Chapter Eight - The Evidence of Creation from Science and the Bible
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1. INTRODUCTION
The believer will possibly find that the Evolution view of the origins of the universe is a problem challenging to his faith. It will be our task in this chapter to provide a good biblical apologetic as a response to those who proclaim this incorrect world view, which is contrary to the biblical position.
This chapter, divided into five major divisions, is a brief consideration of the latest scientific evidences and the biblical truth to support for the Creation of the universe by the God:
two different views of the origins of the universe (Creation and Evolution);
the length of the time for the creation-week days;
the creation of the stars;
the creation of the earth; and
the creation of plants.
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2. TWO DIFFERENT VIEWS OF THE ORIGINS OF THE UNIVERSE (CREATION v. EVOLUTION)
2.1 Origins of the Universe
How did everything get started? Where did we come from? Whatever happened to the dinosaurs (please read Chapter 10)? Have you ever wondered about such things? Of course you have. We all have.
In the very first verse of the Bible, we find out that "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1) God wants us to know right from the start that He has created us. Before He told us anything else, He made it plain that we didn't come about by accident.
2.2 Both the Bible and the Facts of Science Support Creation
However, the Bible is not the only place that we can learn about creation. The facts of science also tells us much about creation. By carefully studying the facts of science, we have become convinced that the universe could not have created itself, and that living things, including people, could not have happened just by chance (i.e. they had to be created by God!).
2.3 Definitions of Evolution and Creation
Most people, including thousands of scientists, engineers, well-educated men, believe that God created everything, but there are others who don't believe that God created our wonderful universe. Those people believe that the stars and planets created themselves by natural processes, and that all plants and animals happened by accident. This idea is called the theory of evolution, and the people who believe in it are called evolutionists. Those of us who believe that God created everything believe in creation. We are called creationists.
2.4 Reasons Why Evolutionists Don't Want to Believe in Creation
Evolutionists claim belief in evolution because science supports evolution. To say this is to be either ignorant of the truth (the real facts of science), or to deny creation no matter what the facts and scientific evidences say, because in order to believe in creation, one has to believe in God. There are people who don't want to believe in God and what the Bible says because belief requires accountability. No matter what evolutionists want to believe, however, the facts of true science do not support evolution. On the other hand, there is a mountain of scientific evidence that supports creation.
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3. THE LENGTH OF TIME FOR THE CREATION-WEEK DAYS
3.1 Wrong Interpretations of the Creation Week
Recognizing that the traditional orthodox view of the church was "young-earth creation," Some professing Christians and false teachers have chosen not to hold it. They teach that since the old earth and evolution have been "proven" by science, Scripture must contain little factual scientific or historic events. They advocate gleaning only "spiritual" implications from Genesis, not historic or scientific implications. They distort the Bible and the normal Christian way of Biblical interpretation.
Some professing Christians insist on holding the popular secular viewpoint of "science." Actually, they know nothing about true science! They believe in evolution and old-earth ideas, therefore they try to combine the Scripture with these wrongful secular ideas. This combination takes the form of theistic evolution, progressive creation, the gap theory, the day-age theory, or the framework hypothesis. (note: Please read the recommended text books in order to understand these theories.) But in each case, it is Scripture that suffers and is made to bow to the opinion of some scientists. But then, of course, scientists change their view and Scripture must be reinterpreted.
We shouldn't be looking to science to "prove" the Bible - the Bible doesn't need our help. Nor should we be looking to scientific opinion to interpret the Bible for us - the Bible will interpret itself. We just need to believe it.
3.2 Correct Approach in Understanding the Bible
Do all things in submission to God's Word. And when do so, we find that the true scientific evidence is not only compatible with Scripture, it also supports it and encourages our faith. In some cases, true scientific observations can help us understand difficult Bible passages.
3.3 Definition of Solar Day
The Bible tells of a creation period of six solar days, during which the entire universe was created in a "very good" state. The term "solar day" refers to the time for one rotation of the earth on its axis, today approx. 24 hours, resulting in a day / night sequence. But according to Genesis 1, whereas light and the day / night cycle were created on day one, the sun wasn't created until day four, so there was no sun during the first three days. In Scripture, however, there is no differentiation between the length of the first three days and the last three, and the entire week is referred to as being "6 days" long, followed by a day of rest. For convenience, therefore, I use the term "solar day" to refer to a day quite similar to ours.
3.4 Correct Interpretation of the Creation-Week Days
The length of time for the creation-week days has been demonstrated conclusively by many Bible-believing scholars to be only six solar days, the reasons are summarized as follows:
The Hebrew word yom, translated "day," can have a variety of meanings, and sometimes can mean an indefinite period of time (note: The original Old Testament manuscripts were written in Hebrews as I have mentioned in Chapter 3). It occurs over 2,000 times in the Old Testament, and it almost always certainly means a solar day.
When the Hebrew word yom is modified by a number, such as "6 days," or the "third day" (as it is some 359 times in the Old Testament outside of Genesis 1), it always means a literal day.
The words "evening and morning," which always mean a true daily evening and morning, define yom some 38 times throughout the Old Testament outside of Genesis 1.
There are several good words in Hebrew which mean "time," or an indefinite period, which the writer could have used, but yom was chosen, the only Hebrew word which can mean a solar day.
The general tenor of the passage, plus the summary verses in Genesis 2:1-4, will not allow any other meaning. Genesis 1:1-2:4 was obviously intended to give a chronology of events that really happened, just as written.
Furthermore, when the plural form of yom is used, yamim, as it is over 700 times in the Old Testament, including Exodus 20:11, it always means a literal, solar day.
Perhaps the most definitive passage was written by God's own finger on a slab of rock so that we couldn't get it wrong. The fourth of the Ten Commandments regards resting on the Sabbath Day (read Exodus 20:8-11). In Exodus 20:8-11, God instructs us to work 6 days and rest one day because He worked 6 days and rested 1 day - during which week He created the heavens, the earth, the sea, and all things in them.
The passage in Exodus also clears up another mystery. "If God is omnipotent, surely He is capable of creating the entire universe instantaneously. Why did He take 6 days?," some ask. The answer is, to provide a pattern for our work week. We are to work 6 days and rest one, just as He did. The seventh day rest is a commemoration of His perfect work of creation.
Thus, in all cases, the use of the language implies a literal meaning for yom. Why could Genesis 1 be the exception? The God say it plainly that He created the universe in 6 solar days!
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4. THE CREATION OF THE STARS
4.1 The Fallacy of the "Big Bang" Theory
4.1.1 The "Big Bang" theory
Evolutionists don't believe that God created the universe, therefore they can only try to imagine how the universe came to be. One idea that evolutionists have is called the "Big Bang" theory.
According to this theory, billions of years ago there weren't any stars, or planets, or people, or anything else. All of the energy and matter in the universe was crammed together in a big ball, or "cosmic egg." Where did the cosmic egg come from? How did it get there? No one knows!
The cosmic egg exploded with a "big bang." How long was it there before it exploded? Why did it explode? No one knows.
This "big bang" supposedly created hydrogen gas. In fact, hydrogen is the lightest substance known to man. Evolutionists believe that the hydrogen gas created by the big bang expanded, or spread out, into all the universe - that there weren't any stars, or planets, or galaxies at that time - that there was nothing in the entire universe except hydrogen gas.
Where did the stars and planets come from? How did they form? Evolutionists imagine that somehow stars created themselves from hydrogen gas. They believe that the hydrogen molecules in a certain area of space began to pull in on themselves by gravity. This area is thought to have been very large, as much as 6 trillion miles across! All of the molecules within this space started moving toward each other. In other words, as the cloud of gas got smaller and smaller and the molecules of gas got closer and closer, the cloud of gas got hotter and hotter, and finally, evolutionists tell us, the cloud of gas got so hot, it became a star.
4.1.2 Science disproved the "Big Bang" theory
Actually, there is a very simple scientific reason why this could never happen and why stars cannot create themselves. A cloud of gas is spread out, and is very cold. When a cloud of gas contracts, however, the molecules get closer together. When this happens, the gas gets hotter. Two things happen:
The gas molecules pull in on one another, by gravity, and this tends to make the cloud of gas contract, or get smaller.
At the same time, however, because the cloud of gas is getting hotter, gas pressure is pushing out, and tends to make the cloud of gas expand, or get bigger. Gravity pulls in, but gas pressure pushes out.
If the cloud of gas is going to collapse, or sink in on itself to make a star, the gravity pulling in has to be stronger then the gas pressure pushing out. Scientists have ways of calculating these two forces. It turns out that the gas pressure pushing out is almost 100 times stronger than the gravity pulling in! Instead of the cloud of gas getting smaller and smaller until it forms a star, it would get bigger and bigger, and a star could never create itself.
4.1.3 The evolution model contracdicts the second law of thermodynamics
The basic reason why there is no scientific evidence to support the evolution model is that the law of increasing entropy, or the second law of thermodynamics, contradicts the very permise of evolution. The evolutionist assumes that the whole universe has evolved upward from a single primeval particle to human beings, but the second law (one of the best-proved laws of science) says that the whole universe is running down into complete disorder (Sydney Harris, Second Law of Thermodynamics, San Francisco Examiner, 27 Jan. 1984, Nationally syndicated Column).
4.1.4 The universe is very large and complicated
Astronomers discovered that many of the "stars" were not individual stars, but were great groups of stars. These groups of stars are called galaxies. Astronomers believe that there may be as many as 100 billion stars in each galaxy! Our own star, the sun, is part of the Milky Way galaxy. Astronomers also believe that the universe may contain as many as 100 billion galaxies! This shouldn't come as any big surprise. God has no limit! If He wanted to, He could create a universe with an infinite number of galaxies.
The nearest star to our Solar System is Alpha Centauri which is 30 trillion miles from us! Assuming that a spacecraft traveled at 30 thousand miles per hour, it would take more than a million years to reach the nearest star. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:9). Because we know that God's wisdom is infinitely greater than ours, we can know that the "heavens" (the stars and space) stretch out infinitely beyond our earth.
Astronomers have calculated there are 10 million billion billion numbers of stars and the Bible indicates God has named them all individually (Psalm 147:4; Isaiah 40:26).
4.1.5 The universe is very orderly
The universe is like a giant machine. It is not only very large and complex, it is very orderly. One astronomer said that whoever was responsible for the universe must have been a marvelous mathematician. The God sustain and maintain the universe. Such complicated universe cannot be formed by chance.
As a building construction engineer, I know that all construction projects must be well-planned and executed in an orderly way. After the completion of the buildings, we still need to carry out regular maintenance works otherwise these building will be deteriorated quickly and therefore no longer fit for habitation. Both the construction and maintenance of buildings require careful planning, regular monitoring and servicing. These works cannot be achieved by accidents or explosions! There must be some people (i.e. building construction professionals) to involve in the construction and maintenance process.
4.1.6 Explosions don't create order, they just leave a mess
According to evolutionists, our incredibly complex, wonderfully orderly, mathematically precise universe was created by an explosion! Has anyone ever seen an explosion create order? Of course not! Explosions don't create order, they just leave a mess.
4.1.7 Famous astronomers believe that the God created the universe
Sir Fred Hoyle, one of the world's most famous astronomers, no longer believes in the Big Bang theory. He says that no stars, no planets, no galaxies - nothing like that - could ever come out of such a "big bang." Sir Fred Hoyle used to be an atheist and an evolutionist, but now he believes that life had to be created!
Sir Herman Bondi, a noted British astronomer, admitted that all such theories have been proven wrong by scientific facts (Sir Herman Bondi, New Scientist, August 21, 1980, p.611). Sir Harold Jeffreys, another well-known British astronomer, said that since all of our theories about how the Solar System formed have been shown to be wrong, we can say it doesn't exist!
Well, the Solar System does exist, and since science proves that it couldn't have created itself naturally, by some evolutionary process, there is only one possibility left! It had to be produced supernaturally. God made the Solar System, including the sun, the moon, and the earth, just as the Bible tells us.
4.2 In the Beginning, the God Created Light, the Sun, the Moon and the Stars
"And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: And God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day." (Genesis 1:3-5)
"And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the light: He made the stars also." (Genesis 1:16)
Who made the stars? God made the stars. We can't touch stars. But we can see them! And we see them because they give off light. There is another reason that light is very important. Light is energy. Almost all the energy we use here on earth comes from the light energy we get from the sun.
If you read Genesis 1:14-19, you will discover that God didn't create the sun, the moon and the stars until the fourth day of creation. How, then, could there have been light on the first day of creation, when the sun and the stars did not yet exist? On the first day, God created the most important thing of all - light energy. The universe was full of light, even though our sun and the stars didn't exist yet, because the God is the source of light (see John 1:1-14; Revelation 21:23; 22:5, 16).
4.2.1 Unfair criticism regarding the late creation of the sun
Some people criticize the Bible because of the late creation of the sun. They say that the God should create the sun on the first day otherwise the story of creation mentioned in the Bible must be false and illogical because it is impossible to distinguish between the evening and the morning in the first 3 days.
As a building construction engineer, I would like to reply such unfair criticism with an example. In a construction project of an electricity power plant, we know that the proposed power plant cannot provide permanent electricity supply to the nearby tenants unless the construction work has been completed. We have a plan to complete the construction project within 3 years. Through carefully project planning, we have provided temporary electricity supply from the other sources to the nearby tenants and also to the construction site of the proposed power plant for a duration of 3 years. After the completion of the project, it is unnecessary to provide further temporary electricity supply to the nearby tenants because the new power plant can generate permanent electricity by itself. Can we criticize such construction project as false and illogical? Definitely not!
Same principle apply here, the God Himself is the source of light (John 1:1-14; Revelation 21:23; 22:5, 16). He can provide temporary light energy to the universe in the first 3 days of creation.
4.2.2 God made the stars to be for signs and for seasons
There is another reason light energy is important. Matter is a form of energy. Energy can be changed into matter. God created light energy on the first day of creation exnihilo (means "out of nothing"). God made the sun to give us light so we could see and have energy for life. God made the moon as the "lesser light to rule the night" (Genesis 1:16). The Bible also tells us that God made the stars to be for signs and for seasons.
4.2.3 God could easily have created the stream of light between the stars and the earth
It is believed that some of the stars are so far away that it would take millions or billions of years for the light to reach the earth from the stars, even though light travels at a speed of 186,000 miles per second! How, then, could the stars serve as signs and seasons on the earth if these stars were created on the fourth day of creation and man was created on the sixth day? Would man have had to wait many millions of years before he could see the stars? When God created the stars, He also could easily have created the stream of light between the stars and the earth. Thus, Adam and Eve could "see" each star and know exactly where it was in the sky on the very first night when they looked up into the sky. You might say that the light beam coming to the earth from each star serves as "pointer" to tell us where each star is.
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5. THE CREATION OF THE EARTH
5.1 The Fallacy of the Evolutionists' Imagined Model
Evolutionists believe that about 5 billion years ago the Solar System was just a cloud of dust and gas, which they call the solar nebula. Where did the solar nebula come from? No one knows. What caused its rotation? No one knows that, either.
Evolutionists believe the cloud the gas and dust was spread out - may be several trillion miles across - and it was very, very cold. Then, all those molecules of gas and dust began to pull in on themselves by gravity, and finally the sun became a star.
5.1.1 Science disproved the evolutionists' imagined model
If gravity was great enough to pull in the sun, how could anything be left behind to make the planets? The sun weighs 1,000 times as much as all the planets combined - thus 99.9 % of all the matter of the Solar System is in the sun. Some think that may be dust and gas were left outside the cloud that formed the sun. This hypothetical cloud of dust and gas was orbiting the sun, and somehow, the dust particles and the gas got close enough to stick together and make planets. However, when one takes these ideas and compares them with the cold, hard facts of science, it can be proven that none of these imagined models could possibly work.
5.1.2 The Solar System cannot be formed by accident
We could say that the Solar System works just like a clock. Could you ever make a clock by accident? Do explosions in a jewelry shop create watches? Even if you put all the parts of a watch in a bag and shook the bag for billions and billions of years, would you ever get a watch? No! You would just wear out the parts. Starting with a cloud of dust and gas, then, could this wonderful, marvelously complex Solar System simply put itself together?
5.2 The God Created the Earth
"And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." (Genesis 1:2)
"And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: And it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called Seas; and God saw that it was good." (Genesis 1:9-10)
5.2.1 In the beginning the earth was without form and void
In Genesis 1:2 we are told that in the beginning the earth was without form, and void. The earth was void, or empty. God had not yet created any living things to live on the earth.
What is the Bible telling us, when it says that the earth was without form? Let us suppose that there is a vacant lot where someone is going to build a house. Suddenly, one day, you notice that the builder has placed bricks, sand, sacks of cement, and other building materials on the lot. At that time, we would say that the house is without form - it hasn't been built yet. And we could certainly say it is void, or empty. Obviously, no one can live in it yet.
That is the way it was in the beginning. Everything was there that God needed to make the earth, but He had not yet formed the earth and put living things on it.
5.2.2 God divided the waters so that some water was above the space, and some water was on the earth
The Bible tells us (Genesis 1:6-8) that God had separated the waters above the firmament from the waters below the firmament. The Old Testament was translated from Hebrew into English in about 1600 A.D. (the King James translation of the Bible), the word "firmament" meant "space." The Bible is telling us that God divided the waters so that some water was above the firmament, or space, and some water was on the earth (i.e. below the firmament, or space).
Water exists in three forms:
liquid (ordinary water);
solid (ice); and
gas (water vapor).
If you spill water on the floor, it soon disappears. It has evaporated - passed into the air and become invisible water vapor. The water in the sky is invisible water vapor, at least until it condenses to form rain.
5.2.3 God made continents and oceans
Today, there is enough water on the earth so that if it were perfectly smooth, the entire earth would be covered with water almost two miles deep. Apparently, that is the way the earth was when God started to form the earth; but then God made continents and oceans. How did He do this?
Suppose you had a great ball of clay covered with water. Now, if in some places you push down the clay to make low places, or depressions, this would push the clay up, in other places. The low places, which would fill with water, would be the oceans, and the high places would be the continents. But whatever the method, God made the dry land, or continents, and the oceans, or seas. The earth was now ready for living things.
5.3 Our Amazing Planet
Our planet earth is too amazing that it is impossible to form by chance. There must be a Creator to design, construction and sustain it. Our earth is unique in the universe. It has a lot of essential features that the other planets do not have.
5.3.1 Distance between the earth and sun
There are many, many things that have to be just right on the earth, or life could not exist. If the earth were just a little bit closer to the sun, it would be too hot for life to exist. If the earth were a little bit farther away from the sun, it would be too cold; all the water on earth would be frozen solid, and there would be no life.
5.3.2 Water
Water is absolutely essential for life, and on the earth we have 350 million cubic miles of water! But there is not a single drop of liquid water anywhere else in the Solar System!
5.3.3 The protective atmosphere
Oxygen is another significant element lacking elsewhere in our Solar System. Our atmosphere contains 21 % of this life-giving oxygen, but there is no free oxygen on the moon, or on any other planet. We could not survive without it.
There is another very important reason for oxygen to exist on the earth. The ultraviolet light that is given off by the sun is deadly. Ultraviolet light has a lot of energy - so much energy that it kills living things. If bacteria are exposed to ultraviolet light they are killed in seconds! You and I and all other living things would die very quickly if we were exposed to the whole range of light coming from the sun, including the ultraviolet light. So God made sure that this wouldn't happen.
Ozone is produced from oxygen. The molecules of oxygen in our atmosphere have 2 atoms of oxygen, but in ozone, the molecules of oxygen have 3 atoms of oxygen. The ultraviolet light from the sun changes some of the ordinary molecules of oxygen, with 2 atoms of oxygen, into ozone with 3 atoms of oxygen. Now, ozone has a very special property. Ozone absorbs ultraviolet light, so much of the ultraviolet light can't get through it. But there is a problem with ozone - it is poisonous! And just where is this ozone? Right where it must be to protect the earth from ultraviolet light. Ozone is found in a layer surrounding the earth about 10 miles above the surface, where it can absorb and filter out the ultraviolet light from the sun, without messing up things down here on the earth.
The kind of light that plants need for energy and growth is visible light - the kind of light that can pass right through ozone. So ozone is perfect! It keeps out deadly ultraviolet light, but it lets life-giving visible light pass through, and it is high up in the atmosphere exactly where it needs to be to do the job.
5.3.4 The axis of rotation of the earth
The axis of rotation of the earth is not straight up and down, in relation to the sun, but is tilted at an angle of 23.5 degrees. The very existence of that angle, and the exact size of the angle, are both very important. Under the conditions now existing on the earth, we could grow food on only a small part of the earth, if the angle of rotation of the earth was straight up and down.
Most of Canada and other countries that are far from the equator - either far to the north or far to the south - would have winter all year long. It is only because of the angle of rotation of the earth that we have summertime in Canada, USA and other countries, which enable us to grow food in these places. Furthermore, 23.5 degrees is just the right angle to create a perfect difference between summer and winter.
5.4 Scientists Believe in Creation
There are many, many other things on the earth that have to be exactly the way they are for life to exist. All those things just couldn't happen by accident. That is one reason why many scientists, who don't believe the Bible, still believe in creation.
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6. THE CREATION OF PLANTS
6.1 The Fallacy of the Evolutionists' Imagined Model
6.1.1 The evolution model
Darwin's book Origin of the Species (1859, p.141) taught that the lower and simpler life forms gradually became more advanced and complex, until finally we reach mankind, the peak at this point of biological development.
6.1.2 The assumptions of the theory of evolution are not capable of experimental verification
There are 7 basic assumptions of evolution:
Non-living things gave rise to living material, i.e. that spontaneous generation occurred.
Spontaneous generation occurred only once.
Viruses, bacteria, plants and animals are all inter-related.
The protozoa gave rise to the metazoa.
The various invertebrate phyla are inter-related.
The invertebrates gave rise to the vertebrates.
The vertebrates and fish gave rise to the amphibia, the amphibia to the reptiles, and the reptiles to the birds and mammals. Sometimes this is expressed in other words, i.e., that the modern amphibia and reptiles had a common ancestral stock and so on.
Evolutionists admitted that the 7 assumptions by their nature are not capable of experimental verification (G.A. Kerkut, The Implications of Evolution, London: Pergamon Press, 1960, p.3, 20).
6.1.3 Non-living things gave rise to living material is definitely wrong
Doctors, biologists, scientists and laymen agreed that the statement "non-living things gave rise to living material" is definitely wrong! Can you turn a rock into a living man? Definitely Not!
The origin of life would require hundreds of different kinds of protein molecules, and hundreds - most likely thousands - of different kinds of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) molecules and RNA (ribonucleic acid) molecules. Each protein, each DNA, and each RNA molecule is very large and complex. Proteins are long chains, and the links in the chains are called amino acids. There are 20 different kinds of amino acids in proteins. In order to make a particular protein, e.g. hemoglobin (the red blood protein that helps red blood cells carry oxygen), the amino acids in each protein have to be arranged in precise order.
DNA and RNA molecules are even more complex than proteins. Moreover, a living cell is not just a bag of protein, DNA, RNA, and other kinds of molecules, a living cell has membranes, energy factories, protein factories, a reproductive information center, and much more, and all of this has to function in just a certain way. Evolution teaches that this would all have to happen by chance.
Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe, an evolutionist who was also an atheist, became interested in the problem of the origin of life. Assuming that the earth was 5 billion years old, he calculated the probability of life evolving on the earth sometime during that 5 billion years. The probability turned out to be one chance out of the number one followed by 40,000 zeroes. Of course, that meant that there was no possibility at all. Professor Wickramasinghe is no longer atheist now. He say that wherever life exists in the universe, it had to be created! Thereore, there must be a God!
6.1.4 No fossil evidence to support the evolution model
It used to be claimed that the best evidence for evolution was the fossil record, but the fact is that the billions of known fossils have not yet yielded a single unequivocal transitional form with transitional structures in the process of evolving.
If evolution is true, then "simple" plants, like mosses, evolved slowly, and gradually changed into plants that have seeds, and the seed-bearing plants then evolved into plants and trees that have flowers. This is what evolutionists believe must have happened, because, they say, plants, such as mosses, are more "simple" than ordinary seed-bearing plants, and these seed-bearing plants are more "simple" than plants that have flowers.
If this is true, then scientists who study fossils (paleontologists), should have discovered many fossils of plants that were changing from seed-bearing plants into flowering plants. Natural history museums should have many thousands of such in-between kinds (called transitional forms, or intermediate kinds), if evolution is really true. Just as we would expect on the basis of creation, however, fossil hunters have not been able to find these in-between kinds, or transitional forms. Right from the start, mosses always have been mosses; seed-bearing plants, like pine trees, always have been seed-bearing plants, and flowering plants, like roses and apple trees, always have been flowering plants. Dr. E.J.H. Corner is a botanist at Cambridge University, in England. He said that the fossil record of plants was in favor of creation instead of evolution.
"The known fossil record fails to document a single example of phyletic evolution accomplishing a major morphologic transition" (Steven M. Stanley, Macroevolution: Pattern and Process, San Francisco: W. M. Freeman and Co., 1979a, p.39)
This ubiquitous absence of intermediate forms is true not only for "major morphologic transitions," but even for most species.
"As is now well known, most fossil species appear instantaneously in the fossil record, persist for some millions of years virtually unchanged, only to disappear abruptly" (Tom Kemp, A Fresh Look at the Fossil Record, New Scientist, Vol. 108, December 5, 1985a, p.67)
6.1.5 No order in the fossils to support the evolution model
Not only are there no true transitional forms in the fossils; there is not even any general evidence of evolutionary progression in the actual fossil sequences.
"The fossil record of evolution is amenable to a wide variety of models ranging from completely deterministic to completely stochastic" (David Raup, Probability Models in Evolutionary Biology, American Scientist, Vol. 166, January / February 1977, p.57)
6.2 The God Created the Plants on the Third Day
"And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: And it was so." (Genesis 1:11)
"And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: And God saw that it was good." (Genesis 1:12)
"And the evening and the morning were the third day." (Genesis 1:13)
6.2.1 God Himself is the source of light
You will notice that God made plants on the third day, but He didn't make the sun until the fourth day. If plants get life-giving energy from the light of the sun, how could they live without the sun? If, indeed, the days of Creation are 24 hours days, then the planets would have had to live only one day without the sun. Plants can easily go one day without light; however, God created light on the first day of creation, so it is not necessary to assume that plants had to do without light for even one day! The God Himself is the source of light (John 1:1-14; Revelation 21:23; 22:5, 16). He can provide temporary light energy to the plants.
6.2.2 God created grass, plants, and trees right from the start
You will notice the Bible says that God called forth grass, plants, and trees, and commanded that each should reproduce after its kind right from the start. He certainly didn't command that grass or some simple things should come forth first, and then that these things should slowly, over million of years, change into plants, which, over many, many more millions of years should evolve into pine trees, and things like that, which then were to slowly evolve over many, many more millions of years into fruit trees.
6.2.3 No life would be possible without plants
Plants are very important to all other living things on the earth. No life would be possible without plants. However, almost all energy used here for life on the earth comes from the sun. You and I, however, cannot capture and use that energy. If we lie in the sun all day, what happens? We get sun-burned! But what about all the green plants around us? They absorb energy from the sun and use it, and, of course, we use the plants for our energy!
6.2.4 Photosynthesis must be present at the beginning of life
There is one big reason why plants can use energy directly from the sun and why we can't. They have a marvelous apparatus for doing that, called photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is extremely complicated. Scientists have been doing research on photosynthesis for many years, and yet there is much about it that we don't understand.
If all of life is dependant on energy that comes from the sun, and photosynthesis is the machinery that captures that energy and converts it into the kind of energy that can be used by living things, then there could be no life on the earth without photosynthesis. If photosynthesis requires complicated machinery right from the start, it is obvious that it could not have slowly and gradually evolved over millions of years, because there would not have been the mechanism to fuel the machinery necessary to energize the mechanism!
6.2.5 God created fruits and flowers
Our world is full of an endless variety of beautiful flowers. Evolutionists theorize that flowers evolved, in order to attract bees and other insects that help to fertilize these plants, but cannot answer the question of why such a great variety of flowers would evolve to attract insects, when just a few would do the job.
Also, what about all those wonderful peach, apricot, apple, plum, pear, and orange trees? Why would trees bear all that wonderfully delicious fruit if it weren't for the benefit of people and animals? If people or animals do not eat the fruit, it just drops to the ground and rots. Again, it seems completely unreasonable to believe that the tremendous variety of fruit trees we have on the earth simply evolved by accident, with no purpose for the fruit other than to help the tree that produces it. It is reasonable to believe that God made fruit trees for their scent, in time of blossom, and so that the fruit would serve as food for humans and animals, just as the Bible tells us (Genesis 1:29-30).
6.2.6 The unchangeable laws of science
There are two unchangeable laws of biology on this earth. That is, there are two laws about life that never change:
Life can only come from life; and
Like always gives rise to like.
Flies don't erupt magically from rotting food, frogs don't suddenly spring to life from swamps, and dirty rags don't give birth to rats, but this is what many people used to believe. Some people still believed that tiny, microscopic forms of life, like bacteria, suddenly came to life from dead matter. They saw algae, for example, begin to appear on the surface of broth, and thought it somehow spontaneously appeared. It was Louis Pasteur, the famous French scientist, who proved that even tiny microscopic creatures like algae, ameoba, and bacteria come from pre-existing forms of life.
The other law we mentioned, that "like always gives rise to like," is also very obviously true. Fruit flies always give rise to fruit flies; penguins always give birth to baby penguins; humans always have babies that are human.
The Bible tells us that life came from pre-existing life - that God, a living Being, is the One who created life. The Bible also tells us that God commanded each living thing to reproduce after its own kind. Thus, Genesis teaches exactly what has come to be recognized as these unchangeable laws of the science of biology.
6.3 The Theory of Creation Stands the Test of the Laws of Science
When one proposes that a theory is scientific, whether it be the theory of evolution or the theory of creation, one must test that theory against the known laws of science. A creation scientist has found that the theory of creation stands the test of the unchangeable laws of science, and that what he discovers in the world around him continually bears out the truth of what he reads in the Word of God. Evolutionists, on the other hand, have to imagine things that are against science. Thus, evolution might best be called a system of belief, or a "religion," which requires its followers to deny the necessity of God, at the cost of their scientific integrity. It is actually pseudoscience, or false science.
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7. REFERENCES AND RECOMMENDATION FOR FURTHER STUDY
The Amazing Story of Creation from Science and the Bible, Institute for Creation Research, 1990, by Duane T. Gish, PhD.
The Young Earth, Master Books, Creation-Life Publishers, 1994, by Morris D. John, PhD.
Scientific Creationism, Master Books, Institute for Creation Research, 2nd Edition, 1985, by Morris M. Henry, PhD.
What is Creation Science, Master Books, Creation-Life Publishers, Revised Edition, 1987, by Morris M. Henry and Parker E. Gary.
The Genesis Flood, The Biblical Record and Its Scientific Implications, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 39th Printing, 1995, by Whitcomb C. John, and Morris M. Henry, PhD.
The World That Perished, Grand Rapids, Baker House, Revised Edition, 1988, by Whitcomb C. John.
The Genesis Record, A Scientific and Devotional Commentary on the Book of Beginnings, Grand Rapids, Baker House, 26th Printing, 1994, by Morris M. Henry, PhD.
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