Copyright © 1971, 2000 by the Creation Research Society. All rights reserved.

Volume 7, Number 4
March, 1971
Abstracts

The Cyclical Black Shales

Black shales of the Pennsylvania System of west central Illinois were examined in a paleoecological study using micro-radiography (X-ray) and photographic techniques. Over 80 different fossil varieties were tentatively identified, including a proposed new conodont species, Metalonchodina magnidentatus, Peters, a small Pennsylvanian Onychophore (?), several freshwater Algae.

Study methods included gross and macrophotography, microscopic examination of thin shale chips, and photomicrophotographic inspection of X-rays of shale samples. The radio-photomicrographic technique supplemented and bypassed the usual practice of crushing and chemically disaggregating the shale to extract the microfossils. Structural details could be observed in fossil elements in X-ray negatives rotated on the stage of the polarizing microscope set at or near crossed nicols.

Cyclical deposition was indicated by the structural details of the shale as well as by the virtually mutually exclusive occurrence of foraminifera and conodonts in successively alternating bedding planes and black shale matrix. Rapid transport and burial was implied from the following observations: Orbiculoidea shells packed into lenses up to one inch thick; microlaminations apparently interrupted by small coal balls; and the distorted bedding, both at the bottom and the top of the shale member.

All of the reported observations strongly support the Biblical tidal interpretation of fossil deposition and burial.

Human Footprints In Rocks

Mention in scientific circles of so-called human footprints in any rocks results in raised eyebrows and general skepticism that such can be found. Among creationists considerable misplaced enthusiasm is expressed quite often. However, when one attempts a systematic study of the subject of human footprints in rock layers, evidence can be considered in three categories: (1) undisputed human footprints preserved in rocks, (2) documented examples of footprints that have been drawn or carved in rocks, and (3) an open category of unresolved "finds". Evidences for each of these three categories are discussed at length and numerous illustrations of observed materials are provided.

A Geo-Ecological Explanation Of The Fossil Record Based Upon Divine Creation

The fossil series is discussed and an attempt is made to explain the distribution of index fossils in various strata. Factors such as proximity to early bodies of water, preflood population size, and morphology are used to predict the relative fossil production potential of various living forms. Predictions based on these factors show a good fit with the observed order of fossils in the geologic column. This provides a non-evolutionary framework for geology. Absence of larger or more "complex" types from deeper fossil strata is attributed to unavailability of rocks rather than expanded evolutionary development. Inaccessibility and metamorphosis make deeper strata unavailable and account for the general absence of fossils from such complex creatures as mammals. The available fossil record considered together with the available rock record explains the geologic "column" without recourse to evolutionary speculation or expanded uniformitarian time scales. This model is based upon the concept of creation and the Noachian deluge.

The Mesa Basalt Of The Northwestern United States

Probably the most remarkable basalt unit of the stratigraphic record is the late Cenozoic (Pliocene or Pleistocene) Mesa basalt of the northwestern United States. Various lines of evidence show that several occurrences of medium to light gray porous-textured olivine basalt in Oregon, northeastern California, northwestern Nevada and southwestern Idaho apparently are the preserved remnants of a single, regionally extensive lava flow. The thickness of the flow averages only 30 feet and the areal extent must have exceeded 100,000 square miles. It is therefore the world's largest known lava flow representing a single volcanic event of catastrophic magnitude.

Several problems for uniformitarian geology is presented by the Mesa basalt are discussed. Widely divergent dates on various portions of the basalt seem to invalidate the potassium-argon dating method.

Because the Mesa basalt and many other late and middle Cenozoic basalts were deposited in a subaerial environment, while pre-cenozoic lava flows were usually submarine, it is suspected that the Mesa basalt and other late and middle Cenozoic basalts flowed after the Noachian Flood. This inference is supported by the observation that pre-Cenozoic flood strata (widespread dolostone, bedded chert, black shale, coal and graywacke) are uncommon in the late and middle Cenozoic.

Dooyeweerd And Creationism

Current interest in the Cosmonomic philosophy of Herman Dooyeweerd warrants an analysis of this system in terms of special creationism. Dooyeweerd's views are explained and their implications for biology are explored. It is suggested that a consistent development of Dooyeweerd's "non-evolutionary religious root" in science should lead to nothing less than Biblical Creationism.

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