Newsletter 87.
Investigating the science behind Creationism
- Martin Kentish | Network Norwich and Norfolk, UK
Evolution or creation? Old Earth or New Earth? To answer the questions I did what many people do in trying to fit what I read in the Bible into the evolutionary worldview I previously held.
For example, the 7 days of Creation weren't days at all, but some period of time that really meant millions of years. I had become a Theistic Evolutionist trying to fit the Bible into science which I used to believe was true.
As I grew in my awareness of God, I couldn't help but think if He said 'days' in the Bible and referred to morning and evening, then He probably meant days as we know them. The more I grew in my awareness of God, the more I doubted what I was previously told from an evolutionary view.
What really kicked off the search was a very simple view I held which was that if something 'appeared' to be designed, then it probably was. I was acutely aware that I might be trying to fit my Christian worldview into scientific data, but kept going back to let the scientific data speak for itself.
Then courtesy of a dear friend, Eric Hopley, my eyes were open to a chap called Dr Grady McMurtry. He is a very clever chap - an evolutionary specialist - but became a Christian at 27 which presented him with the same problem.
Rather than leave his brain behind and simply reiterate 'God did it', he stood up to the challenge with a determination and brain the size of a planet to look at the facts.
And here is what was revealed to me as if a light was turned on. We're told the Earth is old because it has to be if evolution is true. And we are told the Earth is old because all the evidence we hear tells us it is old.
So what is that evidence? Fossils? Rocks? Radiometric dating? Yes, all of them and several more. If any of these three are true, I would agree: the Earth is old and I still have the problem of fitting the Biblical account of creation into the scientific worldview.
When I started looking into these three, I was shocked to discover some massive problems with the assumptions of age. Age is really important. For a start, fossils have to happen quickly, else the life that is about to be fossilised decays naturally and won't produce a fossil. Therefore, fossils themselves are no indication of age.
Secondly, rocks and their strata that I assumed was evidence of millions of years, can easily be formed quickly. In fact, by examining their shape and line, they are far more likely to have been produced quickly than over millions of years.
Lastly radiometric dating which was conveniently difficult to understand in the beginning is easily proven to yield completely mad results in the lab.
Now even if someone like me who does not have a PhD in any of the above can understand very simply the obvious errors in the methods and 'facts' that we have been repeatedly told, why can't all Christians?
The simple answer is this: most Christians have left their brains behind and never engaged with the Scientists. Secondly, many who have engaged with the scientific worldview have unknowingly embraced a worldview which is contrary to the evidence in the Bible.
What was so exciting is the more I looked at the Bible, and then the scientific evidence, the more the Young Earth view seemed true. Fossils had to be created quickly, so therefore did the rocks around them.
A worldwide catastrophic flood that lead to the evidence we see seemed to be a much better explanation than the evolutionary one. And that is exactly what we see in the Bible.
Reading Romans 1:20-23: "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities -his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles".
Now this says to me that you don't need to have a massive brain to see that God created everything. Nor is it difficult to see why 'wise' people go stupid to deny the existence of God.
When we look at 'Mr Evolution', Charles Darwin, one of the key reasons (encouragements, incentives) of publishing Origins was to deny the existence of a Divine Creator.
It removed God from the equation.
I can't help but feel that the motive for pursuing the evolutionary worldview is not so much about doing 'good science' but about doing science that removes God from the equation.
So I would say to anyone who is reading this and thinking I am a mad 'Young Earth Creationist' to forget the labels you want to give me and look at the evidence yourself.
And if right now you are steaming under the collar with rage because everything I have said undermines what you have accepted, here's three questions to take away and find out the answers yourself:
* What are the best conditions for fossils to be made?
* Can rock strata be created quickly?
* Is radiometric dating infallible?
So look into these, baring in mind the underlying worldview of the person who is presenting you with the 'facts'.
It is an interesting journey and I hope those who embark upon the discovery of the facts will not feel the conflict between believing in Genesis and the evidence there is out there.
(Author: Unknown)
The paramedics rushed the man to the nearest hospital where he had
The nun asked, "Do you have money in the bank?"
He replied, "No money in the bank."
Do you have a relative who could help you with the payments,
He said, "I only have a spinster sister and she is a nun."
The nun became agitated and announced loudly,
What with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning uphill both ways through year 'round blizzards carrying their younger siblings on their backs to their one-room schoolhouse where they maintained a straight-A average despite their full-time after-school job at the local textile mill where they worked for 35 cents an hour just to help keep their family from starving to death!
And I remember promising myself that when I grew up there was no way I was going to lay that on kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!
But ...
Now that I've reached the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today.
You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a Utopia! And I hate to say it but you kids today don't know how good you've got it!
I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the library and look it up ourselves!
And there was no email! We had to actually write somebody a letter, with a pen! And then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!
And there were no MP3s or Napsters! If you wanted to steal music, you had to go to the record store and shoplift it yourself! Or, we had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and mess it all up!
You want to hear about hardship?
We didn't have fancy stuff like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal!
And we didn't have fancy Caller ID Boxes either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was, it could be your boss, your Mom, a collections agent, you didn't know!!!
You just had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!
And we didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation videogames with high-resolution 3-D graphics!
We had the Atari 2600! With games like "Space Invaders" and "Asteroids"! Your guy was a little square! You had to use your imagination! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen forever!
And you could never win, the game just kept getting harder and faster until you died!
Just like LIFE!
When you went to the movie theater, there was no such thing as stadium seating! All the seats were the same height! If a tall guy sat in front of you, you watched his hairstyle!
And sure, we had cable television, but back then that was only like 20 channels and there was no onscreen menu! You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on!
And there was no Cartoon Network! You could only get cartoons on Saturday morning... D'ya hear what I'm saying!?!
We had to wait ALL WEEK!
That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled!
You guys wouldn't last five minutes back in 1984!
[forwarded by www.SermonFodder.com]
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