A FEW FACTS FOR EVOLUTIONISTS TO CONSIDER
The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge: but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness.
Proverbs 15:14
Introduction
This pamphlet is not exhaustive. It is simply a summary of FACTS, which can be used by the creationist to stimulate genuine discussion between himself and an evolutionist having an open mind and an honest heart. This is in accord with scriptural principles:
I Peter 3:15 …be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
Jeremiah 29:13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
‘Scientists’ have often been wrong! The geocentric theory (the sun and other planets revolve around the earth) was believed for 15 centuries. The phlogiston theory (to do with combustion) was accepted and taught as an established fact of science during the 17th and 18th centuries. The French chemist Lavoisier, who demonstrated that oxygen was the key element in combustion, refuted it.
Just because many people believe in something does not necessarily make it true. Majorities can be, and often have been wrong. Scientific truth is never determined by taking a vote.
Evolution is accepted by many to be a fact of science, not because it can be proven by scientific evidence, but because the only alternative, special creation, is totally unacceptable.
Although both evolution and biblical creationism cannot be proven by the scientific method, and must both be accepted by faith, this is not to say that known scientific facts and observations are useless. To the contrary, scientific facts should be used to help ascertain which model of origins is more probable, so that invested faith is intelligent and not blind.
Famous Scientists who opposed evolution (or non-Creation).
These include Isaac Newton, Louis Pasteur, Robert Boyle, Johannes Kepler, Michael Faraday, Lord Kelvin, James Maxwell – and many others could be included.
Modern world-acclaimed scientists who oppose evolution include:
Dr John Baumgardner. Geophysicist and expert on tectonic plates and continental drift.
Dr lan Macreadie. Molecular biologist.
Professor Danny Faulkner. Astronomer.
Prof. Walter Veith. Zoology professor.
Prof. Keith Wanser. Physics professor.
Prof.David Menton, Anatomy professor.
Dr Russell Humphreys. Nuclear physicist and world authority on thermonuclear fusion.
– and a list of several hundred others is available for those interested.
GEOLOGY
The Geologic column
The earth’s strata are arranged according to the various types of fossils they contain. Strata with simpler fossils (presumed to have evolved first) are put on the bottom of the column, while strata containing more complex forms (presumed to have evolved later) are placed towards the top of the column. Thus the entire geologic column is founded and built on the assumption that evolution is a fact.
In turn, the foundational basis for the theory of evolution is the fossil record so constructed. Thus the evolutionist claims that geology proves evolution, and evolution supports the fossil record!
This is circular reasoning, which is completely invalid. Thus the primary ‘evidence’ for evolution is the assumption of evolution. No wonder most thinking scientists totally reject such circular reasoning.
Nowhere in the world does the geologic column actually occur. Real rock formations are characterised by gaps and even reversals of this ideal, imaginary sequence. Even the Grand Canyon includes less than half of the geologic systems. Only Precambrian and Palaeozoic strata are found in the Grand Canyon; Mesozoic strata are in eastern Arizona; Tertiary formations are in New Mexico, and so on.
To see the entire geologic column, it is necessary to travel all over the world, when every conceivable contradiction to the theory is found. Often fossils are found in the ‘wrong’ strata, and early strata are found on top of late strata. Evolutionary geologists then resort to secondary assumptions to explain such upside-down conditions. ‘Stratigraphic leaks & Overthrusting’ are just two typical terms used as more theories are introduced.
Rock formations are only dated by their fossil content, and never on the basis of radiometric dating techniques. There are two reasons for this:
(1) The geologic columns were established as ‘fact’ long before radioactive dating was even imagined.
(2) Radiometric dates of rock formations are universally discarded due to the high probability of error inherent. Nevertheless, carefully selected readings are often used in museum exhibits to ‘prove’ the accuracy of the rock age. Dishonest!
Radioactive dating is based solely on three assumptions.
• The rock contained no daughter product atoms in the beginning, only parent atoms.
• Since then, no parent or daughter atoms were added to or taken from the rock.
• The rate of radioactive decay had remained constant.
Modern science now refutes these assumptions. Many erroneous results obtained, not only from different samples, but also from the same sample are common. E.g.
In the Grand Canyon, the radiometric age of the same rock strata (using the potassium-argon method) gives widely differing dates, millions and even billions of years apart. So how does the Canyon Authority handle this? With simplistic audacity. The figure that correlates with the age of the strata in accordance with its fossil content and period (Precambrian, or Palaeozoic) is the only date that is accorded valid ‘recognition’, the others being deemed ‘false isochrons’ by reason that ‘they do not fit the paradigm, and must be rejected’.
Most geologists accept basaltic rocks from the Uinkaret Plateau of the Grand Canyon as only thousands of years old. This is not in dispute. Yet when the same samples are tested by the following radiometric methods the ages are:
• 6 Potassium-Argon tests
10,000 years to 117 million years.
• 5 Rubidium-Strontium tests
1.2 billion years to 1.4 billion years.
• Rubidium-Strontium isochron
1.34 billion years.
• Lead-Lead isochron
2.6 billion years.
Are the geologists wrong, and if so, which of the dates, if any, is correct?
Living snails have been dated as being 2,300 years old by the carbon-14 method. Similarly, wood taken from growing trees has been dated as 10,000 years old. Hawaiian lava flows of known age of 183 years have been dated by the potassium-argon method at up to 3 billion years old.
Plate tectonics and the continental drift
Before the 1960s, most geologists were adamant that the continents were stationary. Today, that opinion has reversed. Plate tectonics, incorporating continental drift, first proposed by creationist Antonio Snider in 1859, is now proven as fact. Evolutionists can’t provide satisfactory explanations for the present drift rate of 2-15 cm per year.
Dr John Baumgardner, working at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (USA), beginning in 1986 and still currently involved, has used supercomputers to model processes in the earth’s mantle to show that tectonic plate movement could have occurred rapidly and ‘spontaneously’. This concept is known as catastrophic plate tectonics. The process begins with the cold and dense ocean floor beginning to sink into the softer, less dense mantle beneath. At its peak, this thermal runaway instability would have allowed for subduction rates of metres-per-second.
Baumgardner’s model is able to explain more geological data than the plate tectonic model of evolutionists. His model makes possible the depositions of large areas of sedimentary deposits on top of the normally high-standing continents.
The Grand Canyon provides a spectacular window into the amazing layer-cake character of these sediment deposits that in many cases continue uninterrupted for more than 1,000 km. Evolutionary plate tectonics simply cannot account for such thick continental sediment sequences.
Baumgardner’s model, which has been independently duplicated and verified by others, explains why the Grand Canyon is definitely not a lowland valley. The North Rim of the Canyon is over 2,500 metres high. For the Colorado River to carve the Canyon, it would first have to hack its way over 700 metres uphill. The Kaibab upwarp (monocline) through which the Canyon is cut once dammed a great deal of water. Then the dam broke and the impounded water would have rushed through the crack, cutting the essential features of the Canyon very rapidly indeed. The Colorado River is just a modest trickle caught in the twists and turns where the dam was breached. The Canyon came first; the River came second. Even evolutionary geologists no longer believe that the River slowly cut the Canyon over 60 million years.
Most interesting of all, Baumgardner’s model begins with a pre-Flood super-continent, subsequently giving way to a massive universal flood, and proceeding to a world that is just as we find it today.
PROCESSES THAT INDICATE A YOUNG EARTH
The earth’s magnetic field
The strength of the earth’s magnetic field has been accurately measured for well over a century, and been found to be decaying exponentially at a rate corresponding to a half-life of 1,400 years. Thus, 1,400 years ago the magnetic field of the earth was twice as strong as now. On this decay rate, the upper limit of the earth’s age would appear to be approximately 10,000 years.
Evolutionists have proposed a ‘reversal hypothesis’ of the earth’s magnetic field in which it dies down to zero and rises up with reversed polarity. However this theory has absolutely no scientific or theoretical basis, so many evolutionists simply ignore the fact of magnetic decay as it cannot be accommodated within the long period of time insisted on by the theory of evolution.
Meteoritic dust
It is known that cosmic dust particles enter the earth’s atmosphere from space at an essentially constant rate. Eventually these dust particles settle down on the earth’s surface. The earth receives about 14 million tons per year, a figure that is not in dispute. If the earth was 5 billion years old, as evolutionists insist, there should be a layer of cosmic dust to a depth of 182 feet thick, all over the world! No such dust layer exists anywhere. Even on the moon, where it should be the same thickness, the astronauts found only 1/8th inch.
Evolutionist geologists assume that erosion, wind and mixing processes account for the absence of the cosmic dust layer. This is refuted, as the composition of cosmic dust is very distinctive, particularly in its content of nickel and iron. Nickel is a very rare element in the earth’s crust, and even more scarce in the oceans. The average nickel content of meteoritic dust is 300 times as great as in the earth’s crust. Calculations based on the relatively small amount of nickel in the earth’s crust and oceans indicate an age for the earth of only a few thousand years. Of course, there are no winds or erosion on the moon.
Petroleum and Natural Gas
Recent experiments demonstrated conclusively that the conversion of marine and vegetable matter into oil and gas can be achieved in a surprisingly short time. Plant-derived material has been converted into good grade petroleum in just 20 minutes under the proper temperature and pressure conditions. Wood has been converted into coal in just a few hours. These experiments prove that the formation of coal, oil and gas did not necessarily require millions of years as evolutionist have assumed.
Human skeletons, and artefacts, such as intricately structured gold chains, have been found in coal deposits. In Genesis, chaps. 4 and 7 we learn that metalworking was highly developed. The Flood later buried the civilizations in the sedimentary layers of the earth’s crust. Creationists believe that the great coal deposits of the world are the transported and changed remains of the extensive vegetation of the antediluvian world. This is further supported by the presence of polystrate fossils in coal beds, which indicate rapid formation. Moreover, the types of plants involved, and the texture of these deposits testify of turbulent waters, not a swamp.
The recession of the moon
The moon is steadily moving away from the earth. This recession rate is very accurately known, and clearly indicates a young age for the earth-moon system. If the earth-moon system was millions (or billions) of years old, then the moon should be much further away from the earth.
Atmospheric Helium
The radioactive decay processes of uranium and thorium produce helium. Helium is found in the earth’s atmosphere as 1 part in 200,000. If evolution were true, the earth’s atmosphere would contain far more helium than is found. The evolutionist states that helium has been escaping out through the exosphere. To the contrary, helium is actually entering the atmosphere from outer space by means of the sun’s corona. Realistic calculations, based on accurate data, show the time required for natural alpha decay to have produced the measurable helium present today is approximately 10,000 years.
Population growth
Evolutionists believe that man has been on the earth for at least a million years, but this is contrary to population growth statistics. Growth statisticians have calculated that an average growth of only 1/4 percent per year – which is % the present rate, would yield a population of 5.2 billion people in just 4,000 years. This allows ample room for periods of time when, because of war, disease or famine, the population growth rates are far below the normal averages.
It is statistically inconceivable that only 5.2 billion people could have resulted from one million years of evolutionary history. If the population increased at only 1/2 percent per year for a million years, the number of people in the present generation would exceed 102100! Man’s history clearly spans only thousands of years, not millions.
PHYSICS
The first law of thermodynamics
This is known as the Law of Energy Conservation. It states that energy can be converted from one form into another, but it can neither be created nor destroyed. Scientists cannot account for the origin of energy and matter, or why total energy is conserved. However, the Bible offers an explanation. Only God can truly create. Man can only re-fashion preexisting materials. Since God has ceased from His creative works (Gen.2:3), energy can no longer be created. Energy cannot be destroyed because God is “upholding all things by the word of His power” (Heb1:3). He preserves and keeps in store His creation (Neh.9:6; 2Pet.3:7).
The Second Law of Thermodynamics
Evolution receives its fatal blow from the Second Law of Thermodynamics. This is known as the Law of Energy Decay, or in simple language “every system left to its own devices tends to move from order to disorder”. This is obvious all about us. All processes of nature have a tendency toward decay, disorder and disintegration. Material possessions deteriorate and all living organisms eventually return to dust, in a state of complete disorder.
Evolution demands billions of years of constant violations of the Second Law 5′ of thermodynamics. When pressed for an explanation, most evolutionists choose to ignore the Second Law, or suggest that the sun supplies more than enough energy to offset the loss of energy of the Second Law. But this is no answer at all, because the mere availability of energy does not automatically insure the development of orderly structural growth. A garden still decays in the hot summer sun!
The phenomenon of life is not a contradiction to the Second Law. The growth of a seed into a large Kauri tree, or an embryo into an adult, is really only an outworking of the marvellous structure of the germ cell, which has within itself the encoded information necessary to assimilate incoming chemicals, and gradually build upon itself a structure like that of its parent organism.
The origin of life from this pre-existing design in DNA does not present any difficulty for the creationist. However, the evolutionist is faced with an indomitable problem – how did life begin without the pre-existence of such intelligent order and design? This question must forever haunt the atheistic evolutionist.
MATHEMATICS
The theory of evolution proposes that all of the highly complex structures and systems of the universe are due to the operation of purely natural, random processes of nature. No external supernatural agent (i.e., God) is needed or desired by the evolutionist. He claims the universe is self-contained and self-evolving.
Biblical creationism maintains that the innumerable, highly complex systems and intricate structures of the universe offer exceptionally strong evidence of an omniscient Creator. The creationist believes that the astounding degree of complexity and order found throughout the universe could never be produced by mere chance, but only by Almighty God.
Mathematical probability
Probability is simply the likelihood of an event occurring. The probability of being struck by lightning is 1 in 600,000. Evolutionists insist that the highly complex systems consisting of numerous inter-relating components arise through purely random processes. Probability Statistics totally disproves this idea. Eg:
Consider the likelihood of just spelling the one word evolution by randomly selecting 9 letters from the alphabet. The probability of success is only 1 chance in 269 trials. These are bleak odds! Consider a series of 20 cards numbered 1-20. If these cards are thoroughly shuffled, and then laid out, successively in a line, the chance of laying them down in numerical order from 1-20 is I chance in 20 factorial, an enormously huge number calculated by multiplying together all the numbers from 1-20.
As the number of components increases, the probability of getting the desired result decreases rapidly. The chance development of a very simple system composed of just 200 integrated parts is 1 in 200 factorial. This colossal number can be written more simply as 10375. This can never be achieved. Even if we allowed a generous 1 billion trials per second, and kept trying for a period of 30 billion years (1018 seconds), – twice the evolutionist’s presumed age of the universe, the trial combinations would still fall far short of the 10375 needed, and we have run out of time!
A 200-part system is ridiculously primitive compared to living systems. The most basic type of protein molecule is composed of at least 400 linked amino acids. Each amino acid is, in turn, made up of a specific arrangement of 4 or 5 chemical elements, and each chemical element is itself a unique combination of protons, neutrons and electrons.
Modern computer analysis has shown that the probability of forming the simplest replicating protein molecule is 1 in 10450, and the probability of forming the proteins and DNA for the smallest self-replicating entity is 1 in 10167,626 Given the exceedingly small probabilities of these preceding figures, (10375, 10450, 10167,626) mathematicians state categorically that it is impossible!
BIOLOGY
A separate pamphlet would be needed to cover all the incredible facts of biology, which simply ‘cry out’ that a Designer is behind every amazing design and purpose found in the animal kingdom. The idea of purpose and design in the living world is known as ‘teleology’. Creationists view with a sense of awe the marvellous fit of organisms to their environments and their incredible inter relationships. Such complex, refined ‘adaptations’ could never result from a random, aimless, purposeless, step-by-step process such as naturalistic evolution.
Irreducible complexity
Charles Darwin said in his Origin of Species, ‘If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.’
A system or device is irreducibly complex if it has a number of different components that all work together to accomplish the task of the system, yet if one of the components was removed, the system would no longer function. An irreducibly complex system could not be built piece-by-piece through evolutionary processes, because the system has to be fully present in order for it to function. A simple illustration is a mousetrap.
A basic mousetrap has 5 interdependent parts: (1) the base to which the other parts are attached. (2) the metal hammer which crushes the mouse. (3) the spring with extended ends which presses against the base and the hammer when the trap is set. (4) the catch that releases when the mouse applies a slight bit of pressure. (5) the metal bar that connects to the catch and holds the hammer back, when the trap is set.
If you take away any of these parts, the mousetrap is no longer a trap. It will not work at all. Not only does a mousetrap require all the 5 parts, but they have to be matched to each other. Evolution cannot produce an irreducibly complex biological machine – yet life is based on ‘molecular machines’ far more complicated than the simple mousetrap. They haul cargo from one place in the cell to another; turn cellular switches on and off; act as pulleys and cables, allow current to flow, or not flow through nerves, and manufacturing ‘machines’ build other machines. Molecular machinery lets cells move, reproduce and process food. Complex, highly calibrated machines control every part of the cell’s function – and every one of these biological systems is irreducibly complex. It is little wonder that the majority of modern day Cell Biologists totally reject evolution.
DNA
The most intriguing, unique, and important characteristic of all life is the fascinating ability to reproduce. The highly complex DNA molecule directs reproduction and the transmission of hereditary information. All life, from the most basic bacteria to man, is dependent on the DNA molecule.
The cell itself is extremely complex. It includes many thousands of functioning enzymes, each of them a complex machine in itself. Each enzyme comes into being in response to a gene, a strand of DNA. The information content of the gene (its complexity) must be as great as that of the enzyme it controls. A medium enzyme protein often includes some 300 amino acids. The DNA gene controlling this would have about 1,000 nucleotides in its chain, and one consisting of 1,000 links could exist in 41,000 forms. Mathematically, 41,000 = 10600. This number is completely beyond the laws of probability.
DNA molecules can only be replicated with specific enzymes, which in turn can only be produced by the controlling DNA molecule. Each is absolutely necessary for the other, and both must be present for replication to occur.
This is the mousetrap analogy for just one cell.
SOME FUTURE QUESTIONS FOR YOU.
• How can we see distant stars in a young universe?
• Who created God?
• What happened to the dinosaurs?
• Were there really ice ages?
• How reliable is the Bible?
• How did the different ‘races’ arise?
• Noah’s flood – Did it happen?
• If God is ‘good’ why does He allow ‘evil’ and strife in the world?
• Does God really exist?
• Is there a ‘purpose’ to life?
These are just for ‘starters’ and there are credible answers for all the above.
I have prepared this pamphlet in response to a request for specific information from a confused, yet sincerely seeking university student. It is simply a very brief reply to his queries. There are many excellent books available, which go into greater depth and detail and cover many other related topics as well. All worth reading.
Acknowledgment: Much of the material in this pamphlet is summarised from: “The Collapse of Evolution” by Scott M Huse.
“The Answers Book” edited by Don Batten.
“Creation Facts of Life”by Gary Parker
[March 2004. Radioactive Dating.doc]
Dr. Dennls Spackman.
Auckland, New Zealand
Tel: 625-4123.