Answers to Five Common Evolution-Creation Questions

ANSWERS TO SIX COMMON EVOLUTION-CREATION QUESTIONS (with references to source books)

1. What scientific evidence do you have for the existence of God?

A. The laws of physics, chemistry and thermodynamics all point to a natural movement from higher energy states to lower energy states, from living to non- living. It is logical that a Creative Intelligence established the higher energy states and created the living things – in the Beginning. The Big Bang theory does not explain who set up the initial energy to make the "bang" – a Creative Intelligence could do that. Source: Answers (2000 rev. ed., p. 25)

B. Outside information is necessary to organize chemicals into living beings. DNA contains that information, but DNA is created only by other DNA. There are no purely physical or chemical process that create DNA from unorganized chemicals and elements. A Creative Intelligence can create the program in DNA. Source: The Natural Sciences Know Nothing of Evolution (1981, ch. 4-5); Not by Chance! (1998, chs. 2 & 4); The Science of God (1997, pp. 187-188).

C. When we find a code, along with an encoder and decoder, then we have evidence of a Creative Intelligence. There are no known purely physical or chemical processes – outside of biological processes – that can create a code, with an encoder and decoder device. Since biological beings have codes and coding equipment built into them, they could not have arisen from purely physical or chemical processes. There had to be a Creative Intelligence. Sources: Answers (pp. 28-29); Natural Sciences Know Nothing of Evolution (pp. 75-78, 97-98); In the Beginning (7th ed. 2001, p. 8); Tornado in a Junkyard (1999, p. 71 (quoting evolutionist).

2. Is the Earth only 6,000 - 10,000 years old? Is there scientific evidence to support that estimate?

A. Yes there is evidence. (a) The geological strata do not show the amount of wear and tear that would be expected of rock formations laid down millions or billions of years ago. (b) The polystrate fossils – fossils that are not lying horizontally in the sediments, but are lying vertically – projecting across thousands or millions of years of sedimentary layers. Could not happen if sedimentation were slow and old. (c) Red cells and hemoglobin found in unfossilized dinosaur bones – might have survived a few thousand years – could not possibly have survived intact for 65 million years. (d) At the current decay rate of Earth's magnetic field, the Earth's magnetic field: (i) should have long ago diminished to negligible, and (ii) would have implied an electrical current existed in the Earth

Answers to Five Common Questions Page 1 of 6 just 20,000 years ago that would have created highly-destructive heat. (e) The Earth is too warm to be billions of years old. Based on heat radiation rates, a molten Earth would have cooled to its present temperature billions of years ago. Its current warmth suggests a recent creation. (f) The current rates of increasing mineral and salt content in the sea would have created an immensely more salty and mineral-filled ocean than we observe today; suggests the ocean is thousands, not millions of years old. (g) At the current rate of metorite hits to the Earth, there should be thousands of meterorites buried in the coal and sedimentary rock - but these meterorites are almost entirely absent in older deposits. That suggests the sediments and coal deposits are young and/or were created rapidly, not over hundreds of millions of years. (g) The Moon is receding away from the Earth at a rate of 1.5 inches per year. Going back in time, the Moon would have been closer to Earth. Going back 1.4 Billion years, the Moon would have been in contact with Earth's surface. Mathematics shows that the Moon can be no older than 1.2 Billion years old (not 3 or 4 Billion as scientists often tell people) (h) If the Moon were closer to the Earth several million years ago, then its gravity would have greatly increased the heights of tides and produced massive waves on the Earth’s surface. Tides up to a mile in height, and the monster waves, would have smashed against the coastlines, leveled coastal mountains, and demolished fragile fossils. (i) Also, the Moon’s very circular orbit defy theories of the Moon being carved out by collision with Earth, or being captured as it flew by. The interaction of the Moon and the Earth’s tides for hundreds of millions of years would have caused the Moon’s orbit to become more elongated (but it isn’t, thus suggesting that Moon and Earth are both young).

Sources: In the Beginning (pp. 11, 28-33, 80, 197, 213n.45, 302-306 with references); Answers (pp. 86-88 with references); Tornado in a Junkyard (pp. 132- 133).

3. Did Noah’s Flood occur?

A. Yes. The physical evidence of a sudden and catastrophic worldwide flood includes: (a) Sea shells and fossils found in soil on top of mountains. (b) Rapid formation of Grand Canyon. (c) Open ridge in the middle of the Atlantic. (d) Coal and oil formations by rapid piling and compressing of organic matter. (e) The Ice Age - heavy precipitation with very cold temperatures (not a gradual process or else Earth would have frozen solid because ice reflects Sun's rays.) (f) Rapid capture of wooly mammoths and other large and small animals, many in standing positions or eating at the time; rapid fossilization of plants and animals before they had time to decay normally. (g) The presence of "rock ice" near areas of frozen mammoths. Rock ice contains water, clay, sand and large quantities of trapped air (which has not known cause, certainly not by a gradual process). (h) Fossilization itself requires rapid covering with sand materials; it does not happen over a period

Answers to Five Common Questions Page 2 of 6 of weeks or years (thus modern fish and dolphins die but are not fossilized).

B. Yes. Widespread human reports: (a) American Indian legends of a great flood from which only a few people survived. (b) Plato and Aristotle believed in the great Flood. (c) Legends in Ireland, Wales, Norway, Lithuania, Egypt, Sudan, Syria, Russia, Indonesia, Hawaii, Mexico (and more) about a great Flood. (d) Detailed story in the Bible, written as history, not allegory, describing the Flood and Noah, his wife, and three sons with wives escaping via the Ark. (e) Ancient Chinese writings tell of a great catastrophe and flood, from which a man and his wife and three sons with wives escaped a great Flood and repopulated the Earth.

Sources: In the Beginning (pp. 40-41, 87, 92, 111, 159-181); Tornado in a Junkyard (pp. 167-170, 173-178); Answers (pp. 154-166, 199-208).

4. If the Universe is less than 10,000 years old, how can we see light from stars that are millions of light years away?

A. We are not certain. Our being uncertain does not discredit the overall position, just as scientists’ uncertainty about the causes of cancer and a myriad of other scientific inquiries does not necessarily discredit them. Even Einstein's Theory of Relativity is still called a theory, not a law or a fact. Not being able yet to answer this question does not mean that the Universe must be billions of years old. More research and analysis are needed. There are several theories developed by creation-oriented scientists.

B. One Theory: The light was created en route from the stars to Earth. (Not impossible for a Creator, but not necessarily the best explanation, as the starlight from ancient supernovas implied that these events happened long ago, thus God would have created a false history.)

C. One Theory: The speed of light was much faster in the past, and has been slowing down. (Theory has some advantages, but there are problems with it.) The book Faster than the Speed of Light, by secular astrophysicist Joao Magueijo, questions whether speed of light has always remained constant.

D. One Theory: That time itself has changed speed (in Einsteinian terms) due to gravitational effects as the universe expanded from its expansion moment(s). (The Bible refers to God spreading out the Universe at: Isaiah. 42:5; Jeremiah 10:12; Zech. 12:1). Details in: D. Russell Humphreys, Starlight and Time (1994).

Source: Answers (pp. 95-102).

Answers to Five Common Questions Page 3 of 6 5. Evolution is a proven fact. Aren't you just fighting against science itself, trying to replace it with superstition?

A. Macro-evolution is far from a proven fact. Macro-evolution refers to the creation of new species that have new organs, new appendages, or other completely new operating features. E.g.: whale to land animal; cold blooded fish to warm blooded animals; cold blooded reptile to warm blooded bird. Micro- evolution certainly occurs, but Macro-evolution theory is vulnerable on many fronts.

(i) The similarity between one species and another does not prove that they evolved from one another or from a common ancestor. If two species have wings, e.g. a seagull and a wasp, that does not prove they evolved. An equally good explanation is that they were both designed. The differences between their wing designs actually tends to show intelligence in the design choices, not the results of millions of happy accidental mutations. (Just as Fords and Chryslers have common features but actually have completely different intelligent designers. There is no automotive evolution that occurred by chance mutations.)

(ii) Macro-evolution in Neo-Darwinian Theory operates by random mutation and natural selection. Mutation occurs by small changes in genes in the reproductive cells. The chances of random mutation developing a single new species from a previous species, and having the new species survive to reproduce itself, is: 1 in 3.6 x 10 to the 2738 power. (1 in 10 to the 150 power is considered statistically impossible).

(iii) Macro-evolution, using many tiny steps of random mutation that give the mutant a heritable survival advantage over other members of the species, has no credible explanation for these biological features: (a) a transition from cold blooded species to warm blooded species. (b) a transition from asexual reproduction to sexual reproduction (requiring two different types of individual in the same species). (c) appearance of fully developed organs and appendages in each species found in the fossil record (absence of the millions of intermediate partially-mutated forms). (d) the creation and storage into the DNA molecule of all of the information needed to build and operatate entire plants and animals. (e) the process of metamorphosis in insects and some other animals (how would a species that never went through metamorphosis be gradually mutated into a species that goes through full metamorphosis, e.g. from caterpillar to butterfly, or from tadpole to frog?) (f) the development of species, such as ants and bees, where different members have vastly different hard-wired functions, and which depend upon a pre-existing organizational plan for these various members to contribute to the survival of the colony. (g) the development of peculiar special functions, e.g.

Answers to Five Common Questions Page 4 of 6 echo location in bats, navigation in birds, bombadier beetle "explosions," light- signal codes in fireflies, bizarre mating rituals and practices in many species, etc.

(iv) There is not enough time for random mutation and natural selection to produce each of these separate functions and deploy them in a single species type: the entire species blueprint stored into one microscopic DNA structure, senses of smell and taste, temperature control, appetite and body responses, vision, symmetry, speech, autonomic functions, salivary system, facial expressions, nursing of infants, complex differentiated types of cells, taste and chewing, tongue, natural painkillers, hormones, memory, tears (several types), growth patterns, breathing, filtration systems, internal sensors and feedback loops, pain sensation, digestion and elimination, detoxification, vomiting, recycling systems, immune system, protein synthesis and operation, enzyme synthesis and operation, clotting, skin protection, opposing muscle groups, self-defense, hands, involuntary functions, regeneration and repair systems, heart and circulatory systems, two- footed mobility, independence of different functions, bacteria controlling environments, crisis management (fight, flight, etc.), recognition and care for offspring.

(v) Evolutionary theory cannot explain how unguided physical forces and chemical processes can convert totally non-biological elements and molecules into living molecules, and then to convert living molecules into biological systems that grow, move, avoid predators and other dangers, receive and store information from the environment, gain intelligence, make decisions, express instincts, and reproduce themselves. The more we know about biological systems, the more complicated and finely tuned we find them be. Unguided mutations and brutal natural selection are not powerful enough to explain how these systems were originally built from non-biological components.

B. Evolutionist scientists have candidly admitted the absence of the necessary fossil record, the unlikelihood of neo-Darwinian processes to develop all of existing life’s species and structures, and the lack of explanation for the original formation of living cells.

Sources: Answers (pp. 113-129); Tornado in a Junkyard (pp. 7-107, comprehensive readable discussion); Icons of Evolution (2000, pp. 59-78); Not by Chance! (pp. 92-93,103); In the Beginning (pp. 5-19); What Darwin Didn't Know (2004, pp. 281-297); Dismantling Evolution (2003, 83-86); Evolution: The Fossils Still Say No! (1995, quotes throughout); Darwin on Trial (1991, pp. 15-110).

Answers to Five Common Questions Page 5 of 6 6. What about the Dinosaurs?

A. Dinosaurs existed. The real questions are: Does the existence of dinosaurs tend to prove or disprove either the theory of Special Creation or the theory of Evolution?

B. The mere fact that one or a hundred species of animal existed in the past does not, by itself, tend to prove that animals existing today are here because of Evolutionary processes of random mutation and natural selection. (i) To prove Evolution requires proof that by observable steps of mutation, an animal of one species can convert to an animal of another species. If dinosaurs evolved from various common ancestors, and if there were million or billions of dinosaurs alive for the asserted 150 million years of their existence, then the fossil record should be full of species with transitional horns, duckbills, spines, plates, crests, bony domes and other dinosaur features. These transitional forms of “near- dinosaurs” or “dinosaurs in the making” are absent from the fossil record. (ii) If there were thousands of dinosaurs species on Earth, yet no evidence of gradual evolution, then ... the existence of dinosaurs tends to prove a rapid Creation.

Sources: In the Beginning (pp. 249-250); Evolution: The Fossils Still Say No! (pp. 115-128); Dinosaurs by Design (1992 – illustrated and written for younger readers).

C. The issue of dinosaurs raises questions about the age of the Earth: When did the dinosaurs exist? Millions of years ago, or thousands of years ago? The details of the geological and paleontological evidence can get technical, but see the other points under Question 2 above. Sources for analysis of dating techniques: In the Beginning (pp. 28-35, 244); Answers (pp. 75-92).

D. Biblical Questions: (i) Did Noah put huge dinosaurs on the Ark? Probably not; he could very likely have placed dinosaur eggs or babies on the Ark. (ii) Does the Bible refer to dinosaurs at all? Very likely yes: Job 40:15-24 describes the “behemoth” which is a massively large and strong animal with huge hips and tail; Job 41:18-21 describes the “leviathan” as a huge sea creature (not whale or crocodile-the Hebrew words for these are different). Sources: Answers (pp. 179- 185); In the Beginning (pp. 249-250).

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