Creation News

By

Dan Reynolds PhD
Creation
Abiogenesis
Cosmology
Dinosaurs
Archaeology
Flood
Genetics

May’s newsletter is dedicated to recent findings in science related to creation. It reflects the author’s interests and is by no means comprehensive or exhaustive. 

Jonathan Sarfati, Russ Humphreys, and John Sanford Are Coming to the Triangle This Fall

These three men are some of the finest creation scientists alive today! Plan now to take advantage of these rare opportunities.

Jonathan Sarfati of Creation Ministries International and author of Refuting Compromise will be visiting the Triangle this September. He will be speaking at Cornerstone Baptist Church on Sunday morning September 23 at 9:30 PM. On Sunday night he will be at Friendship Baptist Church. On Monday night, September 24, the goal/plan is to get him on the NC State campus. On Tuesday night, September 24, he will be back at Cornerstone at 7:00 PM. Then on Wednesday night, September 25, he will be at Community Baptist Church in south Garner. Mark your calendars! Tell your friends!

Russ Humphreys and John Sanford will be each giving two lectures at NC State on Saturday, November 10. Russ Humphreys is perhaps best known for his solution to the starlight-time problem but has also been a pioneer in other areas such as accelerated nuclear decay and the modeling and prediction of planetary magnetic fields. John Sanford is a world-class biologist who, late in his career, became a biblical creationist and now explains why macroevolution has never happened and is impossible. Bring your skeptical friends to hear these insightful men!

Origin of Humans

Here are a couple of recent books by top-notch scientists well worth reading:

1. Replacing Darwin by Nathaniel Jeanson 1

This recent book provides a new genetic theory of speciation that is in accord with biblical creation.

2. Contested Bones by Christopher Rupe and John Sanford 2

This book supplies the latest scholarship in paleoanthropology up through the fall of 2017. Rupe and Sanford explain in detail with many photographs and illustrations how the fossil evidence clearly shows that ancient fossil specimens are either related to apes or humans with nothing in between.

Recent genetics and paleontology appear to be supporting the biblical view of human origins! It is an exciting time for biblical creationists in this area. Get these books, learn their lessons, and teach your kids and grand kids the truth about who and what we humans are.

News

Fossil hominin footprints dated at 5.7 Ma have been found near the Greek island of Crete. 3 According to evolutionary theory, these fossils are too early and in the wrong place. Most anthropologists say homo split from our last common ancestor with chimps 6 to 7 million years ago in Africa.

Theistic evolutionists often insist that humans could have never descended from a population smaller than 10,000 individuals, and hence the story of Adam and Eve as understood by many Christians can’t be true. They arrive at this conclusion by examining the current genetic diversity among humans, known mutation rates, and population genetics. However, even secular population geneticists have demonstrated that genetic diversity can be maintained through a bottleneck of even two individuals provided there is rapid population growth following the bottleneck, so a starting population of two can’t be ruled out. 4 So how could a human pair have great heterozygosity to begin with? God could have built this into Adam and Eve from the start. A rapidly growing population will also contain many rare mutations adding to the diversity. Indeed, claims about humans descending from a population no smaller than 10,000 in the book Adam and the Genome by theistic evolutionist Denis Venema appear to be unsubstantiated in the literature. 5

There is a growing list of so called pseudogenes—allegedly once functional but now useless genes that were presumably inherited from a distant common ancestor with other primates—that have been demonstrated to have function after all. 6 And if these pseudogenes are functional, they can no longer be used as evidence for common descent from other primates and hence the evolution of humans. Why? Because a designer could have created similar genes in similar organisms for similar purposes without there being any evolutionary relationships between the organisms.

Human chromosomes are divided into blocks. Most blocks come in only four variants consistent with an original pair (Adam and Eve) which each individual had two variants of each block. 7

There is genetic evidence that humans interbred with Neanderthals and Denisovans demonstrating they are all the same created kind. 8

Indeed, things are changing so much that recently one evolutionist observer remarked:

Who do you think you are? A modern human, descended from a long line of Homo sapiens? A distant relative of those great adventure-seekers who marched out of the cradle of humanity, in Africa, 60,000 years ago? Do you believe that human brains have been getting steadily bigger for millions of years, culminating in the extraordinary machine between your ears? Think again, because over the past 15 years, almost every part of our story, every assumption about who our ancestors were and where we came from, has been called into question. The new insights have some unsettling implications for how long we have walked the earth, and even who we really are. 9

So the next time you hear “scientists now have the human origins story all figured out,” think again!

Fossils

The evolutionary story of how a land-based, quadruped mammal evolved into the first whale has been dealt a blow by a new fossil find in Antarctica. 10 Dating of the new whale fossil leaves only 1 to 2 million years for the transformation from land mammal to whale. So many changes...so little time!

Tracks of mammals and dinosaurs have been found together in an outcrop near the Goddard Space Flight Center. 11 These fossil tracks are supposed to be 110 million years old. This sort of combination of tracks laid down in close proximity in space and time is what we would expect from the Flood.

Geochemical and fossil evidence are pointing to life as early as 4.3 Ga on a relatively tranquil earth, much of which was covered by water say some scientists. 12 The scientists say the evidence suggests it does not take that long for life to take hold, so there is probably life elsewhere. A better interpretation, I believe, is that life has always been on earth as have the oceans, just as the Bible teaches.

Reports of fossil biochemicals allegedly millions of years old keep on coming. 13 Here we’ll mention only three such recent reports. Fat from fossilized bird glands thought to be 48 million years old has been found. Second, intact pigments from fossilized turtles thought to be 54 million years old have been detected. Last, pigment from fossilized bird shells thought to be 66 million years old have been reported. The pigments had the same molecular masses as pigments found in modern bird shells. None of these compounds should have survived for millions of years. A recent creation explains the data. Many other similar finds came to light in 2017. 14

Fossil trees have been found in Antarctica that are allegedly 280 million years old. 15 The samples were so well preserved that fossil cellular structures were found. Intact amino acids were extracted. The evidence points to a rapid watery burial in a much warmer climate consistent with a recent global Flood and the catastrophic breakup of a giant supercontinent.

The Flood

Geologists have found evidence for pervasive volcanism and a spike in carbon dioxide levels just prior to the Cambrian. 16 The Cambrian layer is thought by many creationists to be the first layer laid down by the Flood. According to scripture (Gen 7:11), the fountains of the deep were broken up as part of the start of the Flood. Breaking up the fountains of the deep implies volcanism.

Archeology

A clay seal bearing the name Isaiah has been found at the base of the southern wall of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. 17 A partial word that may be “prophet” was associated with the name. The Isaiah seal was found a few feet away from and in the same layer as a piece of clay bearing King Hezekiah’s seal. If confirmed, this would be strong evidence for the existence of the prophet Isaiah who predicted many of the details of Jesus’ life hundreds of years before the fact (see Isaiah 7 and 53).

Numbers 13:29 says that the Canaanites lived in the ancient city of Sidon by the Mediterranean Sea. Recently bones were found in Sidon dated at 3750 years believed to be from the Canaanites. DNA comparisons of the ancient DNA with that of modern Lebanese people showed that the people of Lebanon must have descended from the Canaanites. 18 God had commanded the Israelites to drive out the Canaanites (Numbers 33:55), but the Israelites disobeyed (Joshua 16:10). God then decided to allow the Canaanites to remain (Judges 2:1-3) and be a problem for Israel. Hence the evidence shows that the location and survival of the Canaanites were faithfully recorded in the scriptures.

Free Creation-Related Videos

Revolutionary featuring Michael Behe of “irreducible complexity” fame: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ToSEAj2V0s

Nova: Killer Floods (a secular film that focuses on evidence of catastrophism): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CXV1QXFc8s

Genesis Science Network (24/7 films by biblical creationists): http://genesissciencenetwork.com/

Cosmology

Fully formed, star-creating galaxies have been observed dating to only one billion years after the alleged big bang (possibly even galaxy mergers). 19 Rotating galaxies like the Milky Way have been seen at one eighth of the universe’s age with huge hydrogen halos.

Some cosmologists are beginning to think dark energy was a bad idea—there’s no empirical evidence for it. 20 Some are rethinking relativity. It is all a mystery at present.

The Hubble constant gives two different values from two different methods. 21 Which assumptions are wrong: CMB or type 1A supernovae?

A super massive black hole has been found in the early universe—it should not have had time to form, yet there it is. 22 The large black hole formed 690 Ma after the Big Bang during the reionization period and had a mass of 800 million suns. 

The merger of a neutron star binary resulted in gravity waves and a flash of light that arrived at earth essentially simultaneously. 23 The nearly simultaneous arrivals of the gravity waves and light have eliminated many theories put forth to explain dark energy. Remaining explanations: energy of space just has the right value or the Higgs field—sounds like even more fine tuning to explain.

A galaxy has been found that lacks dark matter, thereby strengthening the case for dark matter. 24 Most galaxies appear to have more mass than the light from their stars reveal. However, in this case, most of the mass is accounted for by the observed starlight. Other new research suggests that dark matter and energy may not be real. It may be that the properties of space itself can explain the rotation curves of galaxies and galaxy clusters without having to invoke “dark” entities. 25 Stay tuned. With so much unknown about the cosmos, how could an honest atheist ever say science has eliminated God as a possible explanation?!

Dinosaurs

Several hundred well-preserved pterosaur eggs have been found in China. 26 The eggs span several layers but are otherwise in the same location. All the evidence points to burial in rapid flowing water. The burial of these eggs is consistent with the Flood.

A fossil nodosaur allegedly 112 to 125 million years old has been found that still contained intact organic molecules such as kerogen and melanin in the skin. 27 The molecules should have degraded unless they are not very old.

Abiogenesis

A 2016 paper in which some elements of the RNA world hypothesis seemed to be confirmed has been retracted because the results can’t be replicated. 28

Stomatolites, mineral structures created by cyano bacteria and believed by some to be some of the earliest life forms dating back to 3.7 Ga, have been found again, this time living in Australia. 29 Modern and fossil stomatolites are an example of living fossils best explained by a recent creation.

The RNA world has been recently said to be incapable of explaining the origin of the genetic code. These scientists propose that instead a RNA-peptide world evolved which could eventually evolve into modern biochemistry. Of course, they need to assume the existence of information-rich RNA and peptide strands to begin with, along with other cellular machinery. 30

One of the best organic chemists alive and Bible-believing Christian, Dr. James Tour, has said concerning origin of life research:

We have no idea how the molecules that compose living systems could have been devised such that they would work in concert to fulfill biology’s functions....Those that say, “Oh this is well worked out,” they know nothing—nothing—about chemical synthesis—nothing....From a synthetic chemical perspective, neither I nor any of my colleagues can fathom a prebiotic molecular route to construction of a complex system. We cannot even figure out the prebiotic routes to the basic building blocks of life: carbohydrates, nucleic acids, lipids, and proteins. Chemists are collectively bewildered. Hence I say that no chemist understands prebiotic synthesis of the requisite building blocks, let alone assembly into a complex system. That’s how clueless we are. I have asked all of my colleagues—National Academy members, Nobel Prize winners—I sit with them in offices. Nobody understands this. So if your professors say it’s all worked out, if your teachers say it’s all worked out, they don’t know what they’re talking about. 31

You can watch a lecture by Dr. Tour at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=36&v=_zQXgJ-dXM4

Evolution

Genetic evidence that modern elephants and Woolly Mammoths are of the same created kind has been found. 32

A new paper considers the evolution of developmental pathways and concludes that some pathways that appear similar are not due to common ancestry but convergent evolution. 33 On the other hand, some dissimilar pathways that nonetheless provide similar phenotypes are considered due to common ancestry. What if common ancestry is a myth?