TASC - Triangle Association for the Science of Creation

TASC endeavors to show Christians and others in the Triangle area that the facts of science are consistent with the Biblical account of origins and inconsistent with the evolutionary worldview. 

Evolution’s False Start: The Spontaneous Generation of Life

April, 2018

The date was August 28, 2011. The setting was the biennial world-championship of track and field, held on this occasion in Daegu, South Korea. The “world’s fastest man,” Jamaica’s Usain Bolt was expected to easily defend his 100-meter crown that he won in 2009 after also taking the Olympic gold in 2008. Two of his main competitors were not even in the race. Jamaican teammate Asafa Powell withdrew right before the event with a groin injury and American rival Tyson Gay was out of commission with a hip injury. Bolt had cruised through the preliminary heats, and it seemed like a gold medal was a forgone conclusion, but something very unexpected happened. After getting set in the starting block, Bolt jumped the gun! He was disqualified by the very controversial new “zero-tolerance” false start rule that had been enacted the previous year. Under the new rule, there were no second chances! A single false start now disqualified a runner. Therefore, there was now no chance that Bolt would repeat as world champion in the 100 meters because everyone knows that you can’t win the race if you aren’t able to start the race! Similarly, you can’t win the race if you can’t “get out of the blocks” (due to injury, cramping, or whatever). Either way, whether as a result of inability or disqualification, the failure to get started down the track makes it impossible to even finish the race, much less win the race! On this occasion it mattered not that Bolt was the world’s fastest man because there was now a 0% probability that he would win the race.

Genesis 2: Day 7 And A Closer Look At Day 6

March, 2018

Your TASC board of directors has been reading through Jonathan Sarfati's The Genesis Account: A theological, historical, and scientific commentary on Genesis 1-11. 1

We have just finished chapters 11-12 which cover all of Genesis 2. This article was inspired by those chapters.

Day 7

Genesis 2:1-3 (ESV):

1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.

3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

God had completed his creative work by day 7 of creation week. The processes He used to create during the first six days were different from those He now uses to sustain and uphold the universe (Col 1:16-17; Heb 1:1-12). God resting on the seventh day was obviously not from tiredness but reflected the completeness of His creative acts (Heb 4:10); He ceased (rested) from His creative activities. Ex 31:17 says God was refreshed on the seventh day, akin to our satisfaction after completion of a significant task.

Birds-Eye View of Creation Science

February, 2018

There is an expression about not seeing the forest for the trees. Sometimes it is good to step back, and look at the larger picture. With regard to creation science, there are lots of "trees;" we have articles on geology, genetics, chemistry, paleontology, cosmology, botany, etc. But what is the big picture? Let's start at the beginning: the origin of life.

Abiogenesis, the Origin of Life

By Bdna.gif: Spiffistan derivative work: Jahobr (Bdna.gif) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Figure 1 - DNA segment

Regarding the origin of life (without God), or abiogenesis, we realize that this is extremely difficult. No one can explain how this happened using only the known laws of science. How difficult is abiogenesis? One evolutionary biologist has proposed an infinite number of universes in order to help out with the probabilities. 1,2 The clear implication is that in one universe, the origin of life is so unlikely that, for all practical purposes, life could never have arisen. The probability is that low. 

Probability Calculations 

Regarding probabilities, the evolutionist who wrote the book Mathematics of Evolution and who gave the Big Bang its name, stated the odds of getting just some of the requirements for a single cell are trillions of times less likely than getting the single winning lottery ticket if each atom in the universe were a lottery ticket! Yes, the entire universe. And he stated the odds for getting single cells to evolve were trillions of times less than that.

So, we will just assume that life somehow originated. We will simply ignore the problem of how life arose in the first place. But before we move on we will consider one point about the origin of life from non-life.

Review of Replacing Darwin: The New Origin of Species by Nathaniel T. Jeanson

January, 2018

Dr. Nathaniel Jeanson's new book Replacing Darwin: the New Origin of Species 1 was released in October of 2017. Jeanson holds a doctorate in cell and developmental biology from Harvard (2009). He joined the staff at the Institute for Creation Research (ICR) in 2009 but has since moved to Answers in Genesis (AIG) where he is a research biologist, author, and speaker. Jeanson has written numerous lay articles, book chapters, and technical papers in secular and creationist journals. 2 He has also debated several evolutionists. 3 

In Replacing Darwin, Jeanson shows how the known data and principles of genetics fit biblical history as understood by young earth creationists (YECs). He develops a testable model of speciation consistent with Genesis and makes predictions. Jeason provides sufficient backgrounds in basic biochemistry and genetics for non-specialists to grasp his arguments. He has uncovered interesting relationships between speciation and time for several biological families.

The book includes copious endnotes and graphical illustrations, references, a glossary, but no index.

The following review will cover the book chapter by chapter.

The Ear: Evolved or Designed? - Part 1

December, 2017

Previously I wrote an article about how the complexity of the human ear implies a designer rather than evolutionary origin. Evolutionists attempt to explain the existence of such complex organs by gradual changes over time. In this article I would like to explore the diversity of hearing organs in different creatures and discuss whether there is evidence of gradual changes in different organisms which would lend credence to evolutionary theory or if the diversity of ears is evidence for the improbability of evolution and evidence of design by a Creator.

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