ARTICLE ABSTRACTS
Sequence Stratigraphy: Value and Controversy - for Whom? by Allen C. Bartlett, pp. 5-22
The secular questioning of the quietism of Lyell, Darwin, and modern geology in general is responsible for the revolution in stratigraphy and sedimentology begun in 1977. This revolution is known as sequence stratigraphy.
Sequence stratigraphy (the classical Exxon approach) is compatible with creationist Flood geology. Sequence stratigraphy is a non-time-dominant method of doing geology. Strict uniformitarians (non-catastrophists) hate sequence stratigraphy. Sequence stratigraphy is a threat to traditional uniformitarian formation-scale or the grain-by-grain building-up and tearing-down of the land. Beyond classification of sequence stratigraphic units within a new language for geology, this less contrived philosophy of sedimentary analysis potentially offers the dynamic of short-term sea-level changes superimposed upon a single broad long-term sea-level curve (Wilgus, Hastings, Posamentier, Van Wagoner, Ross, and Kendall, 1988). By extension, the Vail curve of sea-level change (cycles within cycles) represents an exponentially based event (non-biased) devoid of cumbersome, intellectually restricting appeals to uniformitarianism - either uniformity of rate or material conditions (earthly agents alone) or mad assertions about space and time, invariance of natural laws (the exclusion of providence).
The failure of orthodox uniformitarianism is permitting, in the secular scientific literature, a return to the philosophy of katastrophe (Gk.: to overturn), this time expressed in terms of "extraterrestrial causes." The existential dichotomy, first described by Schaeffer (1968, 1976; 1968; 1977; 1972; 1976; 1976), has brought us to this present marvelous state of affairs in the history of science.
On Time Dilation in Cosmology. by John Byl, Ph.D., pp. 26-32.
In recent years various authors have suggested that time dilation could solve the problem of seeing distant galaxies in a young universe. Time dilation which arises in both special and general relativity, could presumably slow earth clocks with respect to those on distant galaxies. This article examines how time dilation can arise within various relativistic cosmological models. It is found that in most cosmological models time dilation is either not significant or is in the wrong direction. Strong time dilation can occur in a static universe with pressure terms. However, in that case the predicted galactic red shifts would be much greater than those actually observed. It is concluded that the time dilation hypothesis thus faces a number of serious problems that must still be resolved.
A Challenge to a Classic Example of the Survival of the Fittest Doctrine: The Dodo and the Passenger Pigeon Story. by Jerry Bergman, Ph.D., pp. 48-55.
Careful re-evaluation of the Dodo by several contemporary researchers has found that many of the widely accepted conclusions about it are wrong. It was not a fat, slow, inferior, defenseless bird, but a swift and fierce fighter if it perceived that it was threatened. The common conclusion that it was defenseless is partly due to the fact that it did not have a natural fear of humans or many animals. Often given as the prime example of how evolution prunes out the weak, it was concluded that its extinction was not because of inferiority, but due to the wanton disregard of life by humans. Often regarded by contemporaries as a wonderful, magnificent creature, its loss proves not the efficacy of natural selection, but the depravity of its caretaker. In contrast the Passenger Pigeon was widely regarded as one of the most fit and evolutionarily successful birds; yet it became extinct. This case also eloquently illustrates the depravity of the Passenger Pigeon's caretaker.
Investigation of a Non-carbon Based Biochemistry and its Implications for Cellular Biology Part I. Glycine and its Silicon Based Derivatives. by Edward A. Boudreaux, Ph.D., pp. 56-61.
It has been suggested that since the presumed biochemical evolution of life involves the formation of proteins from amino acids, a similar mechanism could perhaps have also occurred with non-carbon based amino acids. The element most chemically similar to carbon is silicon, although no silicon analogs of amino acids are known to exist. This paper reports a study of bond energetics for glycine, a hypothetical analog in which carbon atoms are replaced by silicon, and other modifications in which the glycine nitrogen and oxygen atoms are replaced by phosphorus and sulphur respectively. Comparison of energy changes are made between reactant molecules and their respective peptide bonded products. The results indicate that the peptide bond formation process is energetically feasible for glycine, but not for the proposed modifications.