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Copyright 1995 by the CREATION RESEARCH SOCIETY (CRS), Inc.
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A DECADE OF CREATIONIST RESEARCH
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(Part I)
by DUANE T. GISH, Ph.D.
Creation Research Society Quarterly 12(1):34-46
June, 1975
*Abstract*
The primary purpose of the Creation Research Society is to carry
out, or to encourage, Creationist research in the natural
sciences, and to publish the results of such research. By
Creationist research is meant research which proceeds from a
belief in, and attempts to correlate with, special Creation. It
is shown that, in about the last ten years, a significant amount
of research has been accomplished. It has been done, moreover,
at very little expense, and, as far as is known, with no
expenditure whatever of public money. While reference is made
especially to the Creation Research Society, it is known that
good work has been done outside the Society. No claim is made
that this list of research is complete. It is probably
impossible to list everything which has been done; and some work
is not included mainly because it was difficult to fit it under
any particular heading. It is clear, from what is reported here,
that Creationist research is a worthwhile activity. There is, of
course, much more to be done; and it is hoped that many more
people who are able to do research will come forward.
*Introduction*
Evolution is the dogma of the scientific and educational
establishments. Many millions of dollars from government sources
are spent each year on research that is oriented and correlated
within the framework of evolution theory. On the other hand, as
far as I know, not a single tax dollar has been available, or is
available, for research by scientists who openly attempt to
correlate their results within the concept of special creation.
Perhaps this virtual "shut-out" is due in part to lack of
ingenuity and aggressiveness on the part of creationists, but
there is little doubt that the most ingenious and sustained
action of creationists would do little to weaken the
stranglehold evolutionists have on public funds.
In spite of this fact, a significant and growing research effort
by creationists has been sustained during the past decade.
Although a limited amount of research had been conducted prior
to, and since its founding, independently of, the Creation
Research Society, the establishment in 1963 of this creationist
organization of Christian men and women of science, has provided
the inspiration for, and, to a considerable degree, the funds
necessary for this research.
This Society was established primarily for research in all
fields of science designed to demonstrate that the scientific
evidence related to origins can be correlated and explained much
more satisfactorily by the concepts of special creation and a
universal catastrophic flood than the concepts of evolution and
uniformitarian geology. Beginning in the Fall of 1964, the
results of this research have been published in the _Creation
Research Society Quarterly_. (1) This paper is a review of the
articles published in the _Quarterly_ during the first decade of
publication, which constitute the results of original research.
These papers can be arranged in approximately six scientific
categories: geology, genetics, natural selection, taxonomy,
general biology (genetics, natural selection and taxonomy are
specializations within biology, of course), and thermodynamics.
GEOLOGY
Geological papers constitute the largest category of papers
published in the _Quarterly_. This is not surprising. The
research needed to demonstrate the fact that evolution could not
occur and, in fact, has not occurred, has already been performed.
These research results provide strong support, on the other hand,
for a special, supernatural, direct creation.
Yet, considerable research needs to be done to support the
specific Biblical creation model and to re-establish Flood
geology as an alternative to evolutionary geology. Thus, most of
the research performed by creationist geologists has been
directed at the goal of interpretation of geological data within
the concept of catastrophism in contrast to the actualism of
evolutionary geologists.
*Overthrust*
Evolutionary geologists assume that sedimentary strata have been
laid down over vast stretches of time, and have arranged these
strata in a supposed time-sequence, particularly the
fossil-bearing strata, based on assumed evolutionary
transformations. The strata are identified by fossils that are
characteristic of each strata, usually marine invertebrates.
It is believed, for example, that the Cambrian strata,
identified by the particular types of trilobites found within
them, were laid down over a period of about 80 million years
beginning approximately 600 million years ago. Evolutionary
geologists thus believe that these sedimentary deposits were
laid down during what is called the Cambrian Period.
In addition to trilobites, these rocks contain fossils of every
one of the major invertebrate types, including jellyfish,
sponges, brachiopods, worms, crustaceans, and corals
(evolutionary ancestors for which have never been found, the
so-called Precambrian rocks being devoid of multicellular
fossils). The Cambrian Period was supposedly followed by
geological periods of successively younger age, such as the
Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Mississippian, Pennsylvanian,
etc. Fishes are not found in Cambrian rocks, but appear in the
Ordovician. Amphibians are not found in Cambrian, Ordovician or
Silurian rocks, but are found in Devonian and "younger" strata.
Reptiles appear in yet "later" strata, then birds, mammals, etc.
The various strata have thus been arranged in an assumed
time-sequence according to a supposed evolutionary development
of invertebrate to fish to amphibia to reptiles to mammals to
primates to man. The arrangement of the various strata in this
assumed time-sequence is known as the geological column.
If this assumed time-sequence is correct, and was actually
created by the slow deposition of one set of strata on top of
another through vast stretches of time, then "younger" strata
should always rest on top of " older" strata. On the other hand,
if, as Flood geologists maintain, most of these sedimentary
deposits were laid down at the time of the Flood, and the
particular sequence usually observed was determined by a
combination of factors, including ecological zones, hydrodynamic
sorting, attempts to reach safety at higher altitudes, etc.,
then breaks in the sequence and even occasional revearsals of
the usual sequence of fossils would be expected under the
catastrophic conditions of the Flood.
Many inversions of the strata scattered throughout the world
actually exist, "older" strata lying on top of "younger." In
places this upside-down arrangement of the strata is hundreds
and even thousands of square miles in extent. To explain the
manner in which older strata became superimposed upon younger
strata, evolutionary geologists are forced to postulate vast
"thrust-faults."
Supposedly huge blocks of the crust were uplifted and then
somehow thrust over the adjoining area. The upper layers of the
"thrust block" were then eroded away, leaving the lower, or
older, strata of the thrust block lying on the younger strata
underneath. This sequence of events thus supposedly accounts for
the many cases where the older fossils of more "primitive"
creatures lie on top of younger fossils of more "advanced"
evolutionary development.
Creationist geologists have attacked this postulate on the basis
of both the physics involved and the lack of field evidence
required to substantiate these supposed overthrusts. While
pointing out that there is evidence of local folding and
overthrusting on a small scale, creationists maintain that
physical evidence along the contact line, such as brecciation,
gouge, and slickensides, does not exist for the supposed large
thrust-faults. A number of field expeditions have been
undertaken to search for evidence, or lack of it, for
overthrusting.
Harold Slusher, then assistant professor of physics at the
University of Texas, El Paso, examined a supposed overthrust in
the Franklin Mountains near El Paso. (2) In that area a massive
structure of Upper Ordovician limestone (supposedly about 450
million years old) lies on top of strata identified as Lower
Cretaceous (supposedly about 130 million years old). Neither
Professor Slusher nor the geologist accompanying him could find
any physical evidence of overthrusting.
In 1956 and 1957, Walter Lammerts visited the site of the
so-called Lewis "overthrust" in Glacier National Park. Dr.
Lammerts' doctorate is in genetics, but be has had university
courses in geology and has maintained a keen interest in this
field. The Lewis "overthrust" extends laterally from 15-30
miles. It is postulated that a huge block of Precambrian
limestone, thousands of feet thick and almost 10,000 square
miles in area, was thrust eastward over soft Cretaceous shale,
resulting in a formation supposedly older than 600 million years
resting on top of a formation about 100 million years old.
Dr. Lammerts studied the contact line exposed at Chief Mountain,
one of the most imposing sights in the Park. He reported that
all the evidence lie could discover indicated that the contact
was sedimentary rather than a thrust-fault. (3)
Clifford L. Burdick, a professional geologist, carried out an
extensive survey of the contact line of the Lewis " overthrust"
at several places in the U.S. and Canada. The report of this
research (4) includes an excellent review of the overthrust
concept and of the standard interpretation of the so-called
Lewis overthrust.
The contact line at Wynn Mountain, Chief Mountain, and Roes
Creek in the U.S., and at Crowsnest Pass, and near Mt.
Eisenhower in Canada was studied. Evidence for thrust-faulting
along the contact line, Burdick reported, such as gouge (rock
powder), mylonite (coarsely ground rock), tectonic breccia
(conglomerate including rock fragments set in a matrix), and
slickensides (striations on rock surfaces) was absent.
At Mt. Ishbel, near Mt. Eisenhower, Burdick reported that the
strata were sharply upturned, and he found great piles of rock
rubble along the pass between the two mountains. He concluded
that if there had been local lateral pressure in the area, the
rock was so incompetent it would have broken up rather than
moving laterally, and that the upturned strata of Mt. Ishbel had
been caused by a granitoid intrusion from underneath.
If, as Burdick and Lammerts have concluded, the Lewis contact
line is sedimentary and not a thrustfault contact line, then the
entire concept of the geological column as an evolutionary
succession of geological ages is highly questionable, to say the
least.
Burdick and Slusher studied an alleged overthrust in the Empire
Mountains in Pine County, Arizona. (5) They first examined known
thrust-faults in other areas to confirm the type of evidence to
be found where actual thrust-faulting has occurred. In one case,
for example, a block of limestone about one-half mile long bad
been thrust about one-half mile. A gouge layer about three feet
thick composed of ground-up rock powder gave evidence that
thrust-faulting had occurred. At another site of a small
thrust-fault, a 15-20 foot thick layer of tectonic breccia
(crushed and ground pieces of rock fragments) and slickensides
gave evidence that overthrusting had occurred.
Examination of the alleged contact line of the Empire Mountain
"overthrust" gave no such evidence. The overlying Permian rock
(greater than 200 million years in age, allegedly) fit into deep
grooves eroded in the underlying Cretaceous (about 100 million
years old, supposedly) like a glove on a band, or like material
poured into a mold. If the Permian cap rock had been thrust over
the Cretaceous (as evolutionary geologists contend), why,
Burdick and Slusher ask, were not all of these sharp projections
planed off? Why is there no evidence, such as brecciation,
gouge, and slickensides, for thrust-faulting? They concluded
that the evidence indicates that the contact is depositional and
not a thrust-fault contact.
Lammerts studied the classical Lochseite of the Glarus
"overthrust" near Schwanden, Switzerland. (6) Here a huge block
of Jurassic limestone (about 180 million years) rests on top of
a Eocene formation (about 60 million years) . The overlying rock
of over a mile in thickness supposedly was thrust almost 21
miles over the underlying Eocene. Lammerts' analysis of the
evidence failed to support the latest evolutionary
uniformitarian concepts on the Glarus overthrust (reviewed in
his paper). Lammerts presented an alternative proposal, based on
Flood geology, which explained how these deposits may have been
laid down in the present order.
*Fossil Anomalies*
When fossils are found in strata which would be impossible
according to standard evolutionary interpretations, these are
labeled fossil anomalies. Usually such reports are ignored by
evolutionary geologists, since they assume that an error has
been made or an obvious explanation must exist. Several such
fossil anomalies have been reported in the _CRS Quarterly_.
Professor Wilbert Rusch has studied the subject of fossil human
footprints, personally examining some found in Kentucky. (7)
This study has become even more interesting in the light of the
reported finds of human footprints along with dinosaur
footprints in Cretaceous limestone of the Paluxy River area near
Glen Rose, Texas. This latter report has been extensively
documented by Stanley Taylor in the film, "Footprints in Stone
." (8) Rusch indicates that some of the footprints he researched
(not in the Glen Rose area) were carvings, but others appeared
to be genuine. He also recounted the report of an iron pot found
in coal. [Note added in 1995: Continued study of the alleged
human footprints near Glen Rose has not confirmed their source
and has led to withdrawal of the documentary film.]
William Meister, while searching in the trilobite beds of
Antelope Springs near Delta, Utah, split open a slab of rock to
expose what appeared to be a human sandal print in which was
imbedded three fossil trilobites. (9) If true, this means that
this footprint was made when trilobites were still in existence,
but trilobites supposedly became extinct many scores of millions
of years before man bad evolved! Evolutionary paleontologists
and anthropologists merely shrugged off this find as not
genuine, but an anomaly due to some natural cause.
Clifford Burdick has reported on his investigation of the find
of two modern human skeletons in the Dakota Formation of the
Cretaceous (supposedly about 100 million years old) near Moab,
Utah. (10) During a mining operation for hydrothermally
deposited copper, a hillside bad been bulldozed away. The hill
was composed of Dakota sandstone. On the floor of the excavated
site, Lin Ottinger, a rockshop owner and guide of Moab,
discovered two human skeletons. The blade of the bulldozer had
sliced through the skeletons, leaving most of the remains
exposed at the surface.
Burdick concluded that the bones were definitely in place, with
no evidence that the surrounding rock had been disturbed. He
believes that the location of the find deep within the hillside
indicates that these individuals were buried at the time the
Dakota sandstone was deposited.
Prof. Wilbert Rusch and I carried out an investigation of this
find shortly after Burdick's visit. We also visited the
University of Utah to examine the bones, which were in custody
of the Anthropology Department. There was no doubt that these
skeletons were buried deep within the hillside, and as Burdick
reported, there was no evidence the surrounding rock was
disturbed.
We felt, however, that since all of the overlying material had
been removed, the evidence required to positively eliminate the
possibility that these individuals had reached the site via a
fissure or cave was not available. Thus, while all the evidence
that did exist indicated that these individuals were part of the
original deposit, the possibility that they had entered the site
at a later date could not be excluded with all certainty. Other
reports of the finds of modern human remains in sediments
supposedly many millions of years old have been summarized by
Cousins. (11)
*Palynology*
Palynology is the study of fossil pollen and spores. Burdick has
reported on his palynological studies of formations in the Grand
Canyon. (12,13) The striking fact about his results was the
presence of fossil pollen grains of plants in sedimentary
deposits that were allegedly laid down several hundred million
years before the plants are believed to have evolved. He
reported, for example, the discovery of fossil pollen of
gymnosperms, many of them conifers (pine trees), and of
angiosperms (flowering plants) in Cambrian and Precambrian
formations.
The gymnosperms, or seed-bearing plants, supposedly did not
evolve until long after the Cambrian rocks had been laid down,
and the angiosperms are supposed to have evolved even later. The
Cambrian Period is believed by evolutionists to be a time when
no land plants or animals were in existence, in fact, a time
when only marine and fresh water invertebrates existed.
A report by Rusch in the _Quarterly_ (l4) related the fact that
there have been numerous reports in recent years of the finds of
fossil pollen of woody plants, including conifers, in Cambrian
rocks by evolutionary geologists. Even fragments of woody plants
have been found in Cambrian rocks.
These finds decisively contradict the supposed time and order of
so-called plant evolution given in almost all books on geology,
paleobotany, and evolution. These facts are not even known to
the vast majority of geologists and biologists. For example,
when I brought these facts to the attention of the audience
during a debate with the world-famous botanist and evolutionist,
Dr. G. Ledyard Stebbins, he was astounded, and demanded
documentation. His astonishment was compounded when the
documentation I readily provided included a report by one of his
colleagues at the University of California at Davis and a close
friend, geologist Dr. Daniel Axelrod!
GENERAL GEOLOGICAL REPORTS
*Geology of Mount Ararat*
Burdick has reported on the expedition that visited Mount Ararat
in 1966. Mount Ararat lies in the northeast corner of Turkey near
the Russian and Iranian borders. It is believed to be the
Biblical Ararat where the Ark came to rest. The expedition, one
of several in recent years, including the 1972 Institute for
Creation Research expedition led by John Morris, was undertaken
primarily to search for the remains of the Ark. Numerous alleged
sightings of the Ark have been reported in ancient times and in
relatively recent times.
While in the Ararat area, Burdick undertook a study of the
geology of this area. (15) He postulated that the Paleozoic and
Mesozoic limestone that covers eastern Turkey was laid down at
the time of the Flood. During the Flood, Burdick reports,
basaltic and andesitic lava burst up through the limestone beds
to form a peak nearly 20,000 feet high. Much of the basalt and
andesite composing upper Ararat is often found in rounded blocks
called pillow lava, which is the hard, micro-crystalline
form-taken by lava when it is extruded under water. Erosion has
reduced the mountain to its present 17,000-foot height.
*Research on the Joggins Petrified Trees*
Harold Coffin has re-investigated the Carboniferous section of
Joggins, Nova Scotia, (16) (the Carboniferous includes the
Mississippian and Pennsylvanian Periods, which are believed by
evolutionists to have been laid down over a period of about 50
million years beginning about 300 million years ago). The
prevailing idea of evolutionary geologists is that the petrified
trees and numerous coal seams in the Joggins area are _in situ_,
that is, in their original position of growth. It is postulated
that there were numerous long periods of growth of bogs which
slowly formed coal at lower depths. Repeated transgressions of
the sea, it is believed, buried these coal seams and engulfed
the trees.
Dr. Coffin's study did not support this concept. His research,
on the other hand, produced numerous lines of evidence that the
trees, along with masses of plant material, bad been transported
by water to the site where they are now found, and were then
buried under conditions of rapid sedimentation. Petrification
and carbonization followed. The evidence for this hypothesis
included absence of soil zones, unusual plant fossils within
hollow stumps, remarkable preservation of delicate fossils,
diagonal trees, abundant presence of the marine tubeworm
_Spirobis_ (the attachment of this marine, or salt water,
organism, to vegetal matter in the coal contradicts the bog
environment hypothesis), and polystrate trees (trees extending
through two or more strata, each of which, according to
evolutionary interpretations, was deposited slowly over a long
period of time).
The evidence developed by Coffin supports the hypothesis that
the coal was formed by the tremendous quantities of trees and
vegetal matter that was uprooted, transported and buried by
alternating tidal waves and other catastrophic effects of the
Flood. I have briefly reviewed laboratory experiments that
produced petroleum in 20 minutes and coal in a few hours from
cellulosic material (garbage and manure, for example,
demonstrating that the formation of coal and oil would not
require vast stretches of time). (17)
Coffin has recently given an excellent report of his studies of
the petrified forests in the Yellowstone Park area. (18) These
studies have led him to believe that these trees also had been
transported and buried at their present site by water action.
*The Sisquoc Diatomite Fossil Beds*
Bernard Northrop researched the diatomaceous earth beds near
Lompoc in Santa Barbara County, California. (19) Evolutionary
geologists have maintained that these beds formed gradually over
vast periods of time, but Northrup's studies provided striking
evidence of the rapid and catastrophic deposition of these beds.
In the Sicquoc area, countless billions of the delicately
sculptured siliceous cell walls of diatoms (microscopic
organisms) have been deposited in such a way that fish were
entombed with bones and even body organs intact. Some fossil
fish were trapped so that they lie parallel to the bedding plane
of the diatom matrix, but many other fish fossils extend across
the bedding plane. ;the latter fossils (standing partly on end)
must have been buried quickly, or else the part not buried at
first would have been devoured by scavengers, or would have
decayed long before it could have been buried by a diatom
"rain." Fossils of various fish, sea birds, and whales also
indicate that the diatom material was deposited rapidly and
catastrophically rather than by gradual and uniform activity.
Northrup postulated that the original diatom supply was first
formed in cool waters after the Flood and was redeposited at the
Lompoc site during a post-Flood catastrophe.
*Cyclical Black Shales of West Central Illinois.*
Walter Peters has applied photomicroradiographic techniques to
the study of black shales of the Pennsylvania system of west
central Illinois. (20) The evolutionary uniformitarian
interpretation of a slow, undisturbed sedimentation and
mineralization of these shales over vast periods of time could
not be true, according to Peters.
Study methods included gross and macrophotography, microscopic
examination of thin shale chips, and photomicrographic
inspection of x-rays of shale samples. Cyclical deposition was
indicated by the structural details of the shale as well as by
the virtually mutually exclusive occurrence of foraminifers and
conodonts in successively alternating bedding planes and black
shale matrix. Rapid transport and burial was implied from
several observations including Orbiculoidea shells packed into
lenses up to one inch thick; microlaminations apparently
interrupted by small coal balls; and the distorted bedding,
cloth at the bottom and the top of the shale member.
Peters concluded that all of his observations can be used to
support strongly the Biblical tidal interpretation of fossil
deposition and burial.
*The Capitan Fossil "Reef"*
The occurrence of alleged fossil "reefs" in various portions of
the geologic column has been recognized by many observers to be
a very difficult problem to reconcile with Biblical chronology.
If accumulated at approximately the same rate as modern reefs
allegedly form, a single fossil "reef" would take many
thousands of years to form, and therefore would jeopardize the
implication from Genesis of a young earth and would also
question the role of the Flood in earth history.
The famous Capitan Limestone in the Guadalupe Mountains of
southeastern New Mexico and western Texas is alleged by many
geologists to be a classic example of a fossilized "barrier
reef." Stuart Nevins conducted a study of this alleged fossil
reef to see if the actual field evidence supports this concept.
(21)
Nevins reported that his study cast doubt on the various
depositional and ecologic environments alleged to be associated
with the "Capitan Reef." The so-called "backreef lagoon" and
"forereef talus" deposits were not contemporaneous with "reef"
accumulation. In addition, the Capitan lacks large, _in situ_,
organically-bound frameworks and deposits of broken debris which
can be shown to be derived from an organic framework.
Nevin's research indicated that the Capitan is composed
primarily of broken fossil fragments in a fine-grained matrix of
lime, silt, and sand which were not wave-resistant when
deposited. The fossil flora and fauna of 'Capitan Reef," be
reported, represent a shallow water assemblage which was not
especially adapted to a wave or strong current environment.
Reef-forming organisms which could bind sediments and build
frameworks are either altogether absent or largely
inconspicuous.
Nevins concluded that the available data certainly do not
require many thousands of years for the Capitan to have
accumulated, and therefore seem to present no problem for
Biblical chronology. Instead, the lack of large
organically-bound structures, which would have required
thousands of years for growth, suggests that deposition was very
rapid. Nevins proposed that the Capitan Limestone accumulated
rapidly either during the last stages of the Flood or shortly
thereafter.
*Geologic Study of the John Day Country*
Recently Nevins reported on his study of the strata of the John
Day Country in the Blue Mountain region of northeastern Oregon,
which reveals abundant testimony of volcanic catastrophism. (22)
The strata, which show a cumulative thickness of over 7,000
feet, consist primarily of numerous terrestrial lava flows,
gigantic ashflow tuff beds (each extruded in a single explosive
event as a huge cloud of incandescent ash), boulder breccia
layers (presumably deposited from enormous mud flows),
tuff-breccia beds (representing very explosive stages in
volcanism), and volcanic siltstone and sandstone (deposited as
each explosive episode subsided). The area covers about 5,000 s
square miles and lies southwest of the Columbia Plateau, which
consists of a basaltic lava flow covering 100,000 square miles
and as much as a mile in thickness.
Nevins pointed out that fossils of large mammals and tropical
and subtropical plants occur in particular horizons, which
suggests that only on rare occasions of quiescence between
volcanic eruptions was life reestablished in this region. Nevins
maintained that the supposed evolutionary fossil series leading
to the modem horse is artificial and thus false. Further, he
maintained that there is little evidence suggesting 60 million
years of history for this area as assumed by evolutionary
geologists.
Nevins suggested that since good evidences of the Flood are not
found in the John Day Country strata he studied, the Flood must
have preceded the formation of these strata. He thus concluded
that an interval of many hundreds of years intervened between
the close of the Flood and initiation of the recent glacial
period. The vast volcanism of the John Day Country and the
glacial ice sheet which covered the northern areas of North
America and Europe are thus attributed to catastrophic events
which occurred during the period of readjustment following the
stupendous catastrophism of the Flood.
*The Magnetic Moment and Age of the Earth*
Thomas Barnes has carried out a fascinating study of the decay
of the earth's magnetic moment and the implication this has
regarding the age of the earth. His results are contained in an
article in this issue and in a series of papers in the _CRS
Quarterly_, (23-25) and in a monograph published by the Institute
for Creation Research. (26)
The earth's main magnetic field has been shown to be due to a
magnetic dipole, the strength of which is called its magnetic
moment. The magnetic field is due to circulating electric
currents. These currents probably reside in the core of the
earth. The core is believed to consist of hot liquid metal,
composed mainly of iron. There is no mechanism to sustain these
currents, so these currents and the resultant magnetic field are
decreasing in strength, that is, decaying. These currents and
the accompanying magnetic field thus have every appearance of
having been "woundup" at some time in the past, with
uninterrupted decay to the present.
Measurements of the earth's magnetic moment have been made since
1835. Using these measurements, Dr. Barnes has calculated that
the earth's magnetic moment is decaying exponentially with a
half-life of 1400 years. The magnetic moment is decreasing
because the circulating electric currents which generate the
earth's main magnetic field are decreasing in strength. Part of
the energy of these currents is continually being lost as beat
energy, with resultant decrease in the strength of the currents
and the magnetic field they generate.
Extrapolating the strength of the earth's magnetic moment back
into the past, based on the exponential decay curve, the value
of the magnetic moment at any time in the past can be calculated
(the magnetic moment would double for every 1400 years). The
heat that would be generated by the current necessary for such a
magnetic moment can also be calculated. Beyond about 10,000
years, the magnetic moment would exceed a reasonable estimate
for any planet the nature of the earth, and by one million years
the current required to generate the magnetic moment predicted
on the basis of the decay curve would liberate enough beat to
vaporize the earth. Barnes thus maintained that these data,
which are especially reliable because they are based on
measurements over 130 years, indicate that the earth cannot be
much older than 10,000 years.
In an attempt to get around this barrier to a long age for the
earth, evolutionists must postulate that some sort of a
self-generating dynamo causes the liquid in the core to
circulate, generating the magnetic field, rather than an
electrical current circulating in a quiet liquid core as
postulated by Barnes. Barnes pointed out that there is no
physical evidence for motion within the core, and, in addition,
a self-generating dynamo within the core would require motions
of an extremely complex and unreasonable nature. He concluded
that no acceptable dynamo theory to sustain or oscillate the
earth's magnetic field has ever been conceived nor is one very
likely. Dr. Barnes strongly affirms that the data on the earth's
magnetic field demand a young age for the earth, an age that
probably could not have much exceeded 10,000 years. (26)
GENETICS
*Mutations and Evolution*
In a series of papers in the _Quarterly_, (27-29) Walter Lammerts
presented data which are very damaging to the idea that
mutations could have supplied the means of change that would
have allowed evolution to occur.
Genes are the units of heredity which when replicated by an
organism and passed on to offspring during reproduction cause
the characteristic traits of a species of organisms to be
reproduced. These genes are composed of a type of chemical
structure called deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Each gene, or DNA
unit, is made up of hundreds or thousands of sub-units arranged
in sequence in a long chain. The genetic message encoded in each
gene is determined by the specific sequence or arrangement of
the sub-units in the DNA chain, analogous to the way the message
in this sentence was composed by arranging the letters of the
alphabet in a unique sequence.
Mutations are random changes in the chemical structure of DNA.
That is, mutations cause one sub-unit to be randomly exchanged
for another, or sub-units may be randomly excised or inserted.
Analogously, letters in this sentence might be blindly removed
and replaced with others. Blindly or randomly exchanging letters
in the sentences on this page would rapidly generate spelling
errors and, very shortly, complete nonsense. Similarly, the
effect of mutations in living organisms is harmful and often
lethal.
While evolutionists readily admit that the vast majority of
mutations are harmful, they are forced to postulate that a small
percentage, perhaps one in ten thousand, must be beneficial. In
the final analysis, the only source of variability required for
evolution must come from mutations of one kind or another, and
beneficial changes must occur if evolution theory is true. Thus,
evolutionists insist that beneficial mutations do occur.
Creationists maintain that it is extremely doubtful if a truly
beneficial mutation ever occurs. A random change in a highly
complex and intricately coordinated machine could produce only
disorder and loss of function. Even if a beneficial mutation
could occur, a mutation could only bring about a change in an
existing characteristic and thus could not create any new trait
or generate increasing complexity.
Dr. Lammerts studied the effect of neutron radiation of Queen
Elizabeth rose buds in producing mutant varieties. (27) He found
that such radiation was successful in inducing a wide range of
variations in rose plants grown from such buds. His results
showed that biologically, all of the mutations were defective
variations from the pattern of development characteristic of the
variety radiated.
His studies further indicated that mutations can only alter
various phases of the basic varietal pattern expression, but the
basic pattern itself remains unchanged. He concluded that truly
unique and outstanding varieties of roses such as Peace,
Charlotte Armstrong or Queen Elizabeth would never result from
the accumulation of mutations.
In two excellent articles, (28,29) Lammerts has reviewed the
effects of mutations and other chromosomal changes on various
organisms, both plants and animals. This review of the data
indicates that neither mutations nor chromosomal changes, such
as translocations, inversions and polyploidy, provide a
mechanism for bringing about the changes demanded by evolution
theory. Lammerts concluded that the incredibly complex and
amazingly integrated genetic system could only be the product of
a remarkably intelligent Creator.
*Effect of Genetic Aberration in a Tomato Plant*
William Tinkle studied the characteristics of a tomato plant
which had three cotyledons instead of the normal two. (30) The
first lateral structures formed on a seedling plant differ from
true leaves and are called cotyledons. Some plants are
monocotyledonous while others are dicotyledonous. Occasionally a
genetic aberration of some sort will cause a plant to have one
or two extra cotyledons. Thus, plants that ordinarily have two
cotyledons may produce, on rare occasions, varieties with three
or even four cotyledons.
Dr. Tinkle found a tomato plant that had three cotyledons
instead of the two that is normal for this plant. He collected
seeds from this plant and studied the progeny produced from
these seeds. From 100 seeds that lie planted, 69 plants
developed. Three of the plants bad three cotyledons and 66 bad
normal two cotyledons. Planting seeds from the three
tricotyledonous mutants produced seven plants with three
cotyledons and 30 with two cotyledons.
Dr. Tinkle studied the normal and mutant varieties with respect
to fertility, vigor and resistance to frost. Although one might
expect that a plant with an extra cotyledon, because of the
extra surface exposed to light, might have an advantage, the
plants with the extra cotyledon were found to be inferior to the
normal plant in germination, rate of growth, and resistance to
frost.
Even some of the plants produced from the seeds of the mutant
tricotyledon plant which bore the normal number of cotyledons
(two) showed growth abnormalities. The mutant gene for the
tricotyledonous condition is apparently recessive. That is, its
effect is more weakly expressed than the normal gene for two
cotyledons, which is dominant. Though the plants just mentioned
were heterozygous, bearing the dominant normal gene as well as
the recessive mutant gene and thus having two cotyledons, even
the presence of the mutant gene in the heterozygous state
weakened the plant.
This example of a mutation which causes the abnormal presence of
three cotyledons in a seedling tomato plant rather than the
normal two and which results in the production of an inferior
plant is additional evidence that mutations, being random
changes in an incredibly complex and intricately coordinated
genetic system, are inevitably harmful.
... continued at 12_1a2.txt ...
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