1 – Introduction
2 – Instantaneous Creation
3 – Recent Creation
4 – Starlight, Star Distances, and the Speed of Light
5 – Genesis Is Scientific
6 – Creation versus Gradual Evolution Debate: a Summary
7 – Naturalism versus Super-Naturalism
8 – Big Bang Theory
9 – Astronomy and Academia
10 – Astrology: Earth at the Center of the Universe?
11 – Life on Other Worlds? And Conclusion
Appendix 1: Outline of the Days of Creation
Appendix 2: Scientists’ Opinions on Big Bang Theory
6 – Creation Versus Gradual Evolution Debate: a Summary
There was a time when fossils and sedimentary rock formations were trumpeted as proof of long evolutionary ages and that the Book of Genesis “got it wrong”. After further investigation, scientists, who appreciated God’s hand in the formation of the natural world, began to uncover the real meaning of fossil remains and sedimentary rock strata. The only thing they prove is the rapid change brought to Earth’s landscape and climate by the cataclysm of the Great Flood. (Posts 2A-D and 3A-D in Retrieving Our Lost Heritage)
Another phenomenon, known as the Cambrian Explosion, has revealed that fossils, representing all classes of creatures, appear in the lowest sedimentary rock layers – a startling proof that their appearance was sudden (by creation), not the result of gradual change from simple to complex forms. (See “Cambrian Explosion” in Post 5F.)
There was a time when radioactive age dating was supposed to prove that dinosaurs roamed the earth 70 million years ago. Now with updated equipment and better understanding of radioactive processes, creationists are proving that those dinosaurs and the rocks in which they’re found are quite young – a few thousand years old at best. (See Post 5A.)
There was a time in the first half of the 20th century when certain fossil findings were trumpeted as evidence of ape-men ancestors – proof positive that humans evolved from monkeys rather than being a direct creation of God. As Creationist scientists began to expose these as hoaxes and/or misinterpretations of the fossil evidence, a new thrust began with the discovery of Autralopithecine fossils in more recent times. These are nothing more than various breeds of extinct apes, but because they are slightly different from modern apes, these fossils were claimed as “evidence” of ancestors to human beings.
Using advanced computer analysis, scientists proved that these bones belonged to apes and had no relation to human beings. In addition, the science of DNA genetics shows that an unbridgeable gulf exists between the genomes of apes and humans that no amount of time or genetic variation/mutation could ever hope to bridge. (See Posts 4D-4G in Retrieving Our Lost Heritage.)
There is, of course, something called common design. Similar to how an architect might use the same structural features in many different types of buildings, God used many similar design features in the structural formation of different classes of animals. But common design is not common ancestry. For humankind, Adam and Eve were our common ancestors, from whom have diversified the many different races of people we have today.
For humans and apes, however, there is no common ancestor, but there is common design. Despite wild claims and endless, futile searches over the years, no common ancestors for apes and humans have ever been found in the fossil record – nor for that matter for any of the other classes of creatures in our earthly environment.
There was a time when the evidence of ice covering much of North America and Europe was thought to be proof of vast ice ages. Now (fairly recently), it is coming to light that the only way to explain the existence of this ice age (which did happen) is to understand it as the result of the Great Flood. That cataclysm resulted in the only viable means by which it could have occurred: a rare combination of a cold atmosphere plus warm ocean waters in northern regions. (See “The Ice Age” Post or the book Frozen in Time by Michael Oard for more information.)
There was a time in the 1950’s when science thought it had proven life could arise from non-living chemicals. Now we know that even the simplest cell is so irreducibly complex that there is no possibility of its formation without the work of an Intelligent Designer, the Creator. (See “Chemical Evolution” in Post 4C, and for a more thorough, scientific treatment of the subject, “Why Abiogenesis is Impossible” by Dr. Jerry Bergman in the Creation Research Quarterly)
In all of these cases, the tables were turned. The same evidences that were supposed to disprove the Genesis account ended up being totally discredited, and in some cases, reversed and became stunning affirmations of Genesis as an accurate record of our origins. It shouldn’t surprise us then to see the theories based on starlight and the speed of light, now trumpeted so loudly as evidence of a next-to-eternal universe, falling by the wayside, as scientific knowledge expands more into this area.
As noted already, evidence is starting to mount up in favor of the possibility that starlight could have reached Earth instantaneously due to fluctuations in the speed of light and/or the time dimension. Of course, this kind of information never gets aired in popular media publications where the general public would have more opportunity to learn about it.
And that’s how it usually goes in these sorts of “debates”. Creationism is always playing catch-up behind the theories of gradual evolution. In the present Age, the deck is stacked against God’s version of science. The forces of spiritual Darkness throw out their “evidence” to dispute the Genesis account. Then the Creationist scientists and thinkers come up with scientifically based answers to refute it. And no sooner does one “doubt” finish its course, then another one comes along.
In the present Age the forces of spiritual Darkness are in the majority and so they appear to have the upper hand. But the time is coming, the Return of Christ, when Truth will prevail and science will be a subject that will turn minds and hearts towards the Creator instead of away from Him. “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” (Psalm 19:1) The vast cosmos was designed to help us admire and respect the unfathomable, wondrous, awesome majesty of God’s limitless power. (See quote in Appendix 1.)
Of course, all of the thoughts in the above paragraphs fly in the face of what passes nowadays for scientific truth. But there are many reliable, scientific, and well researched essays and studies that can be accessed quite easily. See the Footnote 2 for a list of some of the websites that can be referred to.
In the scientific community, any evidence or point of view that might have anything to do with supernatural agency is seldom given the least consideration… even though there is plenty of evidence pointing to supernatural origin, while the evidence for a naturalistic origin is not nearly as rock-solid as the science world would like to think.
Footnote 1: Excerpt from Reasonable Faith by W.L. Craig, pgs 100-101, 3rd edition 2008, publisher: Crossway Books
Aristotle, too, was struck with wonder by the majestic sweep of the glittering host across the night sky of ancient Greece. Philosophy, he said, begins with this sense of wonder about the world:
For it is owing to their wonder that men both now begin and at first began to philosophize; they wondered originally at the obvious difficulties, then advanced little by little and stated difficulties about greater matters, e.g. about the phenomena of the moon and those of the sun, and about the stars and about the genesis of the universe. (from Metaphysica 1.982610–15 by Aristotle)
Anyone who has personally studied the heavens must lend a sympathetic ear to these men of antiquity who gazed up into the night sky, as yet undimmed by pollution and the glare of city lights, and watched the slow but irresistible turn of the cosmos, replete with its planets, stars, and familiar constellations, across their view and wondered, what is the cause of all this? Aristotle concluded that the cause was divine intelligence. He imagined the impact that the sight of the world would have on a race of men who had lived underground and never beheld the sky:
When thus they would suddenly gain sight of the earth, seas, and the sky; when they should come to know the grandeur of the clouds and the might of the winds; when they should behold the sun and should learn its grandeur and beauty as well as its power to cause the day by shedding light over the sky; and again, when the night had darkened the lands and they should behold the whole of the sky spangled and adorned with stars; and when they should see the changing lights of the moon as it waxes and wanes, and the risings and settings of all these celestial bodies, their courses fixed and changeless throughout all eternity—when they should behold all these things, most certainly they would have judged both that there exist gods and that all these marvelous works are the handiwork of the gods. (from On Philosophy by Aristotle)
In his Metaphysics Aristotle proceeded to argue that there must be a First Unmoved Mover, which is God, a living, intelligent, incorporeal, eternal, and most good being who is the source of order in the cosmos. Hence, from earliest times men, wholly removed from biblical revelation, have concluded on the basis of design in the universe that a divine mind must exist.
Footnote 2:
https://answersingenesis.org/
https://creation.com
https://www.discovery.org/id/
https://www.creationresearch.org/
https://www.icr.org/
https://creationism.org/
https://www.trueorigin.org/camplist.php
