution is the viewpoint most people take if they do not have time to search for the truth. It is easy to keep their faith and conform to the popular worldview of evolution, but theistic evolution is absolutely false. It is the worst viewpoint to take, because it leads to a halfhearted faith. Jesus said: I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!
So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of My mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked (Revelation 3:15-17).
Twisting the Bible, the Word of God, to fit with a secular opinion will not work. The beautiful thing about the Word of God is that it needs no twisting to fit the evidence for the origin of our universe. It tells the story accurately and perfectly depicts the creation that actually occurred.
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
The Beginning (3)
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