CREATIONISM VS. EVOLUTION DEBATE

I.THERMODYNAMICS:

Concerns the conversion of energy into work. Principles of thermodynamics are universal in scope and applicability. The two "laws" of thermodynamics are the most important and most universal of all scientific generalizations.

FIRST LAW: Total quantity of energy in the universe is constant. Energy can change forms but cannot be created or destroyed.

SECOND LAW: The universe is constantly getting more disorderly. Natural direction is to deterioration and decreasing organization (>entropy)

Problem with Evolution: Thermodynamics shows the universe getting more disorderly; energy is spreading out. But evolution requires a continual increase in order and complexity.

Proof of Creation: The 2nd Law implies a future "heat death" of the universe-> maximum disorder and all processes stopped. Since the universe is not yet "dead," and since it is going to die in time, it is obvious that time had a beginning. If time extended infinitely into the past, the universe would already be dead. 1st law: universe could not create itself. Answer? "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth." God started time in creation (fits 2nd Law) and God stopped creating on 6th day (fits 1st Law).

II. FOSSILS

Evolutionists say, "Check out the geologic time scale,it proves evolution!" Creationists say, "No way, Jose'"

How did the timetable come about?
>1. There are different layers (strata) in rock
2. Strata were assigned an age by the fossils in it.
3. But how do geologists determine which forms were living when? One needs a systematic way of viewing and classifying changes of life forms over the ages.
4. Evolution provided the rationale: Simple -> Gradually -> Complex Therefore evolution supports time table, timetable proves evolution

Problem: circular reasoning! (Circular reasoning not a good basis for "science")

By the way: Column has 12 major pieces--but no where can one find the whole thing. 2/3rds of the worlds land surface has 5 or fewer levels represented, 1/5 has 3 or fewer levels.

CREATIONIST ANSWER: The geologic time scale is bogus!

Fossil records indicate a great catastrophe--Noah's flood. Similar size and shape in different rock strata explained by:

1) Hydrodynamic forces: water that is turbulent (flood) is a highly effective sorting agent.

2) Bigger, more complex creatures could flee to higher ground, simplest organisms caught first in flood waters.

FURTHER PROOF OF A BIG FLOOD: Sedimentary rocks with fossils show rapid deposition, a quick event, not a gradual one.

Fossil Graveyards: remains of dead creatures quickly disappear due to decay and scavengers. Yet, in fossil record one finds huge cemeteries of organisms crushed and buried together. Points to a rapid burial and rapid subsequent lithification. But WAIT! There's more!

Polystrate Fossils: some fossils of plants and animals cross layers of rock--indicates a quick burial.

Ephemeral Markings: Fossils of fragile structures preserved (Eg. worm trails) could only happen with abnormally rapid burial and lithification.

Preservation of soft parts: Some fossils contain soft tissue--would not have happened with a gradual burial.

There are other proofs, but the conclusion is: "Catastrophism provides an adequate framework of interpretation for most, and probably all, the known features of the geologic column."

III. ANTHROPOLOGY:

Evolutionists believe man has descended from apes. This has been taught as a proven fact using fossil ape-men as missing links.

Nebraska Man: Discovered (in) 1922, used in the Scopes Trial--"proof" of a missing link based on one tooth! Later, the rest of the skeleton was found, and it turned out to really be an extinct pig.

Southwest Colorado Man: Constructed from what turned out to be a horse tooth.

Java Man: discovered in 1891: 3 teeth, piece of skull, piece of thigh-bone collected over an area of 70 square feet, mixed with bones of extinct animals. But no evidence was found at all that the bones were part of the same creature.

Piltdown Man: 1912 discovered--experts said 500,000 years old--later found to be a hoax--really an ape jawbone, a fabricated missing link.

Neanderthal Man: 1st portrayed as semi-erect, a missing link, now classified as Homo sapiens, completely human.

Lucy: monkey, sketchy evidence to show she walked erect. but probably just a variety of ape.

Therefore, one can see how speculative, unreliable and imaginative anthropology can be. Evolutionary ancestry of man based on highly questionable evidence. Hoaxes and blunders of the past reflect that.

IV. POPULATION GROWTH:

An average growth rate of 1/2% (.25% of the present rate) would yield the present population in just 4,000 years. Statistically inconceivable that only 3.5 billion could have resulted from 1,000,000 years of evolution. The number today would be 10//2,100 (10 to the 2,100th power, or a 1 followed by 2,100 zeroes) if rate was 1/2% for a million years. Talk about crowded!

V. MATHEMATICS:

Even the simplest imaginary replicating protein molecule would be so complex as to be beyond the range of chance assemblage (evolution). "If one counts the number of trial assemblies of amino acids that are needed to give rise to the enzymes, the probability of their discovery by random shufflings turns out to be less than one in 10//40,000 (10 to the 40,000th power)"

Similarly, such a system would require 1,500 successful chance events in succession. The probability of this happening is one chance out of 10//450 (10 to the 450th power).

VI. TRANSITIONAL FORMS:

There is not the slightest evidence for evolution in the fossil record--out of all the billions of fossils known and documented, of tremendous variety, with extinct and present kinds--there is not a single true transitional evolutionary form that has yet been excavated anywhere in the world.

Evolutionist Faith: "Faith is the substance of fossils hoped for, the evidence of links unseen."

invertebrates into vertebrates: no transitional forms fish into amphibians (Fins to feet and legs): no transitional forms amphibian into reptiles: no transitional forms, ETC. ETC.!

? But what about Archaeopteryx? (had teeth and claws like a reptile, wings and feathers of a bird). It is a "mosaic," not a "transitional" form because there were no transitional structures--all features were fully developed and fully functional.

? But what about the horse series? Problems with it: series starts in North America, jumps to Europe, then back to America, no evolutionary intermediates, sequence from small many-toes forms to large one-toed forms absent in fossil record, Two modern day horses found in the same stratum as Eohippus (supposedly the ancestor), no transitional teeth, etc.

VII. METHODS OF DATING THE AGE OF THE EARTH:

Have to make three assumptions to use common dating techniques (Eg. radiocarbon dating)

1) Process used must have always operated @same rate @today But: radioactive decay rates could change, atmospherics 2) System where process operates must have always been closed But: it is inconceivable a mineral could remain a closed system for a billion years of fracturing, folding, solvent action, etc. 3) Initial condition of system components must be known But: (it is) wrong to assume that the amount of radiogenic daughter element all formed by decay from the parent element.

EG--> All modern igneous rocks, formed by lava in human history, show very ancient radiometric ages. Therefore cooling magmas form new rocks that have an "apparent age" of millions or billions of years.

The assumptions are found to be not valid.

VIII. A YOUNG EARTH:

THINGS THAT SHOW THE EARTH IS YOUNG, NOT OLD.

EARTH'S MAGNETIC FIELD: The strength of earth's magnetic field has been continuously weakening. It has been decaying at a half life of 1,400 years (1,400 years ago it was twice as strong). Extrapolating back 10,000 years, the magnetic field would be as strong as a magnetic star! (improbable if not impossible) Thus, 10,000 years seems to be the upper limit for the age of the earth.

METEORITIC DUST: Cosmic dust particles enter the earth's atmosphere at an essentially constant rate. The earth receives about 14 million tons per year. If it was true that the earth was 5 Billion years old, there should be a layer of meteroritic dust 182 feet thick all over the world. But no such dust layer exists. Even on the moon it was less than 1 inch thick. This cannot be explained by erosion or mixing because of the distinctive content of nickel and iron which is traceable.

MISSISSIPPI RIVER DELTA: 300 million cubic yards of sediment are deposited into the Gulf of Mexico by the Mississippi each year. By studying the volume and rate of accumulation, the delta is determined to be about 4,000 years old.

EARTH'S ROTATION: It's gradually slowing. If the earth is billions of years old and has been slowing uniformly, the present rotation should be zero.. And if you extrapolate backwards several billion years, the centrifugal force would have been so great that the continents would have been sent to the equatorial regions and the overall shape of the earth would have been a flat pancake.

RECESSION OF THE MOON: Present rate the moon is moving away from the earth is known. If earth is 5 billion years old, the moon should be much farther away. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Information From: The Collapse of Evolution by Scott Huse

The Biblical Basis for Modern Science by Henry Morris.