Genesis U for your company at this video presentation.
We introduce your lecturer for this series, Barry Setterfield.
Barry majored in geology and physics at university, performed a complete mineralogical survey
of South Australia for an international mining company and lectured in astronomy for the
ASSA for six years.
He co-authored a scientific report on his research into the changing speed of light
which was issued in August of 1987.
It has some fascinating implications for astronomy, geology and universal time scales.
His work in this field has become internationally known and has received publicity in several
European daily newspapers.
He has lectured overseas on the speed of light and a number of other subjects.
Because he has been unable to accept all invitations to present his research and related topics,
some of his colleagues have lectured on his behalf at universities, colleges and secondary
schools from China and Hong Kong, North and South America to Europe, Australia and New
Zealand.
He is guest lecturer at the internationally based Cape and Ray Conference Centres and
Bible schools on a variety of subjects from Old and New Testaments.
He has also taught at several other Bible colleges and preached by request with six
different Christian denominations.
With that background in both science and religion, he is well qualified to present this three-part
lecture series, Life, the Universe and the Bible.
Welcome to part one of a presentation that examines topics ranging from particles and
planets to plants and people.
In this series we address questions relating to science and evolution, to life, the universe
and their origins.
Scientific theory and observational fact will be compared and contrasted.
Some important anomalies will be discussed and conclusions drawn from them.
An examination of scientific anomalies and discrepancies between data and theory is not
calculated to make one popular.
The impression is often given that all problems have been resolved on certain basic scientific
issues.
However, later university training and the scientific journals suggest a somewhat different
picture.
Recently, I had to point out to some senior high school science masters that matters were
not yet as clear cut as their comments might indicate.
I recommended that they read some current relevant scientific journals where inquiry
and debate were still occurring in a number of important areas.
Furthermore, in my own fields of research it turns out that one additional fact leads
to a very different scenario in several scientific disciplines.
In view of this, it may be wise to remember that science does not yet possess all of the
facts and until it does there is danger of possible misinterpretation of evidence.
A number of scientists are aware that problems, inconsistencies and anomalies exist between
present theories and the observations and are prepared to be honest about them.
In this series we will meet several such scientists and see what effect these issues had upon
them and their world view.
Inevitably all this makes for a controversial presentation.
However, if it stimulates you to even think about the observational evidence and the current
scientific explanations, or the absence thereof, this series will have achieved its purpose.
The lights of a scenic city in South America beckon us as we begin our quest.
A few years ago I corresponded extensively with a very astute professor of geology who
taught at the university in this beautiful Brazilian metropolis.
Let's call him Pedro to protect his identity.
Pedro said that he began his geology lecture series by discussing with his students what
he called the problem of order in the universe.
When he looked through a telescope he saw galaxies with their whirlpool-like spiral
structure.
In those impressive spiral arms were the young giant blue stars imparting a cyan tint to
their environs.
Upon narrowing the focus to the orange hub of these galaxies, the old red giant stars
leapt into prominence.
He saw order, he saw organisation, he saw beauty.
When he looked at the rocks he found many were made up of a magnificent collection of
crystals.
When analysed closely one discovers that the crystals belong to six distinct systems that
subdivide into 32 classes.
There is a highly ordered arrangement of facets, sides and shapes.
A microscopic investigation right down to the atomic level reveals individual atoms
packed in a beautifully systematic manner that gives rise to the crystal structure itself.
When Pedro looked at the fossils in the rocks, like these trilobites, he discovered intricate
life forms with order in complexity.
Now this posed a problem to Pedro because there is a basic law of science known as the
second law of thermodynamics.
Professor Sir Arthur Eddington called it quote, the supreme law of nature, end quote.
Basically this law states that everything is running down, wearing out, getting older.
It happens to cars, it happens to humans.
In time that beautiful baby is destined to become an old age pensioner.
Interestingly enough the Bible calls this the bondage of corruption, decay and death
to which the whole creation has been subjected.
Pedro's problem was twofold.
Firstly it means the entire cosmos must have started off in a highly ordered state because
observation shows that it is getting more chaotic with time.
For example star clusters break up and crystals disintegrate into soil.
In fact a major article in New Scientist for November 25th 1989, pages 42 to 45 had this
astounding title, Is the Solar System Stable?
It was subtitled quote, you might be surprised to learn that the Earth's orbit around the
sun like those of other planets is chaotic.
What does this mean for the future of the solar system?
End quote.
It concluded that the behaviour of the solar system is unpredictable on a time scale of
20 to 100 million years.
The second part of Pedro's problem was that evolution states the reverse of these observations,
namely that the universe, the cosmos, started off in chaos and then time, chance and natural
processes produced order out of that chaos.
For Pedro the observational evidence only allowed two options.
So he asked me, can the natural laws produce our cosmos from nothing or is there a creator?
If the creator is there why doesn't he show himself?
I pointed out to Pedro that God has claimed to have left his book of instructions, the
Bible, in the same way that a vehicle manufacturer leaves his manual in the glove box of a new
car and that instruction manual reiterates that the creator upholds all things, the whole
cosmos by the word of his own power.
Consequently the natural laws suspected of producing a more ordered cosmos are simply
evidence of God's consistent behaviour in running the universe.
Part of Pedro's problem was that God doesn't advertise himself.
There's a good reason for this.
Both Old and New Testaments reiterate that the just, the righteous, shall live by faith.
Therefore, unlike us, God does not interrupt an exhibition of the rainbow to say, this
display comes to you by courtesy of the creator.
Yet his instruction manual, the Bible, does say that the rainbow is his specific promise.
Furthermore, the activity of an intelligence does reveal itself.
Scientists had no difficulty in recognising the result of early human activity in this
piece of mammoth ivory from the Ice Age.
Why?
Simply because ivory of any age does not form those shapes by naturalistic, mechanistic processes,
even given time and chance.
We neither met the sculptor nor saw him working, but we know he existed.
So a painting implies an artist, even though we never met nor saw him at work.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge implies a designer, an engineer, a builder.
We never met them, but we know they existed.
So also the Bible says in Romans 1.16 that the creator's eternal power and godhead,
though invisible to us, are clearly evidenced by the created order in the cosmos.
If this is so, then we should readily find evidence of a creator and his activity.
I suggested to Pedro that we start our search at time zero and see what the Scriptures have
to say about that and the scientific evidence available.
The Bible commences in the beginning, God created.
That word created is the word bara in Hebrew.
It means to create something out of nothing.
The word bara is used three times in the creation account in Genesis 1, namely in verses 1,
21 and 27.
In verse 21, the creation of soul or conscious personality in animals and mankind is mentioned.
In verse 27, the creation of godlikeness in mankind is in view.
For the rest of the time, the words asa or yatsa are used, which mean to shape, to mould
or fashion using pre-existing material.
For now though, we concentrate on the initial creation event at time zero.
Genesis 1.1 states that there are three things God created out of nothing.
In the beginning time, God created the heavens, space and the earth, matter.
This created material, bara, was then moulded as indicated by the Hebrew words asa and yatsa
to form the universe.
Thus, two different types of work are involved in the creative process.
The next step is mentioned over eight times throughout Scripture.
Here are four of them.
When space and matter were created from nothing, they were then stretched out.
This stretching out process cooled the material to the present temperature of space.
Your fridge operates on the same principle.
Gas under pressure expands out into a large volume and cools.
For the same reason, a spray can becomes cold at the nozzle.
Theologian Ave Lemaître, years before science examined this topic, concluded from these
verses that at time zero, with God's massive injection of energy, space and matter started
off as a very small, intensely hot ball of material.
Over the past 40 years, all scientific theories differing from this scenario have been discarded.
Observational data indicate that all matter in the universe did indeed originate suddenly
in a small, super-dense and very hot state.
It's then expanded out, cooling rapidly in the process, and is called the Big Bang.
The Cambridge Atlas of Astronomy, page 384, printed in 1985, calls these Big Bang models
quote, the theory of sudden creation, end quote.
Professor George Gamoff, pictured here, demonstrated mathematically that the abundance of elements
observed today and the atomic structure all formed in the first half hour of the Big Bang
or less.
He expressed it this way, quote, all matter in the universe was formed in less time than
it takes to cook roast duck and potatoes, end quote.
Quotation was from Fred Hoyle's book Frontiers of Astronomy on page 323.
One piece of evidence was predicted by the same George Gamoff in 1949, namely that there
should be an echo of the Big Bang as radiation from all parts of the sky at a temperature
of 3 degrees Kelvin.
That's minus 270 degrees Celsius approximately.
Observationally, this was verified by Nobelist Arno Penzius on the right and his colleague
Robert Wilson.
The horn antenna behind them picked up the predicted fossil radiation in 1965.
This observational verification of the Big Bang caused Dr. Arno Penzius to give the Bible
the credit for predicting its existence.
He became an orthodox Jew believing in the Old Testament scriptures, Genesis and the
God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
He said, and I quote, my argument is that the best data we have are exactly what I would
have predicted had I nothing to go on but the five books of Moses, the Psalms, the Bible
as a whole, end quote.
The observational evidence of astronomy thereby demands that one, the universe had a beginning
in time and was not eternal and two, that matter was formed out of nothing almost instantaneously.
This evidence logically implies that a creator brought it all into being.
That last conclusion is not lost on some members of the scientific community.
Dr. John Maddox writing in Nature, volume 340, page 425 in 1989 said that the evidence
from the Big Bang could be used to support a belief in a creation event and an implied
creator with quote, ample justification, end quote.
He therefore declares that the Big Bang is quote, philosophically unacceptable, end quote.
How fascinating.
Two opposite reactions to exactly the same observational evidence.
Dr. Penzius comes to believe in a creator while Dr. Maddox rejects both the creator
and the evidence that leads to that conclusion.
So the observational evidence of the origin of the cosmos agrees with the scriptures.
But that same fossil background radiation, that echo of the Big Bang poses two further
problems if galaxies are formed by naturalistic processes.
Firstly, the cosmic background explorer satellite, curb, pictured here, shows the background
to be smooth right down to one part in 10,000 or perhaps even as far as one part in 60,000.
Chris Vaughan in New Scientist for April 28, 1990, page 14 states and I quote, galaxies
could only have condensed from the stuff of the Big Bang if it was lumpy, end quote.
This assumes of course that the galaxies formed naturalistically.
This chart gives the distribution of 4,000 galaxies, the yellow dots, in the form of
clusters and chains amidst huge empty black voids.
At the resolution of the COBE satellite, the kernels of matter that formed these clusters
and chains of galaxies should be visible as obvious lumps in this echo of the Big Bang.
But they are absent.
Secondly, the 11 most distant astronomical objects, the quasars, appear perfectly mature
but are very close to the origin of the relic background.
These twin problems were commented on by two astronomers researching the issue.
Margaret Geller on the right commented, quote, this is the most serious challenge ever posed
to standard theories of how galaxies form.
Quoted in New Scientist for December 2, 1989, page 12.
John Hooker on the left commented that these results were very hard to explain and has
written off all current theories.
These theories based on time, charts and natural processes thereby fail to account for the
observed features of the early cosmos.
The activity of a creator seems to be implicated as there are other problems of galaxy formation
quite apart from their relationship to the cosmic background.
James Treffel in The Dark Side of the Universe published by Charles Scribner and Sons, 1988,
page 55 said, and I quote, by rights the galaxies just shouldn't be there.
He emphasised his frustration by the title to chapter 4, quote, five reasons why galaxies
can't exist, end quote.
Professor M. Harwitt in his standard text Astrophysical Concepts in 1988, pages 466,
471 and 527 amplifies this.
He suggested that the galaxies may have been, quote, spontaneously formed, end quote.
Again, if time, chance and natural processes are to produce stars, several insuperable
and persistent problems exist.
After examining them, Martin Harwitt exclaimed in exasperation on page 14 of his book, quote,
but is it impossible that stars just form out of nothing at all and that a lot of dust
gets raised in the process?
Such a picture, while unsatisfying because it postulates an apparently unphysical origin,
after all at least avoids the angular momentum and magnetic field difficulties, end quote.
Even more recently in Science News, volume 137 for June 30, 1990, pages 408 to 409, some
important discoveries in this area were announced.
Nevertheless astrophysicists Lada and Hsu state that despite their discoveries, quote,
the origin of stars represents one of the most fundamental problems of contemporary
astrophysics.
Solar formation is a much more mysterious process than anyone had expected, end quote.
Other problems also occur with the formation of solar systems.
We have no time to discuss them in detail now, but they only reinforce the conclusion
that naturalistic, mechanistic processes are not sufficient to produce solar systems or
stars, galaxies or clusters of galaxies.
Again, the activity of a creator appears to have been involved as he moulded Asa and Yatsa,
his created material, to form stars and planets.
Well so much for the vast reaches of space, but what about life forms?
Is it possible to produce life by the proposed evolutionary processes?
Professor Sir Fred Hoyle pictured here, professor of astrophysics and mathematics at Cambridge
and Cardiff universities, pointed out that the chance of life forming anywhere by naturalistic,
mechanistic processes anywhere in the universe, even in 100 billion years, is one chance in
one followed by a million zeros.
His associate, Professor Chandraswik Ramasinghe, expressed it this way.
He said this mathematical probability is less chance than there is of a brand new Boeing
747 forming as the result of a tornado going through a junkyard.
Professor Francis Crick, a biologist and physicist, a Nobel Prize winner, agrees.
He stated that it is mathematically impossible for life form anywhere in the universe.
Professor that this is quote, and that biologists seem to be blind to, end quote.
Hoyle concluded that the only solution was that quote, and intelligence end quote, had
been to produce life.
Other scientists stated that they did not like the way that Hoyle said that.
So three great men of modern science all concluded needed an intelligence at work in the universe
to produce life.
As Pedro thought about this, he agreed that creation speaks of a creator.
Not only Pedro, Brian was an extremely alert dean of science at an Australian university.
He held a doctorate in geology and specialised in paleontology and stratigraphy.
Brian admitted to me quote, I can't understand my atheistic colleagues.
All this just can't happen by itself, end quote.
So creation does speak of a creator.
In him was life, says John 1,4.
Thus life is an intrinsic attribute of the creator and all life therefore derives from
him and that is why he alone can offer us eternal life as the scriptures affirm.
Well having got to this point, both my geologist friends wondered if God produced the universe,
originated life and then left the development of life forms to the forces of evolution,
namely time, chance and random processes instead of plan, purpose and special creation.
I pointed out to both Pedro and the dean of science that the evidence of special design
in the cosmos is against this.
You could focus attention on the evidence from design in snowflakes.
Some time could be spent on the miracle of bird migration and their navigational skills
or the fantastic features of structure, function and behaviour that make the honeybee so special
or the mathematical marvel of the honeycomb or the incredible design of feathers, the
origin of which is still an evolutionary enigma.
But consider the woodpecker.
The arrangement of two toes at the back of the foot allows it to hang on to trees.
This arrangement is unusual in the bird world but the shock absorber mechanism in its head
that allows it to drill into wood is not only unusual, it is unique.
And there's no point in drilling into wood unless you can get the beetle and bugs there
so a long sticky tongue is needed to obtain the good food under the bark as this woodpecker
is shown doing.
Well where do you put a long tongue?
The woodpecker wraps it under its skin right around the head and inserts it in the right
nostril.
None of the individual pieces in this evolutionary puzzle have any survival value until the whole
set are functioning together.
What would happen if the tongue were too long for the beak and too short to get the beetles?
Plan, purpose and special creation are more likely than time, chance and natural processes.
Look at the bombardier beetle.
Despite its very ordinary appearance it possesses a remarkable explosive chemical defence system.
Hydrogen peroxide and hydroquinone come down in two tubes into a combustion chamber.
It's an explosive mixture but it doesn't explode because an inhibitor enzyme comes down with
the two components.
Then when this mixture is about to be fired at a hungry toad or predator an anti-inhibitor
is injected and the toad gets an explosion in its face at 100 degrees Celsius.
The toad reacts to this chemical warfare in the following fashion.
Not only does he get burnt but he gets this noxious spray all over his face and tongue
and on the ground around.
Now note something important.
The first beetle that tried the experiment without the inhibitor enzyme would blow up.
With any other component chemical missing the beetle would be eaten by the toad and
there is thus no evolutionary advantage in those options.
In other words the whole system has to be operating as a complete functional unit right
from the start.
Nor is that all.
The beetle's aim is highly directional.
Here the boiling noxious chemical spray is being directed at a pair of tweezers grasping
the beetle's left front leg.
Furthermore using the tweezers and high speed photography it was discovered that the spray
is pulsed at about 500 bursts per second.
The last frame on the top line and the first in the middle line show one burst while the
two middle frames on the bottom line show another.
This complete functional chemical unit therefore requires a whole set of nerve and muscle attachments
for aim and control.
Far from originating life and then leaving its progress to the forces of evolution all
this indicates that plan, purpose and special creation were involved even for such lowly
creatures as beetles.
And then there are the little fish that act as cleaners.
The mouths of fish accumulate food debris and parasites and they have no toothbrush
so they go to a cleaning station and queue up.
Small fishes, wrasses and shrimps clean them up inside and out.
They swim into the mouths of the big fish amongst the vicious looking teeth.
The big fish makes no attempt to eat these little cleaner fish and shrimps.
This spotted trunk fish exudes the poison from its skin but that is withheld while the
wrasse cleans it up.
In 1977 Nobel Prize winner Albert Szent Gorky said in Synthesis Volume 1, Number 1, quote,
�All this may sound very simple but it involves a whole series of most complicated chain reactions
with a horribly complex underlying nervous system.
All this had to be developed simultaneously� end quote.
He went on to say that such coordinated behavioural adaption happening as a quote �random mutation�
has the probability of zero� end quote.
Similar comments may be made about the hummingbird which needs to beat its wings 60 times a second
in order to stay airborne.
In addition it has a swivel joint at the shoulder which is unique in the bird world.
The entire wing can rotate 180 degrees.
That arrangement allows this smallest avian representative to hang motionless in the air
or fly up, down or backwards.
These and other examples indicated to Pedro and Brian that their initial idea of the creator
originating life and then leaving its development to the forces of evolution was unsatisfactory.
They each concluded that the creator was personally involved in the origin of each type of creature.
Is there any wonder that Harvard biologist Dr Richard Lewontin was forced to admit that
quote, �The marvellous fit of organisms to their environment was the chief evidence
of a supreme designer� end quote.
In fact in the scientific American book Evolution 1978 Dr Lewontin went on to concede that living
things quote, �appear to have been carefully and artfully designed�.
Romans 1.16 is therefore correct.
The creator�s eternal power and godhead though invisible to us are clearly evidenced
by the created order in the cosmos.
All these results can be summarised by saying that though God may be invisible to us, ordinary
scientific methods certainly do indicate that he is nonetheless present and carefully formed
each one of his creatures.
This answered the immediate problem of Pedro and Brian.
Events in the universe were not left to time and chance.
The Bible could therefore be trusted when it says that the creator does exist and has
a plan and a purpose for his creation.
But being a scientist Pedro wanted to know whether the Bible could be trusted historically
and scientifically.
Historically the conclusions of three renowned archaeologists are important.
Thirty years ago Professor George Ernest Wright had told his students that quote, �They
could forget Moses in the Pentateuch� but he now confesses quote, �At least in these
significant areas I have had to acknowledge that I was wrong.�
As this archaeological evidence mounted in favour of the Bible against earlier sceptical
criticism Dr Werner Keller exclaimed quote, �The Bible is right after all� end quote
and he wrote the book The Bible as History as a consequence.
Professor Nelson Gluck concluded that in all matters of historical perspective I have never
yet found the Bible to be in error.
But let us go further back than the historical days of Moses or even Abraham to illustrate
the scientific accuracy of the scriptures.
Just one example out of many will have to suffice here.
The A-shaped Hyades star cluster can be seen at the top right of this photo.
Towards the centre and beautifully framed by an aurora lie the Pleiades.
The Pleiades cluster is often called the Seven Sisters because the naked eye can see six
to nine stars.
In the oldest book in the Bible, the book of Job in chapter 38 and verse 31 God is recorded
as saying to Job quote, �Can you bind the sweet cluster of the Pleiades as I have done
or loose the bands of the constellation Orion?�
I wonder if Job understood.
In a telescope the Pleiades appear as a spherical group of about 500 stars immersed in wispy
clouds of gas and dust out of which they were born.
They are almost unique.
They are a bound cluster.
Clusters disrupt and stars drift away but Hall in his book Frontiers of Astronomy page
236 to 238 and again on page 243 says that the Pleiades will not disrupt.
Indeed the Caxton Atlas of Astronomy on page 204 said it would take 1,000 million years
as before any significant change in the cluster took place.
The Pleiades cluster is bound by the chains of gravity.
The nearby A-shaped Hyades cluster is not bound.
Similarly, the constellation of Sagittarius contains the lagoon nebula shown here.
Its associated star cluster at the top left is disrupting like most others in the galaxy.
In the days of Job, well before Moses and possibly well before Abraham, how did they
know that all other clusters including almost the whole of the Orion formation were disrupting?
How did they know that only the Pleiades were bound by gravity?
It is only in this century that science has discovered these things.
It is recorded that Job knew because God spoke to him out of the whirlwind of cloud.
Similarly, God guided the two million Israelites out of Egypt and into Canaan by a swirling
pillar of cloud by day.
This became a pillar of fire by night because of its brilliance.
And it is recorded that God spoke to them out of this cloud.
Indeed Exodus 33 and verse 11 says that God spoke to Moses as a man speaks with his friend
face to face, audibly.
In Exodus 16 and verse 14 we are told that God commanded Moses to write these things
in a book which Moses finished in Deuteronomy 31 24.
So the five books Genesis to Deuteronomy have been written by Moses in this fashion.
And the rest of the Bible was written in a similar way.
God spoke giving us an eye witness account as he was there when it happened and unlike
science he possesses all of the facts.
As I found as I went on that the Bible could be completely trusted scientifically.
The account is accurate because God is not a liar.
Well what does the Bible say about the evolution issue proposed by science and what does it
indicate about creation.
In Genesis 1 1 I noticed the command to reproduce after their kind was given 10 times.
They were not to change from one kind into another.
Biblical biology therefore denies evolution.
Here are the two propositions summarized.
On the left we have evolution starting with a small gene pool and an aneba which expands
by mutation and selection to give rise to the different kinds.
On the right creation is summarized starting with a large gene pool for each of the various
kinds and each of these gene pools then divide by migration and selection to changes within
the kind.
The Bible statement allows for immense variations within the kind or species.
Natural selection will occur but only if the information for the change is already in the
gene pool.
Let's follow through with the dog illustration given on this slide.
The Genesis proposition indicates the genetic information came from the created ancestor.
This ancestor probably gave rise to wolves foxes coyotes hyenas and jackals and the original
mongrel dog.
This mongrel, and I use the word in its best possible sense, had all the genes that gave
rise to the other dog forms, a gene pool.
Science has given this ancestral mongrel the name Tamarctus arrowed in this diagram.
From his large gene pool all 110 other forms of dog came, the dog kind.
About one third are shown here.
What happens is that selective breeding from this mongrel gives rise to the different varieties.
One may breed types with long hair such as the Samoyed or the Husky.
In so doing there's a loss of genetic information giving rise to short hair.
When you breed short legged forms such as the corgi you lose genetic information giving
rise to long legs.
Scientifically that is all the hard evidence we have to go on.
All these 110 types of dog, as different as the tall Great Dane from the diminutive Dushan,
have been developed from a very few wild dogs which descended from the original mongrel.
Notice that they are still obviously dogs.
The Genesis proposition agrees totally with this experimental evidence.
It is simply variation within the kind.
In the Time Life Book Evolution printed in 1964 on page 42 it is pointed out that over
300 domesticated breeds of pigeon have all been developed from the wild rock pigeon Columbia
Olivia, the one in the orange frame.
Dr. F. L. Marsh has pointed out that their diversity of form and temperament such as
the Victoria crowned pigeon shown here are so astounding that different species or even
generic names would have been assigned if it had not been known that they all had a
common ancestor.
The gene pool of that ancestor contained the information necessary to develop all of these
other forms.
For plants too there is immense variation within the created kind.
Here is a riot of roses with large variations in colour but the prize for variation in form
must go to begonias which have been bred to resemble other flowers.
The top left begonia has the form of a camellia, the bottom left a rosebud and the bottom centre
a carnation.
According to Ruth Moore in Evolution page 76 printed in 1964 these and all other modern
begonia varieties came from three rather drab small wild begonias collected in 1865, one
of which is shown here.
The gene pool in this original stock contained all the information required to develop the
modern types.
Furthermore over 500 varieties of sweet pea, some of them being grown here, all developed
from a single type since 1700 AD.
Quoted by Dr. F.L. Marsh in Evolution and Science 1947 pages 29 and 351.
So the Bible statement in Genesis is genetically and experimentally true.
Evolution sees this variation within the kind and then makes an assumption by going one
step beyond the evidence.
Evolution says variation within the kind therefore we can change from one kind to another.
This change is meant to occur by a change in DNA, the material that passes on the genetic
code.
The spiralling DNA ladder is represented for us in this diagram.
Many feel that the change from one kind into another is accomplished by DNA mutation.
Mutation occurs when radiation such as cosmic rays or x-rays strike a rung in the DNA ladder
as shown here.
As a result of this radiation strike part of the DNA message gets garbled.
The question is can this message mix-up produce the desired result?
Three points are important.
Firstly mathematically it is sometimes said that with one statistician you may obtain
three opinions.
However the mathematicians at the Wistar Symposium number five were unanimous.
They showed conclusively that mathematically mutations could not serve as a basic mechanism
for evolutionary change.
The answer was no.
Just plain no.
Interestingly enough the creation alternative was summarily dismissed despite this mathematical
impasse for evolution.
The second point is illustrated by Queen Victoria.
It is strongly suspected that this queen had a mutation of a clotting factor gene.
This meant that they could bleed to death from a simple cut.
Blood clotted more slowly.
As a result this hemophilia has afflicted royalty throughout Europe.
Here then is an illustration that mutations are nearly always harmful.
Mankind has accumulated some 1500 mutational disorders.
That is why you don't marry your first cousin.
If one does there is a dramatic increase in the chance of a mutant disease or abnormality
manifesting in one's offspring.
So time, chance and random processes do tear things up and make things worse rather than
better.
The third point is illustrated by the four chromosomes of the Drosophila fruit fly.
On this photograph the dark bands show where the genes are.
These genes are carefully mapped and some are labelled here.
Fruit flies were subjected to X-rays.
The marked genes in the DNA were the ones that mutated.
These mutations resulted in changes in eye colour, wing size, abdomen markings and bristle
arrangement.
Here are some of the forms that result.
Now notice something rather obvious.
The gene has to be there before it can mutate.
All you get from a mutation is a varied form of an already existing gene.
In this example they are still Drosophila fruit flies even if some of them can no longer
interbreed.
That is simply variation within the kind just as the Bible insists.
Notice also that the defects resulting from some of these mutations are far more likely
to cause extinction rather than evolution.
Now some would say this is not fair.
Given enough time the changes demanded by evolution will occur.
The example often given is that a large enough workforce of monkeys typing randomly will
sooner or later type out a Shakespearean sonnet or the whole works of Shakespeare.
This seems to be making a monkey out of Shakespeare but it's a popular argument.
Similarly given a long enough time changes demanded by evolution will occur they say.
However David Ossilton has shown the argument to be without substance.
In New Scientist for November 1st 1984 page 39 he discussed several possibilities.
The simplest was the much shorter task of monkeys typing out the name, just the name
William Shakespeare on typewriters with just 50 characters at three strokes per second.
He concluded that at eight hours a day without holidays the maths would show it would take
a million million monkeys a million million years to hit it right.
That is 50 times the present age of the universe on the atomic clock.
Now we have some important things to say about atomic clocks in another session but for now
let us give evolution the benefit of the doubt and in so doing let's put the Bible to the
fiery test.
If we had to find any evolutionary changes over time we would expect to find them in
the fossil record.
The time span covered by the rocks should show us the truth.
We ask is there variation from one kind to another in the fossil record?
Professor E.J.H.
Corner of Cambridge University a paleobotanist and an evolutionist writing in contemporary
botanical thought on page 97 said and I quote, I still think to the unprejudiced the fossil
record of plants is in favour of special creation end quote.
There is a good reason why he said that.
What happened was that each of these plant kinds appeared abruptly in the fossil record
with no transitional forms from one type to the next.
This was admitted by E.C.
Olsen in the evolution of life page 94 published in 1965.
I quote new groups of plants and animals suddenly appear apparently without any close ancestors.
Major groups appear in this way.
The fossil record which has produced the problem is not much help in its solution.
Some paleontologists believe that these events tell a story not in accord with the theory
end quote.
That theory of course is evolution.
Not only do new types appear suddenly without transitional forms but there is also a second
feature of importance.
This cowrie pine fossil appears in rock strata dated as 175 million years old atomically.
Nevertheless an interesting admission by M.E.
White is found in the beautiful volume The Greening of Gondwana.
The caption reads quote cowrie pine little change after 175 million years end quote.
Indeed this comparison between a living and a fossil cowrie pine shows no essential difference.
This is not an isolated instance.
Generally where groups have not become extinct they continue through to the present with
only minor variations.
Now the reason why spore bearing algae mosses and ferns predominate at the base of the fossil
column and why naked seed gymnosperms palms and pines were prolific in intermediate strata
and why the hard shelled flowering species the angiosperms dominate at the top of the
fossil column that is a different question.
It is the same question as to why different animal types dominate in these strata divisions
and the answer is explored in another session.
But for now we note two points.
Firstly it is admitted that each plant type appears abruptly in the fossil record with
no transitional forms or missing links.
Secondly plant types today remain basically unchanged from their first fossil appearance.
These points are illustrated by this living cycad unchanged for 200 million atomic years.
The same two points are true for animals as well as plants.
From Darwinian theory one might expect the evolution of a bat to follow a scheme something
like this diagram.
However as in the case of plants transitional forms are absent.
And furthermore the first forms which do appear are basically the same as we have today.
Here is the earliest bat in the fossil record in rock dated as 50 million years old atomically.
The first point again is that there is no sign of transitional forms or any wing developing.
It is an already complete functional unit.
Secondly it is very little different from the bats we have today.
Rourke and Stanley in Principles of Palaeontology 1971 page 306 remarked quote, unfortunately
the origins of most higher categories such as the bats are shrouded in mystery.
Commonly new higher categories appear abruptly in the fossil record without evidence of transitional
forms, end quote.
Another example is the abrupt appearance of spiders in the fossil record.
The first fossilised spiders are found in rocks over 300 million years old atomically.
They look just like the spiders today as this specimen indicates.
They are made of the same spider's cuticle and equipped with spinnerets, the organs they
use to spin thread.
New scientists for September 16 1989 on page 14 proves that these early spiders in the
fossil record not only spun silk thread.
Microscopic examination of the legs of those fossils of spiders resulted in this photograph.
It reveals that they are equipped with tarsal claws used for weaving webs.
These claws are exactly the same as those that modern web weaving spiders possess.
Insects also appear abruptly in rock strata 350 million years old atomically.
Even so most types are familiar to us today.
A few are unknown now, they have become extinct.
Many familiar insects are also giants.
Some crickets had wings 15 centimetres long and a noise making apparatus which could be
heard for 2 kilometres.
Cockroaches frequently attained lengths of 10 centimetres.
Dragonflies had wingspans of up to 75 centimetres compared with this fossil example that was
only 40 centimetres across.
A reason for giantism will be discussed in another session but note the two points.
Firstly, they appear as already complete functional units with no transitional forms.
Secondly, they are just like modern crickets, cockroaches or dragonflies.
There has been no significant change while the atomic clock ticked off 350 million years.
In fact it's true right at the base of the fossil record.
In the Cambrian strata dated to 600 million years old atomically.
There the first major fossils appear abruptly.
All major invertebrates found in the ocean today were represented then.
There were jellyfish, sea urchins, crinoids or sea lilies, starfish, snails, sponges,
segmented worms and the most complex invertebrate the nautiloids and trilobites shown on the
middle right and in the top right circle.
All these groups are familiar to scuba divers today except that the trilobites are now extinct
like this specimen and the only significant member of the shelled squids that is left
is the pearly nautilus.
Extinction has also occurred with some fossil plants and vertebrate animals.
So the fossil record then emphasises three points.
Firstly the abrupt appearance of the various kinds with no transitional forms.
Secondly the subsequent extinction of some kinds and thirdly those kinds that survived
to the present have not evolved.
They are basically the same then as now.
This agrees with the scenario presented in the Bible but it's a problem to evolution.
A problem admitted by Darwin himself with his chapter entitled on the imperfection of
the geologic record.
Why?
Because evolutionary theory predicts that there should be many transitional forms found
because of gradual change, perhaps like this.
However 120 years after Darwin the problem remains.
Stephen J. Gould in Natural History for June and July of 1977, page 22 to 30 in volume
86 admits that and I quote, the fossil record with its abrupt transitions offers no support
for gradual change.
All paleontologists know the fossil record contains precious little in the way of intermediate
forms, end quote.
He now proposes punctuated equilibria, namely that evolution occurs in jumps by the quote
rare success of these hopeful monsters, end quote, where as a possible example a bird
hatched out of a reptile's egg.
See Natural History for June July 77.
This possibility was discussed by Goldschmidt in 1940, by Schinder-Wolf in 1936 and 1950,
by Stanley in 1979, by Gould in 1981, by Wright in 82 and Futima in 1983.
Some were for, some were against the proposal but it is now proposed that very fast development
occurred in small isolated communities not recorded in the fossil strata.
But this is a position of faith because no physical evidence is there to show that it
occurred.
In fact some unusual evidence suggests that the truth is otherwise.
Plesiosaurs thought to have died out about 65 million years ago on the atomic clock had
a longish neck and a tiny head.
They had four powerful paddle-like flippers attached to a broad body and a short finless
tail.
Their length ranged from 15 to 47 feet, that's 4.5 to 14 metres.
On April 25, 1977 a Japanese fishing ship, the Zoyo Maru was trawling off New Zealand
at a depth of 900 feet the trawl net snagged and picked up a creature that had died less
than a month before.
Here it is.
This creature was 32 feet long, weighed 4,000 pounds and had four paddle-like flippers,
each about a metre long attached to a broad body.
It had a small head, 45 centimetres long with a neck of 1.5 metres.
The well-developed vertebrae were 15 centimetres thick.
It was observed by the 18 crewmen and was measured, photographed and sketched by Michiko
Yano, the assistant production manager for Toyo Fisheries Limited.
The stench threatened to contaminate their catch and was released overboard.
Here is Yano's sketch.
Yano was alert enough to take a sample of the fibrous material from the fins.
Tokyo University School of Fisheries analysed it for protein.
The particular protein found is only possessed by sharks, rays and reptiles.
It is not a ray and the spine was too large, neck too long and head too small for a shark.
Among reptiles all dimensions and appearances are those of a plesiosaur.
So much so that Japan issued this stamp to commemorate the event.
Interestingly enough it shows no evolutionary change.
It was still a plesiosaur after 65 million atomic years.
One regrets that the carcass was dumped overboard so that scientists couldn't examine it directly.
However, here is something that did not get away.
A coelacanth.
These rare fish are up to 2 metres long and can be found at a depth of 550 feet off the
Kamoro Islands in the Indian Ocean.
Coelacanth fish first appeared in the fossil record 400 million atomic years ago and were
thought to be extinct 65 million years ago atomically.
From evolutionary theory this fish was believed to be the ancestor of the amphibians.
Notice that the pectoral and pelvic fins of the coelacanth have associated bones which
are loosely embedded in muscle.
Evolutionary theory assumed that these pectoral and pelvic fins evolved with time into the
feet and legs of an amphibian whose bones were definitely attached to the vertebral
column which allowed it to walk.
That was until 1938.
In December of that year a live coelacanth was netted at 500 foot depth near this location
off the east coast of South Africa.
It deteriorated rapidly however and it was not until 1952 that another coelacanth was
recovered.
On the right hand side of this picture Professor J.L.B. Smith of Rhodes University, an organic
chemist and a fish expert, is shown unpacking this scientific oddity with the help of the
then Prime Minister of South Africa.
After examination of this evidence Professor Smith stated quote, �My surprise would have
been little greater if I had seen a dinosaur walking down the street� end quote.
Nearly 200 of them have been recovered since then.
Again we find that living coelacanths look exactly the same as their fossils.
The blue tail of a living specimen on the right is compared with that of a fossil coelacanth
on the left.
Indeed, the comparison is exact for the whole fish.
Not only had it not changed into an amphibian there was no change at all even after 400
million atomic years.
Professor Smith nicknamed the coelacanth �old four legs� in the belief that it would at
least have walked on the ocean floor with its lobed fins.
However after considerable observing time Hans Fricker reported in National Geographic
for June 1988 on page 837 that while coelacanths would often do headstands, quote, �We never
saw any of them walk and it appears the fish is unable to do so� end quote.
All these observational tests show the Bible statement after their kind is more in agreement
with the facts of science and its anomalies than the theory of evolution.
The observational facts upon which science is based therefore do nothing to disprove
the creation proposition.
This need not surprise us for the scriptural record says in Amos 9 6 �For the Lord God
of Hosts is he that built his hierarchy in the heavens, the system of galaxies, and that
founded his strata upon the earth, the geological column.
The Lord Jehovah is his name.� So basically there should be no conflict between God�s
record in the Bible and God�s record in the rocks, stars or any of the created order.
As my two associates in geology discovered this loving and wise creator is indeed the
author of both records.
Furthermore, he desired to be their guide and friend just as he was to Job, Abraham
and Moses.
In the following sessions we will examine the inevitable scientific questions that these
discoveries raised in their minds.
Thank you very much.
Welcome to part two of a presentation that is examining topics ranging from particles
and planets to plants and people.
In this series we are addressing questions relating to science and evolution, to life,
the universe and their origins.
Scientific theory and observational fact are being compared and contrasted.
Some important anomalies and discrepancies between data and theory are being discussed
and conclusions are being drawn from them.
In our first session we scrutinised some evidence from a number of fields of science ranging
from astronomy and mathematics to biology and paleontology.
We met a number of scientists who made some interesting statements about the observational
evidence and existing scientific theory.
In particular we followed the questioning of two leading university geologists as they
squarely faced this evidence and came to an unavoidable conclusion.
One of these was Pedro, a professor in Brazil and the other was Brian, a dean of science
at an Australian university.
Let us briefly summarise some of this available evidence and then continue with the quest
that Brian, Pedro and others launched out upon as a consequence of their conclusion.
From astronomy the observations indicate that the universe is not eternal, that there was
a sudden creation of matter out of nothing and that the formation of stars, galaxies
and clusters of galaxies is inexplicable by naturalistic mechanistic processes.
One may therefore conclude with noblest Dr Arno Penzias that a creator was personally
involved.
Professors Hoyle, Wickramasinghe and noblest Professor Francis Crick agree that mathematically
the calculations showed that it is impossible for life to form by random naturalistic processes.
Noblest Professor Chandras Wickramasinghe stated that this is quote a fact of science
that biologists seem to be blind to end quote.
One may conclude with them that life demands a life giver.
Biologically the evidence from living creatures such as the honey bee has extracted the grudging
confession that living things quote appear to be carefully and artfully designed end
quote and seem to give evidence quote for a supreme designer end quote.
Furthermore noblest Albert Zintgorky has pointed out that the chance of some coordinated behavioural
adaptions happening as quote a random mutation has the probability of zero end quote.
From paleontology it is generally conceded that each plant and animal type appears abruptly
in the fossil record as a complete functional unit with each type essentially the same as
we have today.
After appearing abruptly 230 million years ago on the atomic clock these Jinko trees
remained unchanged.
We may generally conclude as Professor Corner did with fossil plants that this quote evidence
is in favour of special creation end quote rather than the theory of evolution.
Indeed everything appears to reproduce after its kind.
These statements are in line with the biblical proposition rather than the evolutionary one.
Biblically the gene pool of each created kind or species divided by migration and selection
to changes within the kind.
Take mice for example.
One grey coloured father at the top of this diagram and five white mothers have produced
young of six different colours.
The original created kind had the genetic information needed to produce the grey father
and the white mothers from which all six colours came.
Likewise the biblical proposition indicates that the first parents of mankind had all
the genetic information needed to give rise to the variations within the human race that
we see today.
Pedro and Brian agreed that all this evidence attest to the fact of a creator, a supreme
designer, a life giver who commanded everything to reproduce after their kind.
The evolutionary proposition of change from one kind to another by mutation and selection
did not seem to be supported by this evidence.
Indeed Brian was familiar with this fossil jellyfish.
It is found at the base of the fossil column and is at least 600 million years old atomically.
We'll have some important things to say about the atomic time scale in the next session.
However for the moment we note that although this type of jellyfish is now extinct the
same persistent band of strata contain such well known modern varieties as the Portuguese
Manawar.
This served to re-emphasise in Brian's mind two conclusions from part one.
Firstly that over the last 600 million atomic years even jellyfish have reproduced after
their kind.
Secondly fossil evidence favours extinction rather than evolution.
It is at this point that we pick up the story because a third conclusion is also apparent.
For a fossil jellyfish shown side on here to have this degree of preservation sudden
burial is required.
The geologists involved agreed it must have happened in less than one day.
This favours the biblical proposition of creation followed by catastrophe or a series of catastrophes
rather than the evolutionary proposition of slow inexorable processes acting over a long
time.
It was important to examine this with Brian and Pedro because of their evolutionary training.
Here the evolutionary proposition is well illustrated.
In this scenario a river gradually brings sediments into a lake.
A fish dies and is buried under the sediments and becomes preserved as a fossil.
Later the process repeats itself and layers of strata are built up and become rock.
What happens in practice?
I have a large fish pond at home with perhaps 100 fish.
Occasionally one dies.
It floats to the top or sinks to the bottom and rots.
In a few days nothing is left.
For fish to be preserved as fossils rapid burial under sediment is required.
In this catastrophic scenario highly turbulent debris laden water from an earthquake, volcanic
eruption or massive mud flow overwhelms the fish.
Its trapped body would be surrounded with sediments that then hardened into rock.
In some cases fossilisation has been so rapid that even the fish smell has been preserved.
I suggested to Brian and Pedro that we test the gradual evolutionary and catastrophic
biblical propositions by examining the fossil record.
What do we find there?
In Chemical and Engineering News for October 11 1976 on page 40 the headline read, workers
find whale in diatomaceous earth quarry.
This was in Lompoc, California.
The whale was about 80 feet long and in an unusual position as shown in the sketch.
It was fossilised in its ascent from the ocean floor and was standing on its tail.
The catastrophe happened so quickly that the whale had no time to change position or rot.
It was overwhelmed by debris that now forms 80 feet of strata.
Here a large fish is eating a smaller fish.
While the meal was in progress both the diner and his meal were overwhelmed by sediments
that rapidly hardened into rock.
Another example is this ichthyosaur, a sort of water dwelling dinosaur.
This ichthyosaur is giving birth with a baby emerging at the left.
While the birth was in progress mother and baby were entombed.
This unfortunate duck-billed dinosaur was just emerging from his shell when the poor
little fellow was buried in sediments that became rock strata.
A woolly mammoth.
They looked like an elephant covered with hair.
This one was snap frozen.
They found butter cups in its mouth and undigested butter cups in its stomach.
Its flesh was edible.
For this to be so it has been estimated by scientists involved in the meat trade that
a temperature drop of about 120 degrees in six seconds was required.
Elsewhere around the world there are fossil graveyards where millions of fossils of all
types of animals washed in catastrophically and are jumbled together.
Indeed all these examples speak of rapid burial, of catastrophe.
As Pedro and Brian recalled other geological examples with which they are familiar they
readily agree that the fossil record frequently does indicate catastrophe rather than slow
processes acting over a long period of time as evolution proposes.
Another class of fossil evidence also supports this view.
This tree trunk five metres tall and about a metre in diameter passes from coal at the
base to shale and then into sandstone near the top.
It is usually assumed that this rock sequence took millions of years to form but this tree
had a pithy interior.
It had no time to rot.
Rapid burial under catastrophic conditions were required.
The same applies to this tree trunk that extends through ten feet of sandstone.
In the same clano formation in Oregon fossil nuts and fruit are found indicating rapid
preservation.
The same argument applies to tree trunks stripped of branches that penetrate many layers of
coal.
If coal formed slowly in swamps trees would rot.
Many fossil trees in coal seams hate wet feet such as the kingbilly and celery top pines
found in the Yallourn Coalfields in Victoria, Australia.
They just wouldn't grow in swamps.
Only rapid coal formation accounts for this evidence.
But how can coal form rapidly?
The answer provides some interesting insights into other geological processes.
We are standing in the state of Oregon, USA on Sunday May 18, 1980.
The volcano erupting 45 miles away to the north is Mount St Helens in the state of Washington.
This volcano provides part of the answer we seek.
At 8.31am that Sunday the mountain shook with a magnitude 5.1 earthquake and then blew up.
A cloud of gas and volcanic debris rose to an altitude of 63,000 feet through three cloud
layers and swept north and east.
Before the eruption Mount St Helens was a 9,700 foot peak in the Cascade Mountain Range
40 miles north of Portland, Oregon.
There were lakes and forests in the vicinity.
This is the view from Yale Lake.
The explosion starting the eruption was heard in Vancouver, Canada 225 miles to the north.
That initial explosion was 500 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb.
As a result an area of 60 square kilometres north of the mountain was covered with volcanic
debris to a depth of 147 feet, that's 45 metres, in just 10 minutes.
The first nine hours the volcanic energy expended was equivalent to 20,000 atomic bombs.
One day later 22 feet of volcanic debris had silted up the ocean shipping channel of the
Columbia River 100 miles away.
Up to 600 feet thickness of strata were formed by a variety of processes associated with
volcanism over the full eruptive cycle.
The main results occurred over the 1500 square kilometre area shown on this map.
The plume of eruption debris above the volcano supplied dust and ash in addition to the pumice
and mud flows.
The strata formed were very extensive.
They contained thin laminate and cross bedding.
Indeed in less than one day on June 12, 1980 this 25 foot thick stratified deposit formed.
The thickness of the layers ranged from 1 millimetre to over 1 metre.
This sort of bedding is usually assumed to have formed very slowly, each layer originating
from a separate eruption, years apart.
But it didn't take years to form the various layers.
It took less than 24 hours.
On March 19, 1982 a mud flow carved out an entirely new drainage system in the North
Fork of the Tootle River Valley.
A close inspection of the left sector reveals a dendritic drainage pattern of rills and
gullies over 100 feet deep that is typical of Badlands topography.
This complete new system made up of five different canyons is a 1-40th scale model of the Grand
Canyon.
Focusing in on Engineers Canyon on the right we obtain some impression of size.
The canyon walls are up to 140 feet high.
Normally this type of canyon system is assumed to have eroded slowly over thousands of years
by the river that now flows through it.
Certainly this is what is usually assumed for the Grand Canyon.
But the river here did not form this canyon and the whole system was complete in less
than four years.
The river only followed the path cut for it by one, just one major mud flow.
The area around the old Mount St Helens was covered by hiking trails, ski slopes and hundreds
of square miles of beautiful forest.
Six miles north of the peak lies Spirit Lake, only part of which is shown here.
With scenery like this it is no wonder that the old Mount St Helens was called the Jewel
of the Cascade Mountains.
One explosion on May 18, 1980 had energy equivalent to 20 million tonnes of TNT.
Six campers over 30 miles by air from the mountain awoke to find trees crashing around
them.
That particular explosion toppled 150 square miles of forest in six minutes.
This is the devastation that occurred ten miles north west of the eruption.
All the tall trees fell like dominoes as the forest was flattened by the blast.
As we zoom in on the scene, the close-up detail shows trees stripped of their branches and
uprooted.
Many had balls of earth around their root system.
In the upper left, the road and what is left of the car give you a size comparison.
Meanwhile, where the mountains came down to the edge of Spirit Lake, nothing was left
standing.
The mountain slopes were stripped of their timber.
Millions of logs were catastrophically deposited in the lake by the blast.
In this location, the floating mat of logs and vegetation came right up to the base of
the mountains themselves.
A more general view of Spirit Lake shows the vegetation mat in the distance.
All told, the millions of floating logs, trunks and vegetation occupied two square miles of
the lake.
Some five years later, scuba investigations of the lake bottom showed bark and vegetation
debris to be abundant.
This photo of the bottom of Spirit Lake shows a two-foot section of tree bark lying on finer
textured peat, several inches thick.
This peat layer is up to three feet thick in places and extends across much of the lake
floor.
Its composition and texture is similar to some coal beds of the eastern United States.
With burial and slight heating, the Spirit Lake peat would become coal.
The trees fully uprooted and deposited in the lake, there is a special effect.
A ball of earth around the roots keeps the trunks upright and they become waterlogged.
Sooner or later, they sink and the root masses radiating from the base make it look as if
they were deposited in apparent growth positions.
The effect of wind here has given a slight tilt.
By August 1985, when the survey was made, over 15,000 upright trunks stood on the lake
floor.
Their average height was 20 feet.
Scuba divers and these side-scan sonar echoes show that the lowest trunks already had three
feet of volcanic ash and mud flows around their bases and roots.
Others that sank later were at different levels and less deeply buried.
The same effect applies to vegetation mats as well as to trees.
The final result is a multi-layered deposit that makes it look like a series of coal seams
or multiple forests now petrified and grown at different levels in one position over thousands
of years.
For coal, the result is well illustrated by this coal mine near Saint Etienne in France.
Here tree trunks, stripped of their branches, often appear through many layers of coal and
interbedded strata.
The important initial clues required to solve the puzzle were provided by Carl Weill in
1965 and Hill in 1972, who formed coal artificially under conditions similar to volcanism and
tectonism.
Then, in 1984, after Mount St Helens had erupted, Hiatsu, experimenting at the Argonne National
Laboratories in Illinois, USA, found that in the presence of volcanically produced clays
acting as catalysts and temperatures of around 150 degrees Celsius, plus acidic fluids typical
of volcanic and hydrothermal environments, wood turned to coal in periods ranging from
two weeks up to one year.
Wood grade coal formed in four weeks and high grade coal in eight months.
The conclusion is that coals form catastrophically under volcanic conditions.
Elsewhere, other sorts of catastrophe are becoming recognised.
Consider the extensive channeled scablands of the USA's Pacific Northwest.
Over 15,000 square miles of hard crystalline lava are deeply cut by steep walled canyons.
The cause used to be listed as slow stream erosion over millions of years.
It is now known that Lake Masula, a glacial dam, burst, liberating 500 cubic miles of
water.
A wall of water 60 metres high and flowing at 15 metres per second did all the work.
It didn't take millions of years.
It only took one disaster, in that case the Spokane flood, and it was all over in just
one or two days.
Similarly, Mount St Helens was just one small to average volcano.
At crucial periods in geological history, a great many volcanoes were active simultaneously.
Now all this speaks of catastrophe.
The Bible has several geologically significant catastrophes and all of them after Adam.
So mankind was present when they happened.
And that is the key point.
The Bible states that death, fossilisation and extinction came after Adam, not before.
This is in stark contrast to the evolutionary proposition.
Let us check the Bible at this juncture.
Romans 512 reads, Wherefore, as by one man, Adam, sin entered the world, and death by
sin, so death spread to all mankind.
And Romans 820 reads, For the whole creation was made subject to this vanity of sin and
death, not willingly, but God subjected them, yet with the hope that the creation itself
will be set free from this bondage of corruption, death and decay, into the glorious freedom
of God's children.
Scripturally then, death came after Adam to both mankind and all creatures.
Fossils are extinct creatures, flora and fauna, that died.
Sometimes the disasters that overwhelmed them cause them intense pain and fear, as they
are often preserved in agonal death throes.
The mood is captured fairly well on this shot.
However, the point to note for now is that if death came after Adam, then all fossils
came after Adam, and man was present at the time.
Consequently, even though it may be the exception rather than the rule, evidence of human activity
should occasionally be found in the fossil record.
On the other hand, evolution, as Pedro and Brian readily agreed, categorically demands
the entire absence of any such evidence.
Well, what evidence does the fossil record supply on this crucial test?
From various coal measures alone, several items have been found suggesting that mankind
was present at the time the coal was formed.
This iron pot encased in a large lump of coal was found when the lump was broken open.
The coal was from Oklahoma in Upper Carboniferous Strata, dated as 330 million years on the
atomic clock.
This is not an isolated instance.
Other items recorded separately elsewhere included an iron thimble, an iron borer, an
iron cuboid-shaped tool which came from Wolf's Egg in Austria.
It was found in Paleocene coal, dating about 60 million years old atomically.
Some other artifacts found in coal consist of a carved stone plate with an image of a
man's face on it, and this ceramic spoon or ladle.
The handle was broken by the Smithsonian Institution during testing for genuineness.
Furthermore, the exquisite chain of eight-carat gold shown at the top right-hand side of the
montage was found embedded in Lower Carboniferous coal from Illinois, dating as 360 million
years old on the atomic clock.
Other man-made objects have been found in a variety of ancient strata.
A metal jar from solid sedimentary rock.
A nail with a perfect head in a fist-sized lump of quartz.
A four-centimetre-long baked clay figure of a man.
This was recovered from a depth of 300 feet in a drill core in Nampa, Idaho, USA.
The strata at that depth was Paleocene, dating as about 3 million atomic years.
But there is other interesting evidence.
Let's check the geological column.
The standard column has mankind at the very top in recent strata.
It is not usually contemplated, for example, that humans and dinosaurs coexisted.
So let's go to dinosaur strata, in this case the Cretaceous, dating about 100 million years
on the atomic clock.
We are in Dinosaur National Park, Glen Rose, Texas, surveying a trail of dinosaur prints
that have been uncovered in the Paluxy limestone.
The dinosaurs must have been walking in the limestone when it was setting like concrete.
After the limestone had set, another layer was formed on top, preserving the tracks.
Footprints of a variety of dinosaurs can be seen in the layered limestone.
Here, Dr Clifford Wilson of the Australian Institute of Archaeology is comparing his
stride with that of a dinosaur.
We thank him for supplying the following sequence of shots.
Half a mile downstream from Dinosaur National Park, the layered limestone bank of the Paluxy
River goes up in a series of steps.
A TV cameraman is photographing the scene after Dr Wilson had called out the press, radio
and TV.
Here is the reason for their interest.
Along with dinosaur prints, like the one in the foreground, were what appeared to be human
footprints.
One example is by the model's left hand.
Tracks went towards the rock outcrop that sat on top of the stratum with the prints.
A small portion of this additional layer, or rock step, is visible in the upper right
hand side of the photo.
Dr Wilson pointed out that if the man tracks were genuine and not just clever carvings,
they should continue in the same stratum underneath the rock layer.
The test would be to remove this superimposed rock layer to uncover the stratum that had
the prints.
It would then be possible to see if both the dinosaur and the so-called man tracks continued.
In this shot, a portion of that overlying rock layer is being removed.
They found that the tracks did continue, the dinosaur tracks on the left and the so-called
man tracks on the right.
These were the first uncovered.
After work was almost complete, the general scene looked like this.
The dinosaur trail continued underneath the overlying layer.
So did the trail of man tracks.
One man is standing in two of them to show the normal human left-right, left-right stride
that these man tracks exhibited.
There's a special track in the foreground.
It was a dinosaur print plus an elongation.
A close-up view of the elongation reveals that the heel of a human footprint actually
overlaps the end of a dinosaur print.
The position of the toes are arrowed in black.
There is no question that these tracks are genuine.
But there are other tests for genuineness.
This print shows the ridge that was pushed up around the foot as it stepped into the
setting limestone.
That effect in rock is difficult to obtain by any other means.
A cast of the clearest human print they uncovered is shown here.
While there had been some dispute about several trails in the prints nearby, the press, radio
and TV contingents agreed that this trail was the most convincing evidence that they
had seen for man and dinosaur coexisting.
I had the opportunity to share a similar sequence of shots with a rather sceptical doctor of
geology whom we will call Joel.
As he saw the shots, Joel's scepticism turned to amazement and then ultimately the evidence
was accepted.
Elsewhere in the same vicinity of the Paluxy River there are footprints of barefoot children.
These youngsters are trying on a child's print for size.
In addition to normal adult prints and those of barefoot children, there are also giant
prints like this, or larger, in the same strata that dates as 100 million years old atomically.
For example, I had this cast made from a trail of giant prints when I was in the USA some
years ago.
Both Brian and Joel had no trouble in accepting this as from a giant human.
Interestingly enough, Genesis 6.4 says, quote, that there were giants in the land in those
days, end quote.
In this case, the giant has been estimated to be 10 or 11 feet tall.
That's about 3.3 metres.
Zooming in on the big toe, we find another mark of genuineness.
This toe and some of the others show the skin ridges on the toe similar to our fingerprints.
Now, these are not the only examples available of man and dinosaur coexisting.
In 1983, reports of discovery of 1,500 dinosaur prints appeared in the Soviet news agency
TASS and the Sydney Morning Herald for November the 21st and the Moscow News No. 24, page
10.
These prints were found in strata data as 150 million years old atomically in the Turkmenia
region of the USSR.
The noteworthy part of the item was that apparently human footprints had been found with them.
The reports were verified by Professor Kerben Amaniazov of the Turkmen SSR Academy of Sciences,
who is pictured examining some of the dinosaur prints here.
He did not discount the possibility that the other prints were human.
Footprints?
Yes.
But is there any more certain evidence of human occupation?
You are standing in the Big Indian Copper Mine 35 miles south of Moab in Utah, USA.
The mine is in Cretaceous sandstone of the Dakota Formation, 100 million years old atomically.
It was a windblown sand typical of the Mesozoic era.
At the 21 foot level of excavation the rock was hard but still soft enough to bulldoze.
It was there in the late 1960s that two complete human skeletons were found.
Dr J.P. Marwit, an anthropologist at the University of Utah, identified the bones as homo sapiens.
The rock strata was homogeneous and went right through the bones.
My friend Brian admitted that these bones were obviously human and, after some discussion
about the evidence, conceded that they probably were buried when the rock formed.
This conclusion was strengthened in Brian's mind by a second example.
In December 1983 at another location in the same Dakota sandstone, human bones were found
locked into rock, 20 feet down in a sandstone quarry.
The main bones pictured here were prized loose and another 200 fragments were recovered.
This evidence does seem to indicate that man and dinosaur coexisted.
The radioactive date of 100 to 150 million years ago on the atomic clock seems to be
discrepant if this is the case, as everyone agrees that mankind has not been around that
long.
But let us go further back in the geological column to the Ordovician period, 400 million
years ago atomically.
Before us lies an internal concretion obtained from Ordovician sandstone above the Larno
uplift granite near London in Texas, USA.
As the sandstone was being quarried back, this concretion became exposed.
It aroused interest immediately because of the piece of wood poking out.
Brian questioned whether it was wood because, according to evolutionary theory, wood had
not evolved 400 million years ago.
When the concretion was split open, the wood was revealed to be the handle of an iron hammer.
There are two things that everyone agrees upon.
Firstly, the concretion and associated fossils and rock is of Ordovician age.
Brian had absolutely no difficulty on that point.
Secondly, the hammer is genuine.
With amazement, Brian accepted that.
The question was whether the hammer had been locked into the strata at the time that the
strata formed.
Several important clues need mentioning.
There is a contraction zone around the iron head that formed as the rock hardened.
Arrow three points to this area.
This indicates that the hammer fell into sediments while they were still soft.
The inset shows the hammer's beveledges and ends.
The scratch on the hammer head, arrow two, is where the biographies took a sample of
iron for analysis.
It contained an unusual amount of chlorine, indicating a process we are unfamiliar with.
Furthermore, the handle was partially coalified and contained fluid inclusions.
This indicated that the hammer was impacted under heat and fluid pressure, seemingly at
the time the strata formed.
Man appeared to have been there when the Ordovician was laid down 400 million atomic years ago.
By this stage, Joel and Brian were thinking deeply about the implications of this unusual
evidence.
But let us go to the base of the fossil column to Cambrian strata dated as 600 million atomic
years.
At the bottom left hand corner is a trilobite, a sea creature typical of that era.
William Meister pictured here was a fossil hunter or rock hound.
His favourite fossil was the trilobite.
On June 1st, 1968, he was climbing with difficulty a 2000 foot high rock face of the Wheeler
Formation in the house range east of Antelope Springs, Utah, USA.
The rock is shaley limestone, about 600 million years old atomically.
With his geology hammer, he broke off this 2 inch thick lump of rock that is shown beside
him on the desk.
It opened like a book in his hand.
He found his trilobite alright, but it was embedded in the heel of a sandal print that
had the impression of toes poking over the leading edge.
The sandal belonged to a right foot and the heel print was indented over 1 eighth of an
inch more than the sole.
Furthermore, the right side of the heel was well worn in characteristic fashion, attesting
to its genuineness.
The sandal print heel is enlarged here and the trilobite may be seen clearly.
William Meister called in Dr Clifford Burdick, a consulting geologist who searched further.
He found several more sandal prints and the footprints of barefooted children.
This one with a trilobite poking up from the instep.
It was not a unique discovery.
In the same strata, Mr George Silver, science teacher Dean Bitter, graduate geologist Maurice
Carlisle and university lecturer Dr Clarence Coombs all found sandal prints in the area.
William Meister made a very interesting comment which will be quoted later.
If all this evidence is to be believed, then it seems that mankind was present when the
trilobites were fossilised 600 million atomic years ago.
These are not isolated instances.
There are 13 other recorded examples of human artefacts in strata dated older than 70 million
atomic years from England, Scotland, France and the USA.
In strata dated 1,260,000,000 atomic years, there are a further 19 examples from Africa,
Asia, Austria, England, France, Germany, Italy and the USA.
Hidden in these lists are human skulls, skeletons, foot, sandal and shoe prints, tools, cast
metal nodules, iron bands and so on.
All these results seem to indicate that mankind was present when the fossils were formed.
If this is the case, our problem lies not in the fossil record but in the atomic clock.
However, the question uppermost in many minds at the moment now concerns our supposed ape
ancestors.
Man's ancestry is usually depicted in a fashion similar to this.
The process ends with modern man.
Before him, Neanderthal.
Prior to him, Pythocanthropus, now often called Homo erectus and near the start of man's family
tree, Australopithecus.
And then further back is the common ancestor of ape and man.
Well, let us deal with them in the historical order that they made the news.
The first candidate for our supposed ape ancestors was Neanderthal man when a skull cap was found
near Dusseldorf in Germany in 1856.
By 1860, sufficient remains had been unearthed there for Neanderthal to be described as a
beetle-browed, barrel-chested, bow-legged brute.
The classic European Neanderthaler was a short, stocky individual who was heavily boned.
This is evidenced by Neanderthal femur, or thigh bone, at the top compared with that
of a modern European.
But the Neanderthalers from the Middle Eastern sites do not have these stooped and massive
features.
It was later discovered that the European Neanderthalers were living in pioneer conditions
with little shelter except caves like this one in southwestern France.
This was coupled with rigorous weather in harsh inland environments, including an ice
age, poor food supply and vitamin deficiency.
These conditions had caused them to suffer from rickets, arthritis and other crippling
bone diseases, which resulted in some of the so-called primitive features.
By contrast, the Middle Eastern Neanderthalers showed a wide range of features from the classic
European form, shown on the left, to almost modern faces, the right-hand example.
In Early Man, 1966, page 127, Clark Howell says that this suggests, quote, a gene pool
capable of producing all kinds of individual, end quote.
Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon Man are now acknowledged as being fully human.
They had a well-developed culture, art and even a belief in an afterlife.
In a public lecture at Adelaide University in 1951, Professor A. A. Abbey, professor
of anatomy and histology said, and I quote, I saw a Neanderthal man driving a tram on
Saturday, end quote.
He pointed out that when shaved and dressed in modern attire, Neanderthalers would not
attract attention today.
Historically, the next step in the saga occurred when Eugene Dubois travelled to Java.
In September 1891, near Trinil on the Solo River, he found fossils that he labelled as
Java Man, later called Pythocanthropus or Homo erectus.
He discovered a very large upper right molar tooth in a cave.
In October, he found the fossilised skull cap of an ape-like creature in a gravel pit.
In August, the following year, 46 feet away, he found a fossilised human femur or thigh
bone.
Later, he found another molar 10 feet from the skull cap.
Dubois then linked the human femur and the ape-like skull, making an upright walking
hybrid ape man.
His supposed features were reconstructed by two different authorities, as shown here.
What Dubois didn't say in his paper of 1894 and his subsequent lectures was that he discovered
four more human femurs and a human tooth and pre-molar in the same gravel pit.
The Java Man molars belonged to an orang, and other orang teeth were found at the same
level.
In Berlin in 1895, Dubois was rebuffed by Professor Virchoff.
He pointed out that the suture in the skull was typical of a giant gibbon and, quote,
�the thigh bone has not the slightest connection with the skull�, end quote.
In 1907 and 1908, at the Trinil site, Professor Solenka found a large human molar tooth, half
foundations and wood charcoal.
She concluded that man was contemporary with Pythocanthropus, who was an ape.
This painting of Homo erectus seems to miss the point.
Then in 1922, Dubois admitted that two complete fossilised human skulls, the Wajak skulls
and a jaw, were found in the same strata and that Java Man was simply a large gibbon.
See Man, volume 37, January 1937, page 4.
The other candidate labelled as Pythocanthropus or Homo erectus comes from China.
In the 1920s and 30s, fragments of 30 skulls, 11 lower jaws and 147 teeth were found at
this site, 25 miles from Peking.
They were called Peking Man or Sinanthropus.
All this material disappeared sometime during 1941 to 1945, except two teeth.
Dr. Bull, who personally examined the fossils, stated that, quote, �In its totality, the
structure of the Sinanthropus skull is still very ape-like,� end quote, found in Fossil
Men by the Dryden Press, New York, 1957, page 136, authored by Bull and Velloy.
Everyone agrees that each Sinanthropus fossil has been killed and eaten by hunters.
All the skulls have been bashed in near the base, like the cast shown here.
Bull and Velloy, in page 126, point out that, quote, �The problem is to name the hunter,�
end quote.
Who was it that did the bashing?
Interestingly enough, 2,000 rough-hewn limestone blocks were found near the bottom of the deposit.
In addition, fossils of 10 modern humans, including these skulls, were found at the
site with stone and bone implements.
See H. Bruyle in L'Anthropologie for March 1932.
With this evidence, Bull and Velloy leaned to the belief that Sinanthropus had been killed
and eaten by true man, and Peking Man were simply a gibbon or a baboon.
True men were therefore already around when both Java Man and Peking Man existed.
Pythocanthropus, or Homo erectus, was therefore not our ancestor.
Australopithecus has been depicted as one of the lowest links with the apes.
The Australopithecine finds, including Sinanthropus, are associated with both the Leakey family
and with Donald Johansen and his specimen Lucy.
They originally thought that they walked upright, and then Lord Zuckerman's research team and
Professor Oxnard pointed out that if they did walk upright, it was not in the human
manner, but like an orang.
See Beyond the Ivory Tower, pages 75 to 94, published in 1970.
They then decided that they had an ape-like skull, ape-like jaws and ape-like teeth.
In addition, limb bones of the so-called Homo habilis from the same region revealed that
he certainly didn't walk upright, but like an ape instead.
See Donald Johansen in Nature, volume 327, for the 21st of May, 1987, pages 205 to 209.
And then the most important evidence came to light.
Richard Leakey found bones beneath and older than those his father had unearthed, quote,
bones virtually indistinguishable from modern man, Homo, end quote.
He then went on to say, and I quote, if the two sizes of Australopithecine are actually
the same species and if they did live at the same time as Homo, there is little probability
that Australopithecus was ancestor to Homo, end quote.
Finally, Mary Leakey in 1979 found these footprints in Strata, dated as 3.5 million atomic years
old.
See National Geographic for April 79.
This is at least as old as the oldest Australopithecines.
All authorities acknowledge that these prints look exactly like modern human footprints,
not those of an ape.
The apes have opposable big toes like our thumbs, and these prints did not.
If mankind was already there, the Australopithecines were not our ancestors.
Accordingly, there is no current evidence to support the ape man or the missing link
concept.
There are apes and there are men, but not ape men.
Even the apes have reproduced after their kind, and so has mankind.
Now this kind of evidence runs counter to the prevailing wisdom that some things take
thousands or millions of years to form and prove that the earth is indeed older than
mankind, things like caves with their beautiful stalactites and stalagmites.
However, the formation of caves and their flow structures is entirely dependent upon
the rate at which groundwater seeps through the limestone and how much limestone is dissolved.
After studying water chemistry and flow rates in a large cave-containing area in Kentucky,
Dr Steve Austin concluded in Impact No 79 for January 1980 that a cave 59 metres long
and 1 metre square could form in just one year.
Furthermore, stalagmites and stalactites can form quickly.
This is evidenced by this bat that is cemented upside down in a stalagmite at Carlsbad Caverns
in New Mexico.
The bat did not have time to undergo bacterial decay nor attack by scavengers before it was
entombed in a rapidly growing stalagmite.
In the Sequoia Caverns at Valleyhead, Alabama, stalactites grow at a rate of one inch per
year while a five foot long curtain of stalactites formed in 45 years below the Lincoln Memorial
in Washington.
Consequently, the supposed antiquity of some cave formations may be doubted.
Another example often cited to prove that the earth is older than man is the rate of
growth of coral reefs.
One outstanding illustration is the Great Barrier Reef off the Queensland coast of Australia.
A segment of that reef is seen here from the air.
Conventional wisdom suggested that this system took about 20 million years to build up.
This idea took a massive jolt just recently.
A new scientist for October 20, 1990, page 7, had an astounding headline, quote, Darwin
may founder on the Great Barrier Reef, end quote.
Marine geologist Dr Peter Davies had been engaged in an ocean drilling program which
took him part of the Great Barrier Reef.
He discovered that the strata on which the reef rests is not older than one million atomic
years at the most.
The reef itself is younger.
According to Dr Davies, quote, the reef took between 50,000 to 100,000 years to form, end
quote.
But is it even that old?
In the prestigious journal Nature for August 16, 1984, pages 578 to 579, Dr Peter Isdale
of the Australian Institute of Marine Science reported some interesting findings.
When his drill cores of coral from the Great Barrier Reef were placed under ultraviolet
light, they displayed yellow-green fluorescent bands.
The frequency and intensity of these bands were recorded graphically.
They revealed an almost perfect correlation with the peak outflows of the nearby Burdekin
River as shown here graphically.
This comparison revealed that 1.8 metres of coral had taken only 118 years to grow, a
conclusion which was confirmed by using an X-ray cross-check.
That's an average growth rate of 15.3 millimetres per year.
Now this compares well with the previously measured growth rates of between 5 to 25 millimetres
per year.
The outer barrier reefs furthest from the coast are in the deepest water at the edge
of the continental shelf.
They sit on strata that is no deeper than 200 feet or 61 metres.
So we have a reef that is a massive 61 metres thick.
At the average growth rate of 15.3 millimetres per year, even this tremendous thickness could
have easily formed in 4,000 years.
In other words, at the same time that Abraham set out for Canaan, the Great Barrier Reef
was beginning, just beginning, to form.
Even the Great Barrier Reef is therefore only as old as mankind.
But everyone agrees that mankind has not been here for billions of years.
So what are we to say about all those old dates on the atomic clock?
Is the atomic clock right and all the foregoing fossil evidence wrong?
It was here that Brian and Joel had to make a choice.
Because of previous problems with the atomic clock, Brian accepted the fossil evidence.
Joel, familiar with the atomic clock, suggested it may measure time at a different rate compared
with our usual astronomical standard.
Indeed, Dr Thomas Van Flandern of the US Naval Observatory in Washington has confirmed this.
And evidence is presented in part three that allows a full correction to be applied.
But for now, we note that there are two basic timepieces.
The Earth orbital standard of Genesis 114 that is stable and unchanging.
It gives the years that we are used to.
By contrast, the atomic clock, for good scientific reasons, probably ticked off years more quickly
in the past.
This would result in systematically old dates on the atomic clock.
If this is indeed the case and the preceding evidence is accepted, then four facts emerge.
Firstly, much of the geological column, including the fossils and even coal, appear to have
been formed by catastrophic events.
Secondly, there seem to be no transitional forms or missing links in the geological record.
And our so-called ape ancestors are a fallacy.
Thirdly, the whole geological column appears to be only as old as mankind.
And fourthly, the atomic clock ticked faster in the past, giving very old dates.
These dates can be corrected on sound scientific principles to give true dates.
About the time Brian and Joel accepted this, I discussed the range of a dozen different
astronomical enigmas with Vince, my co-lecturer in astronomy.
Finalising, I mentioned that they all had one factor in common.
That Vince was puzzled.
I pointed out that these problems only existed if the universe was billions of years old.
There was no problem if the cosmos was, say, only 10,000 years old.
He had never noticed that.
Well, if the Earth is indeed that young, what about our neighbour in space, the Moon?
The craters on the Moon were formed by the impact of meteoric debris in the final phases
of its formation.
This crater, Eratosthenes, is 61 kilometres in diameter and 4.9 kilometres deep.
It stands at the edge of one of the great flat Mar airplanes.
They are important in this discussion because they allow dust to collect undisturbed, as
there is no wind or water on the Moon.
There are two sources for the dust on these great dark planes.
Firstly, meteoric dust was left over from the solar system formation process.
It has impacted onto the Moon in steadily decreasing amounts ever since.
Secondly, X-rays and ultraviolet light from the Sun pulverises the lunar rock to dust.
Using the approximately known rates of debris production by both processes, and the age
of the Moon on the atomic clock is 4.5 billion years, the thickness of this layer of dust
and rock was calculated by a number of eminent scientists.
The maths showed that the debris layer accumulating from both processes was over a mile thick,
at the very least.
This climate of opinion held for over a decade until late 1966, as shown by this statement
in the New Concise Atlas of the Universe, page 41, published in 1982 by Colporta Press.
The problem was that the Apollo astronauts would come in tail first, as shown here, and
sink majestically into the dust.
William Hartman was a consultant for Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA and Caltech.
In his book Moons and Planets, he said that NASA spent $1 billion trying to determine
whether the cosmic debris was there or not.
Calculations based on the atomic age of the Moon said the dust should be there, while
the Russian Luna 9 had shown a solid surface in 1966.
On July 21, 1969, the Apollo 11 team landed on Mare Tranquillitatis.
Neil Armstrong climbed down onto the duckfoot landing pad designed to sit on the dust, but
before he put all his weight on the ground, he was told to test the surface with his boot.
The first footprint on the Moon shows he only went down an inch, not a mile.
As they walked around, they commented, �I can scuff through the dust with my boot to
the solid rock beneath.�
The trail of shallow prints is apparent in the right foreground of this shot.
Other landings on the Moon produced essentially the same results.
Later expeditions employed a lunar rover vehicle which left these tracks in the dust.
Over the whole Apollo series, the dust layer at the various sites ranged from 1 eighth
of an inch to three inches thick.
In 1975, the Sixth Lunar Science Conference announced that the rock and dust samples brought
back from the Moon revealed that only one sixtieth of this debris had come from outer
space.
Furthermore, D.H. Hughes in Nature for October the 4th, 1974, gave a refined measurement
of the flux of meteoric material.
Other measurements are recorded by Dr. Ganapathy in Science for October the 30th, 1970, page
533, and Dr. Taylor on pages 84 to 92 of his book, Lunar Science, a post-Apollo review,
published by Pergamon Press in 1975.
With these measurements, a new picture emerges.
Dr. Walter T. Brown has calculated that even at its present rate of infall, the layer of
meteoric debris should be over 2,000 feet thick if the Moon has been there for four
and a half billion years.
Therefore, if 2,000 feet of meteoric material fell in four and a half billion years and
the average dust layer is two inches, of which one sixtieth is meteoric, then the Moon is
less than 10,000 years old.
The conclusion is that the Moon is only as old as mankind.
Well, if that is the case, what about the rest of the solar system?
This photo by Voyager 2 records the beautiful appearance of the planet Saturn in August
1981.
Not only is the planet beautiful, but the rings 176,000 miles in diameter are one of
the main attractions of the solar system.
The rings are composed of ice-covered rocks.
The smallest fragments are the size of microscopic dust, while the largest are about a kilometre
across.
The average size for ring particles is that of a car, that is, a couple of metres.
Saturn is not unique in its ring system, as Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune all possess rings.
However, Saturn's ring system is certainly the most prominent, and therein lies the difficulty.
The rings are being rapidly bombarded by meteoroids and should have been pulverised and dispersed
long ago.
On a cosmic scale, each ring in the system is too narrow and sharp-edged.
In Sky and Telescope, volume 69 for January 1985, pages 22 to 23, Dr J.N.
Cousy wrote, and I quote, �The narrow, sharp-edged rings don�t fit the idea of a dispersed
parent population, battered to smithereens by interplanetary projectiles.� Indeed,
as he points out, �Non-stop erosion poses a difficult problem for the very existence
of Saturn's opaque rings.
The expected bombardment rate would pulverise the entire system in only 10,000 years.
It becomes a real trick to maintain the rings since the formation of the solar system.�
How fascinating!
An astronomer admitting that since the rings formed, they have only had a life expectancy
of 10,000 years.
The fact that Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune's rings are feeble in comparison with Saturn's
shows the dispersive process is indeed operating.
The logical conclusion is that the four great outer planets and their ring systems are less
than 10,000 years old.
And when this is coupled with the previous evidence from the Earth-Moon system, it appears
that both the inner and outer solar system is only as old as mankind.
But let us test this by some objects known to be as old as the solar system itself, namely
the comets.
The short period comets like Halley's Comet shown here return every 200 years or less.
As comets approach the Sun, frozen gases in the comet head vaporise and dust particles
are ejected to form a long tail.
Indeed, three Canadian astronomers have shown that the orbit of Halley's Comet is littered
with 13 million million kilograms of rock and dust from this effect.
The monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, volume 238, page 179, printed in
1989.
As a consequence, after about 100 to 200 orbits, comets should break up, disintegrate and disappear.
Shortly after this photo was taken, Comet West rounded the Sun and split into four major
pieces.
To supply replacements for defunct comets, Professor Oort suggested that a distant reservoir
of long period comets existed.
It was postulated that a passing star or some such event sent a nucleus towards the inner
solar system where it became captured.
But Professor R.A.
Littleton in Astrophysics and Space Science, volume 31 for 1974, pages 385 to 401, has
demonstrated that this proposal is mathematically in error on several counts.
Indeed, long period comets diverted towards the inner solar system will generally be expelled
from the solar system altogether.
That is what happened to Comet Aaron Drolland shown here.
This leaves no resupply mechanism capable of adding comets to the solar system at a
rate even remotely equal to their destruction.
The two differ by a factor of 100 or more.
In Nature, volume 324, November 27, 1986, page 306, Julia Heisler commented, quote,
the discrepancy is enormous, end quote.
Furthermore, three Canadian astronomers point out that even given the most favourable conditions,
Halley's Comet is no more than 23,000 years old.
See Nature, volume 339, May 11, 1989, page 96.
Different starting assumptions reduce that age somewhat.
Indeed, Professor R.A.
Littleton in his book, Mysteries of the Solar System, reveals on page 110 that, quote, probably
no short period comet can survive more than about 10,000 years, end quote.
The fact that we have a significant number of short period comets indicates the solar
system is less than 10,000 years old and therefore is only as old as mankind.
We have to leave it there, but the evidence continues on.
Dr. Peter van der Voort has studied the Orion Nebula shown here.
The motion of four stars called the trapezium shows the group to be less than 10,000 years
old.
From all of this evidence, the general impression gained is that despite the massive ages given
by the atomic clock, the universe is indeed young.
And this beautiful globular cluster, one of the oldest astronomical objects, has features
that support this conclusion.
This youthfulness speaks of a recent creation and the accuracy of the Bible with its list
of catastrophes.
Those catastrophes largely gave rise to the geological column.
William Meister, who discovered the trilobite in a sandal print, commented, and I quote,
while I had previously been little concerned with the different explanations of the fossil
record, my discovery of a shod and therefore obviously modern human footprint associated
intimately with trilobites has converted me completely to the story of the Bible.
To me it seems clear that this particular fossil is in some way related to Noah's flood.
End quote.
Not only William Meister, one week after reviewing this geological and astronomical evidence,
Brian too accepted the testimony of the Bible and Jesus Christ as his creator.
He accepted that 2000 years ago his creator left heaven's glory and became a man, the
Lord Jesus Christ.
And Brian accepted that Christ shed his precious blood on the cross at Calvary to blot out
his sins and make him fit for heaven.
Perhaps the moment has come for you to make that choice also.
Thank you very much.
Welcome to the third and final lecture in this series.
We have been examining the observational evidence that relates to science and evolution, to
life, the universe and their origins.
In our first two sessions evidence was scrutinised from a number of fields of science ranging
from astronomy and mathematics to biology and paleontology.
In part one the scientific observations relating to origins were discussed.
In part two we assessed some surprising evidence for the age of rock strata, planets and stars
with Brian, a dean of science at an Australian university and Joel, a doctor of geology at
an important laboratory.
Let us briefly summarise some of this evidence and then follow Brian and Joel's quest to
harmonise science and scripture.
From astronomy the observations indicate that the cosmos is not eternal and that there was
a sudden creation of matter out of nothing.
One may therefore conclude with noblest Dr Arno Penzias that a creator was personally
involved.
The evidence from biology has extracted the grudging confession from Dr Richard Lewontin
that living things, quote, appear to be carefully and artfully designed, end quote, and seem
to give evidence for, quote, a supreme designer, end quote.
From paleontology it is admitted that each plant type appears abruptly in the fossil
record as did this living cycad.
Professor Corner concluded that this, quote, evidence is in favour of special creation,
end quote.
Furthermore, this cycad has remained unchanged for 200 million atomic years and only reproduced
after its kind.
This is genetically true for animals as well as plants.
For example, this Precambrian jellyfish is extinct but the same strata contains such
well-known varieties as Portuguese Manawar which is therefore reproduced after its kind
unchanged for 600 million atomic years.
Geologists agree that fossilisation in this case was rapid.
It must have happened in less than one day in a catastrophe.
In fact, the evidence from Mount St Helens suggests that even coal formed rapidly in
a volcanic environment.
Furthermore, great thicknesses of bedded strata accumulated in a few hours by turbulent hurricane
velocity flows.
Added to this, some of the available evidence was presented that suggests the geological
column may only be as old as mankind.
This very controversial example shows the fossilised body of a woman in marble.
This marble from the island of Guadalupe may date as old as 20 million atomic years but
this woman is reluctant to reveal her true age.
In any case, over 35 other instances of human activity have been documented in strata up
to 600 million atomic years old.
Surprisingly, the youthfulness of the Earth's geological column is supported by astronomy
and the data there indicates that the solar system is young.
The amount of dust on the moon, the problem with Saturn's rings, the persistence of short
period comets, the age of some star clusters and anomalies with globular clusters and with
clusters of galaxies all seem to indicate that the cosmos may only be as old as mankind.
It is at this point that we pick up the story as Brian had to make a choice.
He had to choose between accepting all this evidence of man's activity in the fossil record
or accepting the massive ages of the rock strata, the planets and the universe given
by the atomic clock.
His choice was almost immediate.
He preferred the hard physical evidence from the fossil record rather than trust to the
atomic clock whose run rate may be suspect from other considerations.
As a geologist, Brian was familiar with the way that the atomic clock invaded paleontology.
Up until 1915 to 1920, scientists had no way of establishing absolute ages.
This massive unit of sandstone in the Clarno Formation, Oregon, could have been formed
over a long time in a river delta or over a short time in a catastrophe.
As this 10 foot tree trunk had no time to rot and fossil fruit occur in the same strata,
we must conclude that this unit formed quickly.
Now Brian agreed that much evidence existed in the fossil column indicating catastrophe
such as this example.
Nevertheless, prior to 1915 there was no method whereby absolute dates could be established
no matter how the fossil strata formed.
In that year, radioactive decay was discovered, the process whereby uranium changes to lead,
rubidium changes to strontium or potassium changes to argon.
Stars are fuelled by a version of this process.
Radioactive decay occurred in such a way that an absolute age for rocks and stars became
possible for the first time, as it is one form of the atomic clock.
It tells time in the following fashion.
In radioactive decay, say for uranium to lead, there is what is called a half life, in this
case four and a half billion years.
It means that if you have one gram of uranium, in four and a half billion years, half of
that uranium lump will have changed into lead.
If you have one kilogram of uranium, in four and a half billion years, half of that lump
will have changed into lead.
So when a geologist looks at a lump of rock under a microscope, sees some uranium there,
an analysis reveals that half of that uranium has changed to lead.
He says that rock is four and a half billion years old, atomically.
Let's simplify the explanation of the underlying cause of radioactive decay.
An atom comprises particles in a central nucleus with orbiting electrons, shown here in blue.
In radioactive decay, one of the particles in this atomic system is ejected or escapes.
The decay rate depends on the rate at which all these atomic particles move.
Faster movement means a greater chance of escape in a given time and so a more rapid
decay rate.
The atomic clock also ticks faster as particles orbit more quickly.
Now Dr Thomas Van Flandern of the US Naval Observatory in Washington compared the rate
at which the atomic clock ticked with our normal or orbital time standard.
Lunar phenomena had been timed with an atomic clock since 1955.
In 1981 Dr Van Flandern concluded that the atomic clock was slowing compared with our
orbital standard.
See Precision Measurements and Fundamental Constants, volume 2, pages 625 to 627, put
out by the National Bureau of Standards, US, special publication 617, 1984.
Essentially it means that there are two clocks timing universal events, the orbital or dynamical
clock, which is governed by the movement of the Earth around the sun or the moon around
the Earth.
Now Genesis 114 states that astronomical objects were given to measure time.
This clock is unaffected by any changes that we are considering.
Then there is the atomic clock that Van Flandern indicated was slowing compared with this orbital
standard.
This evidence suggests that the atomic clock ran faster in the past giving us systematically
old dates.
But to check atomic clock behaviour prior to 1955 a different technique must be used.
Now atoms emit light as every laser like this demonstrates.
Furthermore, from the physics of the situation, light speed is governed by atomic behaviour.
Therefore, if the atomic clock is slowing compared with the orbital standard, then atomic
particle speeds are slowing and light speed should also be slowing.
An examination of the speed of light will tell us what is happening to the atomic clock.
Interestingly enough, the measured values of the speed of light have been dropping systematically.
Let us use the mathematical shorthand for the speed of light, the letter C, ABC, hence
sea decay or the speed of light decay.
Here are the values for sea obtained experimentally by physicist Michelson.
His measured values dropped 114 kilometres per second in 47 years.
The best straight line through the data gives a decay of 1.9 kilometres per second per year
and it was not just Michelson.
Since the mid 1800s the measured sea values were consistently dropping.
This caused a flurry of about 50 articles in the scientific literature.
Here are some of the headings from the prestigious journal Nature.
The problem was that every measurement of sea was lower than the preceding one.
While there was a fair amount of positive comment and many uncommitted, opposition was
also readily apparent.
Yet even those opposing the sea decay proposal had to admit the observations favoured it.
In Nature for June 13, 1931, page 892, a comment by de Bray went to the heart of the matter.
And we quote, I believe that in any other field of enquiry such a discrepancy between
observation and theory would be felt intolerable.
It is however certain that if a decrease of the velocity of light were accepted on theoretical
grounds and if some misguided physicist attempted to demonstrate that it was a constant, the
present observations would be called to witness to silence him conclusively.
In Nature for May 13, 1886, pages 29 to 32, Professor Newcomb admitted that the values
pertaining around 1740 were 1% higher than those obtained in the mid 1800s.
In 1941 history repeated itself and Professor R.T.
Burge conceded that the 1870 values, ironically some from Newcomb, were 100 kilometres per
second above those pertaining in 1941.
This is his list of the best 13 values of sea by 6 methods from 1874 to 1941 in Reports
and Progress in Physics, volume 8, page 99.
The sea values considered reliable by these authorities are graphed here to illustrate
their problem.
The best straight line through the data gives a decay of around 4 kilometres per second
per year.
When all results are in there is a drop of about 1500 kilometres per second in 300 years.
There are 164 values by 16 methods.
All methods show a decay in sea individually as well as collectively.
After examination of the data and some discussion, Brian concluded that the observational evidence
certainly did favour sea decay.
Now research work on this was done by Trevor Norman and Barry Satterfield in a report issued
in August 1987.
Two independent data analyses by professionals using different methods has negated all statistical
criticism and confirmed that there is a significant decay trend in the sea data.
All told, 12 different statistical procedures support the sea decay proposition.
In addition, this report listed the sea dependent variations in 11 other atomic quantities measured
by 25 methods.
In every instance these quantities were trending in the predicted direction by the predicted
amount.
As 638 data points were involved the used results just can't be coincidence.
Debray's comments are even more appropriate now.
Furthermore, Professor V.S.
Troitsky of the Radiophysical Research Institute in Gorky, USSR published conclusions which
were essentially similar to ours.
They appeared in Astrophysics and Space Science, Volume 139, page 398 to 411 for December 1987.
We each concluded that sea was significantly faster at the time of creation from measurements
of astronomical quantities.
We put it at about 7 million times faster than now.
He put it at 10 billion times faster.
Therefore, at the time of creation the atomic clock ticked off at least 7 million years
in one orbital year.
Computer curves to fit the data show that the oldest atomic dates terminate roughly
7,500 orbital years ago.
In that time light has come to us from the most distant astronomical objects and the
atomic clock has ticked over 10 billion years.
This then is the origin date for the whole cosmos on the orbital clock.
When, as a graduate student, Joel saw the initial effect of sea decay on the atomic
clock he commented that this had just made it very easy for him to write his thesis and
believe the Bible.
But we can go further now.
Knowing the approximate behaviour of sea we can correct the atomic clock to orbital time
and see how geology and scripture are related.
But let us first check the fossil record.
This geological column was the accepted standard well over 150 years ago before Darwinian theory
in radioactive dating.
Note that it was based on actual observation of the dominant fossils and their subsequent
extinctions.
Generally, it was observed that the life forms at the base of the fossil column were usually
of the same type.
Those at the top of the column were of a different set of life forms but again those forms were
nearly always found at the top.
This observed vertical consistency in the fossil strata resulted in the era names.
Brian pointed out a further vertical consistency in the rocks themselves.
There is a worldwide occurrence of the same rock types at the same position in each era.
One example will have to suffice.
Dr. D.V.
Ager in The Nature of the Stratigraphic Record, page 17, published in 1981 by Wiley and Sons
New York comments on the Cambrian and we quote,
�The whole deepening succession tends to turn up almost everywhere, that is, a basal
conglomerate followed by an ortho quartzite followed by marine shales and thin limestones�
end quote.
Here is that quartzite outcropping in Wilpena Pound, South Australia.
Let us examine the more complete version of the geological column that Brian and Joel
were using.
Starting at the bottom is the archaeozoic or era of so-called primitive life.
It is often called the Precambrian period.
Next is the Paleozoic or era of ancient life followed by the Mesozoic era of middle life.
Finally, the Cenozoic or era of recent life brings us up to the present.
Two centuries ago it was accepted that a catastrophic extinction event closed each era.
After a period of rejection, this view is broadly accepted today.
The three catastrophes occurred at about 600 million, 240 million and 65 million years
ago on the atomic clock.
Now some think the fossil record of changing preponderances is itself an evolutionary sequence.
However, examination of this diagram reveals otherwise.
Of 56 original types represented here, 29 underwent a major extinction event at the
close of the Paleozoic, while a further 20 types were severely reduced at the close of
the Mesozoic.
These extinctions are reducing the number of types present compared with the original
amount.
Instead of evolution, the changing preponderances are a record of types that survived each catastrophe
and became dominant in the new environmental conditions.
When those three key atomic dates are corrected to orbital time, we obtain an interesting
result.
On this diagram, atomic time is listed below the green line with the corresponding biblical
years after creation above.
On the horizontal axis are conventional years BC with light speed vertically.
Underlined in red on the left are the geological eras.
It is apparent that the four main divisions of geological time coincide with the four
main divisions of the book of Genesis.
The three great fossil extinction catastrophes in order correspond to Noah's flood at 600
million years atomically, which geologically is recorded as a marine transgression when
the sea came in across the land.
It closed the Archeozoic era, the pre-flood age, about 2000 years after creation.
The Babel Crisis at 240 million years atomically is recorded geologically as a period of massive
volcanism and the formation of coal deposits.
It closed the Paleozoic era where strata were laid down in the 250 years from the flood to
the Tower of Babel incident.
The Peleg catastrophe at 65 million atomic years is recorded geologically as asteroid
impact and continental division.
It closed the Mesozoic era where strata were laid down in the 200 years from Babel to Peleg.
The Cenozoic era followed.
It's the time from Peleg to the present, including the Ice Age.
Now, the flood and Babel incident are well known to Bible students, but Peleg is less
familiar.
Genesis 10.25 reads, and unto Eber were born two sons.
The name of one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided and his brother's name
was Yachtan.
End quote.
Note that this is not the Babel division of tongues as a different word and a different
generation are involved.
Genesis 10 lists the tongues division in the second generation after the flood.
Peleg and Yachtan lived in the fifth.
The word earth is the same as was used in Genesis 1.1 and signifies its continental
areas, not the people.
In 1858, geologist and theologian Antonio Snyder examined these issues and first published
the continental drift idea.
His illustrations here show America separating from Africa.
A study of cognate languages and race legends has led linguist and geologist Dr. Bernard
Northrop to support this conclusion.
The word Peleg means earthquake, division, channel of water, to split, separate, cut
in pieces, divide off, or to form a sea.
It is the root for our word Pelican, a bird that splits the water to get fish.
The ancient Greeks called the Mediterranean Ocean Pelagos, which links it with the Pelagic
Ocean deposits of geology.
The word Yachtan means to cut, to tear off, to diminish, to make small, to destroy or
kill.
The names of these sons of Eba seem to indicate a catastrophe in which the tearing off of
America from Africa in a great earthquake with a widening channel of water between them
seems to be implied.
Obviously, many would have been killed in the process.
As a young Christian and a good geologist, Brian had been troubled, as had Joel, by the
testimony of the rock record.
Both had come to accept the literal truth of Noah's flood.
However, it was very difficult for them to accept that the majority of the geological
column was laid down in the one year that the flood lasted.
Some examples why are mentioned later.
As God is the author of both the record in the rocks as well as the Bible, they both
felt that harmonisation should be possible.
As a result, they found the following scenario had much to recommend it.
It may well be refined later, as it is one of several possibilities.
At time zero, God created matter out of nothing, barra, as we saw in lecture one.
He then moulded and formed using the Asa or Yatsa process, this material into planets
and stars.
These Hebrew words describe the process as similar to a pot of moulding clay.
Let us focus on the stars for a moment.
When we compare Genesis 1 with Job 38, an amazing astronomical fact is found.
According to Genesis 1, 14, the stars in our immediate stellar neighbourhood, those that
give light upon the earth, along with our sun, lit up on the fourth day.
The sun is part of a spiral arm of our galaxy.
The stars making up spiral arms are about the same astronomical age.
These spiral arm stars are called population one stars, the young stars to astronomers.
These stars are distinctive.
They form a sequence like this.
The biggest, brightest stars are blue giants and they give the spiral arms their characteristic
blue colour.
The smallest, faintest stars are red dwarfs.
But Job 38 verse 7 states that when the foundation, the core of the earth was being laid on day
one, the morning stars were already shining.
These old stars from day one are found in the centres of the galaxies and in the halo
around them.
Astronomers call them population two stars.
These morning stars are quite different.
Here the giants are red and cool, not blue and hot, and they impart a reddish tint to
the central hubs of the spiral galaxies.
So two books of the Bible combine to give literal astronomical truth that there were
two main periods of star making, day one and day four.
The high initial value of C hastened the ageing process for these stars.
The biggest and brightest would rapidly explode leaving a cloud of expanding debris like this
crab nebula.
Aided by this process, a brilliant burst of light possibly came from the centre of our
galaxy as those morning stars lit up and went through their life cycle.
The same initial burst of activity in galactic centres is seen at the very frontiers of the
cosmos.
We call them quasars.
The process seems to be aided by the activity of black holes in the galactic centres.
Viewed from our solar system, this light burst from the centre of our galaxy would come from
the direction of the constellation Sagittarius, half way through day one.
It was then that the light first shone out of the darkness of space.
Having created matter, the elements in their known universal abundances, God then stretched
out the heavens.
Here are some of the eight affirmations in scripture.
That stretching out process could be much faster with a high value for C.
Indeed according to scripture, it was accomplished in just six days.
Professor Troitsky has pointed out that the high C value allowing this is also needed
to explain the smoothness of the resulting three degree Kelvin background radiation.
This rapid universal expansion cooled the cosmos.
A fridge operates on the same principle.
It must therefore have started as small and very hot at time zero.
Its final temperature that we now measure as three degrees Kelvin was reached in six
days.
This essentially is what the observations of scriptures reveal.
It is called the Big Bang.
However, for some, the Big Bang has come to include a theory of galaxy formation as well.
Observationally and scripturally, that will and is having many difficulties.
Given all these facts, we can therefore work out what the average universal temperature
was at any moment during creation week.
We also know the solidification temperature of each of the elements and the likely compounds
formed from them in such circumstances as these.
A simple calculation shows that carbon solidified first, about 16 minutes after the creation
event.
Carbon is the major constituent of these dust clouds in space.
They occur with clouds of gaseous hydrogen.
These conditions around 16 minutes after the creation event would form hydrocarbons whose
existence in clouds such as these is verified.
The next event occurred about 35 minutes after the creation event when the universal temperature
would be around 1745 degrees Celsius.
Iron, nickel and most metals are solid at that temperature.
Fascinatingly enough, the Earth and all planets out to and including Saturn have or are suspected
of having nickel-ion cores.
In this diagram, the relative sizes of those cores are shown in red and brown for inner
solar system objects.
This then is the foundation on which each planet was built as recorded in Job 38.4.
It is remarkable but on this solidification temperature basis, the internal structure
and composition of the Earth and planets is reproduced from the core outwards.
Furthermore, the moment when the relevant elements and minerals were precipitating from
this chemical mix is approximately known.
We thus have some idea of what was happening in the Asa-Anyatsa process and when.
The surface of the Earth would have been complete with a deep cover of ice and snow at about
four hours after the creation event on this basis.
Minerals making up the Earth's mantle contained water in various forms.
Meteorites like this one show that the material making up the inner planets contained up to
19% water.
For example, the beautiful mineral serpentine contains 13% water.
When heated, this water is released and the mineral becomes olivine.
Interestingly enough, olivine is one of the major constituents of rocks beneath our continental
areas.
With radioactive elements concentrated towards the core coupled with a high value for sea,
rapid heating of the Earth's interior would result.
Any water present would be released and driven towards the surface in massive quantities
under pressure and burst through.
The scripture in Job 38 verses 8 to 11 and Genesis 1, 2 state that the sea burst forth
from the womb or interior of the Earth accompanied by thick darkness.
This massive flood episode would produce thick layers of sedimentary strata.
This sedimentary layer would cover the land areas up thrust on the third day.
All the evidence suggests that there was only one major landmass before the flood.
Geologists call it Pangaea in the north Laurasia and in the south Condwana.
Consequently there was one major ocean and several smaller bodies of water.
This primordial ocean has often been hailed as the chemical factory for life.
As the result of Miller and Urey's spark chamber experiments, we are told that the action of
lightning in the primitive atmosphere and in the primordial oceans produced the building
blocks needed for life.
Dr Stanley Miller and his apparatus are shown here.
When the resulting solution is cooled after passing through the spark chamber, millions
of units like those on the right appear.
But the acidity of the solution is then decreased, the units at the centre and left develop.
Simple sugars, amino and nucleic acids and parts of DNA and other such molecules were
produced.
This looks impressive evidence for chemical evolution of life under conditions that may
have pertained on the early Earth.
However the vast majority of amino acids produced were of a type that would be highly destructive
to any emerging life.
Indeed, the molecules produced that are needed for life would react in far more wrong ways
than right ways.
Biologists, doctors Bliss, Parker and Gish have pointed out that quote, in other words,
left to time, chance and their natural chemical properties, Miller's molecules would react
in ways that would destroy any hope of producing life.
End quote.
See Gary Parker, The Facts of Life, page 8, put out by Master Books in 1984.
The conclusion of Professors Crick, Hoyle and Wickramma Singh still remains that life
demands a life giver.
But we turn our attention now to the archaeozoic era of geology corresponding with the time
from Adam to the flood in scripture.
After the first major outburst that formed the initial ocean, ongoing radioactive heating
of the interior would provide a continuous supply of water to the surface.
On the land this prolific supply would come via springs and geysers.
Genesis 2.5 indicates that there was no rain at that stage.
Instead, Genesis 2.6 literally reads in the Septuagint version that fountains sprang up
from the earth and watered the face of the ground.
End quote.
No rain would be required under these conditions.
The prolific geysers and springs would produce copious quantities of mist and many rivers,
lakes, swamps and vast bodies of water.
Generally the landforms would be low with few mountains.
Everything would be lush and fertile as the sedimentary surface layers would be rich in
nutrients.
Creatures gradually multiplied and spread.
The Garden of Eden must have been especially beautiful.
But following Adam and Eve's disastrous fall into sin, they were expelled from the region.
A curse was placed on the ground for their sake so that its original fertility was curtailed.
Furthermore, death became an integral part of the created order and with death came fossilisation.
And only in the geologically active areas of the earth.
The majority of living things would inhabit the stable regions and so avoid lithification.
Those geologically active areas from creation to the flood built up archaeozoic strata.
There would be three types of active area.
Firstly, there was the near shore environment.
There, a multitude of rivers would deposit massive quantities of sediments.
The strata making up this portion of the Flinders Ranges in South Australia, shown here, were
laid down under those conditions during that era.
The second type of active area was on the land.
There, magmas would intrude into the thick sedimentary covering.
The resulting vertical movements and faulting would form low mountains in these regions.
The ancestor of the Stirling Ranges, West Australia, shown here, originated in this
fashion.
The third type of geologically active area was the deep ocean.
Here the counterpart of the geysers on land were what the Bible calls the fountains of
the deep.
Today, we have some dying remnants of those fountains in the silica rich black smokers
of the East Pacific rise, part of which is imaged here by Sonar.
These brought in a continual supply of warm water, rich in chemicals and minerals from
the earth interior, into the cool ocean environment.
Professor R.L. Stanton has demonstrated that this combination can easily produce thousands
of metres of clays and bedded ores, like the banded iron formation shown here, and a wide
variety of associated chemical and detrital minerals.
Many proceedings of the Australation Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, number 282, June
1982, pages 11 to 32.
From some active areas, microorganisms have become preserved, such as these from the Bitter
Springs formation in central Australia.
Interestingly enough, it is conceded that, quote, the amazing thing about many of these
organisms found so far is that they can still be found on earth in much the same form, end
quote.
Brian McNuss, Prehistoric Australia, page 23, Golden Press, 1987.
This is certainly true for another type of fossil from this era.
These stromatolites.
They are possibly the earliest fossils found, dating from 3,500 million atomic years.
Colonies of blue-green algae formed mats which trapped sediments that washed over them, which
resulted in laminated structures.
Today, blue-green algae still form stromatolites in a few locations on earth.
These are from Shark Bay, West Australia.
They are made by the same algae and have the same form as they did 3,500 million atomic
years ago.
As plants and animals spread over the earth, traces of flora and fauna would be expected
as fossils.
Suspected worm burrows, dated as 1,340 million atomic years, have been found near Hopeton
in West Australia.
Although some fossil forms are the same as today, there are a number that have become
extinct.
This type of worm, Dickinsonia, is one of them.
In addition, all created kinds that exist today were present then.
This is inadmissible to evolutionary theory, but some interesting evidence shows it to
be true.
In the Precambrian Hackatay Shale at the base of the Grand Canyon, a variety of pollen spores
were found fossilised, like those here.
They were revealed when the shale was treated with dilute acid.
Pollen grains of pinus, other gymnosperms and angiosperms, the flowering plants and their
tracheids, like those here, were found along with fungal and algal spores.
The palynologist had no difficulty in identifying much of the pollen with trees that are familiar
to us today.
She doctored Howell, William, Matzow and Lamitz in the CRS Quarterly, volume 24, number 4,
pages 173 to 182, for March 1988.
It is significant that present dominant tree types were there then, even if in a minority.
As this era went on, radioactive heating of the interior made the earth become increasingly
active geologically.
At about 850 million atomic years ago, there was a significant upsurge in activity throughout
the supercontinent that was the precursor to the Cambrian Cataclysm.
See Earth History, volume 2, part 2, pages 16, 58 and 131 to 133, authored by Reed and
Watson and published in 1975 by Macmillan.
In the next 250 million atomic years, a rough delineation of the main line of continental
division occurred.
The shaded areas here show tillite deposits which may have come from diluvial action rather
than ice.
The Cambrian Cataclysm came 250 million atomic years after that initial upsurge in activity.
If the CDK correction is applied at this point, those 250 million atomic years become 120
orbital years.
NOAA was building the arc for about 120 years.
Furthermore, Genesis 6.3 records that the warning was given 120 years before the flood came.
It is at this point that many people start to have problems.
The first is often the great age to which these patriarchs lived, as NOAA was 600 years
old when the flood came.
Some have suggested that those years are really months.
However, that proposition does not withstand examination.
Genesis 5.21 records that Enoch was 65 years old when he began Methuselah.
If those years were really months, Enoch was only five and a half years old when that son
of his was born.
This particular problem is largely overcome if, as observation suggests, light speed was
significantly higher in that era.
Some biological consequences seem to flow on from this contention.
One of the possible results is that diffusion processes may well be more efficient with
higher sea.
This means that the exchange of gases between blood and lungs would be enhanced.
In this diagram, oxygen is taken up by the right-hand side of the system and carbon dioxide
expelled on the left.
A similar increase in efficiency exists for the exchange of nutrients in our system.
Indeed, a well-known biologist has suggested that the whole cardiovascular system would
be more efficient and under less strain with high sea values.
Stroke, heart attack and many other problems would seem to be largely eliminated.
Higher efficiency for many bodily processes coupled with fewer mutational disorders therefore
makes the great ages of these early patriarchs a reasonable proposition.
Others have a problem with such a large vessel being built in 120 years by Noah and his three
sons, but the volume of the ark was 450,000 cubic cubits.
Of this, a liberal guess suggests that no more than 25% was wooden structure or 112,500
cubic cubits of timber.
To do this, trees needed to be cut down, the timber cut as it worked and the carpentry
done.
Under these conditions, it should have been easily possible to install four to six cubic
feet of timber per day, per man at the very least.
That totals 16 to 24 cubic feet of timber per day.
We also assume that they worked a six-day week and rested on the seventh day as was customary.
Now the cubit was the distance from the tip of the second finger to the tip of the elbow.
The small cubit was about 18 inches.
However, it was a royal cubit used for construction purposes that was close to 21 inches.
It was employed in Ezekiel 40 and elsewhere.
If only 15 cubic feet of timber per day were worked with the small cubit, the ark would
have been completed in just 81 years.
If the royal cubit was used and 24 cubic feet of timber were worked per day per man, construction
would again take 81 years.
At 16 cubic feet per day for the royal measure, the task would take 120 years exactly.
The ark's construction period was therefore a reasonable proposition.
Dimensions of the ark follow from the size of the cubit.
For the small cubit of 18 inches, it was 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 foot high.
For the royal cubit of 21 inches, it was 525 feet long, 87 and a half feet wide and 52
and a half feet high.
It had three decks and the superstructure along the top allowed in light and air.
The ark's length was about the same as this passenger liner.
Indeed, it was the largest wooden vessel ever built.
A longer ship was not constructed until 1858 when I.K. Brunel produced the Great Eastern,
692 feet long, but that ship was made of steel.
Interestingly enough, a survey of modern cargo vessels revealed that they average about 525
foot length with 21,000 tonnes displacement.
Sea Ships by Lewis and O'Brien, page 14, published by Time Life International in 1966.
With its essentially rectangular cross section and 15 cubit Plympsal line, the ark's displacement
range was 34,200 tonnes.
This places her cargo carrying range somewhere between the Hawaiian Monarch and the Niso
Maru, two much larger vessels.
To carry her cargo, the ark's three decks had a total area of 137,800 square feet or
12,800 square metres.
These five traffic lanes extended for one kilometre over this bridge have the same area.
Well, how much cargo could the ark carry?
Let's put it in terms of the modern railway system.
A standard two deck stock car has an effective volume of 2,670 cubic feet or 75 and three
quarter cubic metres.
Each truck is 10 metres long and 160 trucks make up this train of 1.6 kilometres in length.
With the 18 inch cubit, the ark had a carrying capacity of three and a half trains this long
or 569 stock cars.
For the Royal Cubit, the carrying capacity was five and a half trains this long or 904
stock cars.
Now Noah probably chose young animals rather than full size adults.
Even a young rhinoceros seems a manageable proposition then.
In any case, it can be shown that the average animal size for practical purposes is smaller
than a sheep.
Now, each stock car can hold 240 sheep.
The minimum number of animals is thus 136,560 or 68,280 pairs, while the maximum is 216,960
animals or 108,480 pairs.
A good average for the ark's capacity would be about 100,000 pairs of animals.
But how many kinds of animals would need to be preserved?
In Principles of Systematic Zoology, pages 11 and 12 published by McGraw and Hill in
1969, leading American taxonomist Dr Ernst Mayer produced this list of 1,072,300 species.
Of these, many are water dwellers and would not need to be on the ark.
The amphibians, the fishes, the tunicates, echinoderms, mollusks, cilantro, sponges,
protozoans and most arthropods and worms could survive outside the ark.
That leaves 18,600 pairs of animals to be housed in the ark.
With allowances made for extinct species, then 25,000 pairs or 50,000 animals needed
to be sheltered.
This is one quarter to one third of the ark's capacity.
They could all fit on one deck.
There was plenty of room for food and water storage.
A comparison of Genesis 6,21 with chapter 9 verses 3 to 5 indicates that both mankind
and the animals were vegetarian before the flood.
Furthermore, according to Genesis 9,2, it was only after the flood that the fear of
mankind descended upon the animals.
These rainbow lorikeets seem to be unaffected by those two factors.
With creatures behaving like this, Noah's problem to collect and provide for the ark's
cargo would be minimal.
But what about the vessel's stability?
After all, the ark and its cargo needed to survive catastrophic conditions.
Modern mathematical studies have shown that the ark must have been an exceptionally stable
ship.
Experienced designers recognise that the ark's ratio of length to width of 6 to 1 is the
optimum design for stability.
Many ships today have that ratio.
Those with higher ratios of 7 or 8 to 1 are built for speed.
The ark only had to float.
The ratio of width to height is of equal importance.
The centre of gravity for this cross section can be easily determined as well as the forces
tending to restore stability for any degree of tilt.
If the restoring force is too great, the resulting jerk can injure crew or damage cargo.
On the other hand, a tall, narrow, top-heavy ship has forces acting to capsize it.
The ark's cross section is optimal.
Furthermore, it would automatically right itself for any angle of tilt up to, but not
including 90 degrees.
It was virtually impossible to capsize.
When a model of the ark was put in a test tank, it became apparent that it would survive
tsunami or tidal waves up to 500 feet high.
Well, what sort of conditions did it actually have to meet in practice?
The radioactive heating that supplied the geysers and caused a massive build-up of water
beneath the crust also caused the earth interior to expand and partly liquefy.
This meant that there was an increasing pressure exerted on the crust.
A calculation based on sea decay indicates that about 2000 years after creation, this
pressure became so intense that the crust split like a cut balloon.
The split occurred at what is now the tectonic plate boundaries in the mid-ocean ridges.
This crustal crack propagated at the speed of sound in rock, about three miles per second,
and travelled completely around the earth in two hours.
There was a massive explosive outgassing of steam, water and molten rock from the interior,
and a huge quantity of crustal material was pulverised and became sediments.
Aided by this pressure from the overlying crust along the full length of each split,
this mixture would jet as high as 15 kilometres and then pour down as torrential rain.
Dr. Walter T. Brown, Jr. has also calculated that the jet's emission energy was equivalent
to 10,000 volcanoes of the type of Prakatoa.
He further demonstrated that the axial tilt increased significantly as a result.
Roughly half the volume of our presentation was outpoured from the interior then.
Massive turbulence and tsunami activity occurred as the fountains of the deep broke up and
poured out.
They would be rich in minerals.
Large quantities of dissolved silica would form cement for the quartzite type rocks,
while the carbon dioxide precipitated as limestone.
Geologically it is recorded that the pre-Cambrian or pre-flood era ended 600 million atomic
years ago in massive tectonism with a significant marine transgression when the ocean swept
over the land.
That was Noah's flood.
Crustal rifting formed tectonic plates.
The shield areas remained high, shown white here, while the shaded areas around them down
warped.
The shield areas were stripped of all their pre-flood sedimentary covering and eroded right
down to their granite base.
This vast quantity of lighter sediments was deposited in the down warped troughs and injected
with magmas.
These troughs thus became unstable and rose to give the white continental area shown here.
Once the landmass rose the water drained off.
In so doing it had tremendous erosive power on soft sediments.
They were then transported and deposited into the persisting basins that were mainly around
the supercontinental margins, shown shaded in this diagram.
Flood activity continued but was largely confined to these margin areas.
As the water started to subside Noah's Ark grounded on Mount Ararat according to Genesis
8.4.
It is very likely that this flood account was recorded for us by Shem, son of Noah,
and so is an eyewitness record of events.
In any case, Mount Ararat stands in Turkey, extremely close to the border with Russia
and Iran.
It is certainly the highest mountain in the area at 17,000 feet or 5,200 metres.
Photo shows Little Ararat, only 12,000 feet high, to the right.
Mount Ararat is a volcano that is still active.
The smell of sulphur often pervades the area around the left hand peak and some rocks there
are always exposed and warm.
The western plateau shown here is an ice-filled caldera or crater over 250 feet deep.
The volcanic activity that formed it was also responsible for some unusual rock formations.
And seen from a distance, several of them bear a striking resemblance to the Ark.
This particular example at the 15,000 foot level just below the plateau is of importance.
Its location, size and description, including the debris trail, have eight points in common
with at least seven different sightings from 1254 AD to 1969.
In each case it was seen at a distance or from the air and was suspected of being Noah's
Ark.
Here close inspection from less than 100 metres reveals it as a layered volcanic formation.
It also seems to be on the wrong part of the mountain.
We have detailed descriptions from a number of eyewitnesses who have actually been up
close to the Ark on Ararat.
They've usually mentioned seeing the wooden pegs or dowels used in its construction.
This X-shaped dowel was commonly used for ships around 2000 BC but these witnesses didn't
know that.
Ed Davis, pictured on the right, was taken to the Ark on Ararat by Kurdish tribesmen
in July of 1943 under atrocious weather conditions.
It was broken and the largest piece was resting on its side as shown in this sketch.
The superstructure was the top of the living quarters for Noah and his family.
Significantly, Ed and the other eyewitnesses all seem to locate the Ark above the Ahora
Gorge.
In 1840 a massive pyroclastic explosion blasted two cubic miles of the mountain out onto the
Arras Plain.
The huge Ahora Gorge shown here was formed in that blast.
Fifteen miles away rocks from the gorge that are the size of a car give witness to the
force of that explosion.
The gorge is seen here from the air.
There is an almost sheer drop of about two miles to the bottom.
However, the explosion did do some good.
It revealed the inner core of the mountain.
That core is dated as being formed in the late Precambrian or early Paleozoic.
That is precisely the time of Noah's flood according to the speed of light correction.
The final phase of cooling of the core material was quick and under water as shown by the
fine grained crystals and glass.
It was on this original mountain which was over 12,000 feet high that Noah's Ark landed.
Later activity covered it with volcanic material and it became petrified.
Significantly, after the 1840 explosion and earthquake there were numerous reports of
sightings of the Ark in the Ahora Gorge region.
It may well have been freed by the explosion.
Since 1943 the reports indicate that the Ark has broken into at least two major pieces
separated by quarter to half a mile.
Even with a good melt back of ice and snow in summer it seems that the Ark may only be
intermittently exposed.
This makes confirmation difficult.
The ice, the snow and glacial cover, the avalaches and debris, the crevasses, the fog, lightning
strikes and rapidly changing weather conditions plus all the political, military, ethnic and
religious problems, all these have combined to frustrate those who desire to officially
document the Ark's existence.
At this point it is important to note that the massive geological activity that induced
the onset of Noah's flood did not die away in just one year.
That initial catastrophe was followed by ongoing geological activity which built up layers
of successive strata over the following 200 to 250 years or so.
This activity was mainly confined to the very edge of the supercontinental margin.
Here in the north of the supercontinent those areas were on the outside of the Luratian
and Siberian cratons.
Granites and magmas intruded those areas over this 200 year period giving atomic dates that
systematically dropped from 600 million down to about 240 million years.
This was the Paleozoic era, the time from the flood to Babel scripturally.
Initially water saturated both the ground and the atmosphere.
The warm waters added to the ocean from the earth's interior would enhance an already
humid climate.
These conditions favoured the spore bearing plants, the algae, mosses and ferns.
High sea values also made photosynthesis more effective.
This favoured the so-called simple photosynthesisers and suppressed the more efficient types and
encouraged giant forms.
This scene would be typical of the predominant plant varieties.
Insects would also be prominent, many surviving the flood on floating mats of vegetation.
Now insects breathe by diffusion through tiny air tubes all over their bodies and diffusion
is more efficient with high sea values.
This permitted easier breathing with longer tubes.
Consequently giant insect varieties flourished.
As sea decayed only the smaller forms survived.
Amphibians like this phytosaur and other water dwellers would predominate in this era.
Genesis 7 verses 21 to 23 reiterates that everything died that was quote, upon the face
of the ground, end quote, or that was quote, upon the dry land, end quote.
Antibians would survive outside the ark in large numbers.
Other kinds only started off with two of each.
Amphibian dominance would be aided by the consistently humid atmosphere and vast quantities
of warm shallow water.
Though all modern forms of life were present they would be in the vast minority compared
with these sail-finned amphibians like Dimetrodon and Adapha-saurus.
In the south of the supercontinent the landmass of Gondwana straddled the pole.
The new axis tilt that occurred at the time of the flood gave rise to four distinct seasons
to see Genesis 822 but it also had another effect.
Moisturised air from the warm ocean circulated down into this colder polar region.
It precipitated as vast quantities of ice and snow.
This process eventually dried out the world's atmosphere after the flood.
The rapidly growing ice sheet enlarged to encompass a significant portion of Gondwana.
Closing the glacial rock sequence is the evidence for a second rampant volcanic outburst.
This was near the time of the Babel Crisis about 200 years after the flood or 240 million
atomic years.
The flood basalts of Siberia were outpoured at this time.
Huge earth movements associated with this volcanism generated fault-controlled troughs
and many tsunami waves.
The churning water swept vast quantities of luxuriant vegetation into these troughs which
became the main coal measures.
The major fault-controlled subsidence is shown here as the dark area.
It also marks where the important coal measures of Luarasia are found.
In Gondwana coal the plants are high latitude varieties and coal, glacial and volcanics
into bed.
This upsurge in volcanic activity may well have been sparked off by continued radioactive
heating of the earth's interior.
Montal temperatures were rising and forces were now great enough to start the tectonic
plate separating.
Rift systems formed, deepened and widened.
Initially the scene would be similar to this shot from Djibouti.
This fracture opened in 1978 and continues to widen.
This length between the formation of the main coal measures, the confusion of languages
and human migration is enshrined in race memory just as the flood was.
The Kukabidji people in the Palmer River area of northern Australia tell of the worldwide
wanderings of Jolmbanu, the kangaroo man.
Upon his return he found his people had gone off in different directions, talking different
languages, but the steps of Jolmbanu can be traced from the remains of his campfires.
White men call them coal.
The scriptural account of these events was probably written by Shem, see Genesis 11 and
verse 10, and can be found recorded in chapters 10 and 11.
We find from chapter 10 and verses 5 and 20 that this incident occurred in the second
generation after the flood.
When literally translated the passage in Genesis 11, 4 reads, Come on, let us build a city
and a tower with the heavens in its top, and let us make a name for ourselves lest we be
scattered abroad.
The height of the tower was not the issue.
The problem was the heavens in its top.
The key person involved in the incident was Nimrod, who was the mighty one in the earth
at the time, see Genesis 10.8.
A number of sources indicate that the representation of the heavens was for the purposes of horoscope
casting and other occult practices.
A number of similar though later structures had the top floor devoted to astrology and
religious prostitution.
Nimrod and his wife appear to have set up the system of worship which is used in witchcraft
today.
Following their death, Nimrod and his wife were deified, and worship of them can be traced
through history.
In Babylon, Nimrod was deified as Baal or Belmardak.
In India as Eswara.
In Egypt as Osiris.
In Greece as Bacchus.
In Rome as Jupiter.
In other places as Tammot.
Nimrod's wife became known as Ashtate, the Queen of Heaven.
In India she was Issi, the Mother Goddess.
In Egypt, Isis.
In China, Xingmu.
In Ephesus she was Diana or Artemis, to whom this temple was built.
In Rome, Assybele.
With the city and tower, Nimrod the mighty one in the earth was essentially setting up
a form of one world government with himself as ruler and witchcraft as the world religion.
With the tower's destruction, confusion of speech and subsequent migration, elements
of this evil were carried around the world.
It's relatively easy to trace the process of the dispersion from Baal via the tribal
names.
Ham's son Kush has his name enshrined in the Hindu Kush range, and Kushmir or Kashmir.
Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sudan and Ethiopia were settled by his progeny.
So were parts of Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf.
Ham's son Misraim settled upper and lower Egypt and Crete.
His son Put was the father of the Negro race and settled north and northwest Africa, while
Canaan settled the promised land before Abraham arrived.
The sons of Shem settled the mid-east generally.
Elam fathered the Persians that inhabited modern day Iran.
Asher the Assyrians from the region around Iraq.
Afaxad the Hebrew or tribes of Israel.
Lud gave rise to the Lydians of Asiomina and Turkey, while Aram produced the Syrians who
speak Aramaic.
The children of Japheth went into Asiomina and Europe generally.
From Goma came tribes that settled Poland, Czechoslovakia, Germany, South Russia and
Britain.
Magog produced the Scythians around the Black Sea, while Madae sired the Medes, south and
southwest of the Caspian Sea.
Prolific Javan was responsible for the Greeks, Romans and Mediterranean islands.
Tugul has the old eastern capital of Russia, Tobolsk, preserving the tribal name.
Interestingly, Mishek comes into the Greek language as Moschki, which becomes the Russian
Moscow.
Finally, Tyrus has the tribal name preserved in Tyruspol, a city in the Ukraine.
These tribes had a variety of skin colouration.
This is produced by a protein called melanin.
The darker skinned people simply have more of it than their lighter cousins.
Two medium brown parents have the gene pool necessary to produce all possible shades of
skin colour in just one generation.
See Dr Gary Parker, The Facts of Life, page 77 to 80.
Master books, 1984.
Now the tectonic and atmospheric changes gave a new climate for the dispersing tribes.
Strong jet stream winds swept the earth, giving rise to the great windblown sand deposits
typical of the late Permian and Triassic strata.
The predominance of a semi-desert environment and strong drying winds decimated the amphibians.
Spore bearing plants rapidly lost their preponderance to the naked sea gymnosperms, the palms and
the pines.
These conditions favoured the reptiles and dinosaurs proliferated across the low land
forms.
This semi-desert type of environment was punctuated by broad river valleys with luxuriant vegetation
dominated by the gymnosperms.
Similar conditions prevail in Palm Valley, Central Australia, shown here.
Floral types typical of the early to mid Mesozoic era exist with cycad and other rare palms
prominent.
Mesozoic landforms steadily rose with minor advances and retreats of oceans.
This gave alternate marine and land sequences in areas of active deposition.
Again, most deposition was in the outer rim of the supercontinent, shown dark here.
However, Mesozoic larvas were outpoured in air, not under water as early Paleozoic larvas
were.
The era lasted from the Babel Incident to the days of Peleg, about 200 years.
In that time, humans, animals and plant types spread to all parts of the supercontinent
before serious division occurred.
Even the slow old Stegosaurus could make it.
As the era progressed, hard-shelled flowering plants, the angiosperms such as the magnolia,
started to appear in more prominent numbers.
Many dinosaurs, like this Lambiosaurus, were plant eaters, but the few meat eaters left
a lasting impression.
Genesis 10.9 records that Nimrod was a mighty hunter, and no wonder with creatures like
Styrakosaurus and Gorgosaurus to contend with for a meal.
All these flora and fauna built up ecosystems on the top of Paleozoic strata during that
200 year period, systems that take time to build.
Mesozoic coral reefs sit on top of many hundreds of feet of Paleozoic rock.
So do great windblown sand dunes.
So do layer upon annual layer of dinosaur nests and eggs, like that shown here from
Proto-ceratops.
Brian had an extensive list of such occurrences, which denied the thesis that most of the geological
column was formed in one year at Noah's flood.
Brian and Joel both found this present approach to be far more in accord with geological fact.
These great Mesozoic monsters, like this 30 metre long Diplodocus, may have had their
efficiency increased by high sea values.
More rapid transport of electrons and faster diffusion rates meant that nerve impulses
travelled more quickly.
But as sea decayed, they would become more cumbersome, inefficient, and eventually die
out.
Their demise was hastened by the third major catastrophe.
This crater Ticho was formed when an object a half a mile in diameter hit the moon at
the end of the Mesozoic era, 65 million atomic years ago.
At the same time, several bodies hit the earth.
Presence of quartz grains like this one, showing multiple laminae from hypervelocity shock,
attests to meteorite impact.
So does the presence of iridium and the form of quartz known as stissavite.
There is evidence of a 200 to 300 kilometre diameter crater in the Yucatan, Central America,
and a smaller structure 35 kilometres across in Manson, Iowa, USA, that date as 65 million
atomic years old.
See New Scientist for June 2, page 12, and November 17, page 15, for 1990.
The immediate effects of impact of a 10 kilometre diameter object or greater includes the blast
wave and surge, vaporisation of water and rock, coupled with massive earthquakes and
destructive tidal waves that would invade low landforms with this sort of magnitude.
Deposits from such giant waves have been found in Texas and Cuba, where 12 metre boulders
occur in a debris layer that's 450 metres thick.
In the short term, material ejected from the impact site would be distributed worldwide.
Indeed, a meteoric iridium layer is usually found capping the Mesozoic strata.
The impact would ignite global wildfires.
Significantly, the Mesozoic boundary clays contain large amounts of soot.
Alvarez and Osarro, in Scientific American, for October 1990, page 48, show that that
layer contains soot equivalent to half the world's present forests.
Darkness would be inevitable, while acid rain and greenhouse effects would probably continue
for some time.
The impact would have geological implications also.
Massive volcanism would be induced.
The multiple layered flows of basaltic lava shown here form the Deccan Traps in India.
They are dated to 65 million years old atomically.
At the same time, the Brito-Atlantic system of flood basalts was outpoured.
Continent already separating at the mid-ocean ridges had the process accelerated by impact
and Africa separated from America.
High sea values may well have lowered rock viscosity and enhanced the drift processes.
Once the continent separated, surviving flora and fauna and humans became isolated.
This was the final phase of God's judgement that was initiated at the flood in Babel.
The asteroid impact and continental drift generated two further effects.
One was a greater axis tilt, the other was the up-thrusting of high mountains.
As the mountains rose and the greenhouse effect of the impact wore off, then temperatures
fell.
The greater axis tilt gave more pronounced extremes of weather annually and eventually
these and other factors combined to bring about the last ice age in the geological column.
Under such extremes of weather, the mammals with their stable body temperatures were favoured
and became dominant.
This was the period of the cave dwellers, the so-called Stone Age.
All existing structures had been destroyed in the Palaeo-catastrophe and now an ice age
was upon them.
Shelter from these harsh weather conditions was vital.
The cave was ideal for this purpose.
They would gather plants and hunt animals to survive.
Anything that came readily to hand could be used as a weapon or tool.
A piece of broken rock initially.
Then, after searching for it, a piece of flint that could be shaped.
Then bone from hunting forays.
These pioneers were called Palaeolithic or Mesolithic hunter-gatherers or hunter-builders
by archaeologists.
As the company grew and became more organised, crops would be planted and animals herded.
This farming society is called Neolithic.
Later, a village would develop to be labelled as a Chalcolithic society.
Each village then developed into a veritable city-state with its own leading personage
or king.
At the time of Abram, around 2000 BC, Sodom was such a dynastic city-state.
The pace of such development depended upon local factors.
For example, the dynastic period in Egypt started much earlier, around 2900 BC.
This recovery period is also the time of the patriarch Job, called Jobab in Genesis 1029.
He was the son of Yachtan and nephew of Pelech.
Job is writing as an eyewitness to the aftermath of continental division and ice age.
He spoke of the effects of asteroid impact, of rifting, volcanism and storms.
He gave details of tidal waves and continental drift.
He told of torrential rain and the sea being frozen over like a stone in the mid-east,
which happened during the last ice age.
And then these remarkable comments in Job 24, verses 7 and 8 about cavemen conditions.
And we quote,
They spend the night naked, without clothing, and have no covering in the cold.
They are wet with the showers of the mountains and huddle around the rock for want of shelter.
End quote.
In chapter 30, verses 3 to 7, he states that the fathers of those who visited him had been
quote, gaunt with want and famine, they gnaw the dry and barren ground and flee into the
wilderness in former time.
They pluck salt-whirred-to-mullows among the bushes and broom-tree roots for their food.
They had to live in the clefts of the valleys and in the caves of the earth and the rocks.
Among the bushes they bray and howl like wild animals.
Beneath the prickly scrub they fling themselves and huddle together.
End quote.
This is the time of recovery from a huge natural disaster.
It is not part of an evolutionary sequence progressing from apes to man.
And there is one lesson that the book of Job imparts.
Despite seemingly impossible conditions, Job and his friends still saw God's hand at work
in their chaotic world.
For creation necessarily speaks of a creator to whom we are all morally responsible.
But Job realised that everyone had fallen short of God's standard.
So periodically he offered sacrifices for himself and his family, knowing that without
the shedding of blood is no remission of sin.
But 2000 years ago the creator himself became man, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He walked on the earth with us and was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without
sin.
And as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, he offered himself as a
sacrifice on our behalf and shed his sinless blood on the cross at Calvary.
And rising from that place of death on the third day and being seen by over 500 witnesses,
he ascended back to heaven to intercede before the Father on our behalf.
For if we sin we have an advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous.
So if we confess our sin to him he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness.
And our fellowship with God is restored.
For God desired to have unbroken fellowship with his created beings.
That relationship was lost through Adam's sin, but we have the promise that it will
be totally restored.
For God will make a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness.
And those who have accepted his blood sacrifice for their sins have the assurance that they
will be citizens of that new creation, with God dwelling in their midst.
By contrast those who reject him will suffer eternal damnation.
God has still left the way open for you today through Jesus the Messiah.
Your creator awaits your response.
The choice is yours.
But the consequences are eternal.