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in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and
all that is in them...
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Copyright © 1971, 2000 by the Creation Research Society. All rights reserved.
Volume 8, Number 1
June, 1971
Abstracts
June, 1971
Abstracts
Organic Chemistry Reflects God's Infinite Knowledge
The structure of organic chemical molecules is reviewed briefly from the alkanes to through and including the steroids. For each class of compounds is the number of different molecules that may be synthesized is truly immense. Such versatility of design and construction is seen as a tribute to the infinite wisdom of the Creator.
Creationism And Our Ecological
Crisis
The author examines the criticisms which have been raised against a literal understanding of Genesis in connection with the present environmental crisis. He points out that evolutionism is more likely to lead to exploitation than creationism. He pleads for a return to a creationist understanding of the relationship of man to nature.
Fitness Of Earth For Life
The physical and chemical properties of water and the atmosphere show a "fitness" of the environment for life, as William Whewell and Lawrence J. Henderson have so ably asserted. This article contains a review of such evidence as a testimony to God's authorship of the physical and chemical environment for life.
Paleoecology And The Flood
Modern uniformitarians assume long geological ages, but in recent years advocates of the Flood theory of geology have found many problems that make it reasonable to interpret the fossil evidence in terms of catastrophism rather than long ages of evolution.
The complexity of the Cambrian and other lower Paleozoic strata creates a very difficult problem for the evolutionist, but indicates that these rocks represent a natural habitat buried suddenly. The sudden extermination of the trilobites, and the irregular distribution of the ammonites all point to catastrophism. The coal beds have many problems that evolutionists fail to explain, but which can be solved if such beds are assumed to represent an ancient type of habitat or life zone. The extinction of the dinosaurs fits well into the same explanation, as also does the peculiar distribution of mammals in the Tertiary rocks.
All in all, the Flood theory offers the most satisfactory explanation of ancient paleoecology, in what has been designated the "ecological zonation theory."
Decay Of The Earth's Magnetic
Moment And The Geochronological Implications
It is now known, but not well publicized, that the earth's main magnetic field is decaying relatively rapidly. This paper considers a physical basis for this decay and experimental determinations that support it. The conclusion is reached that it is an exponential decay and that the half-life is 1400 years.
The rate of decay is assumed to have been constant since the origin of the magnetic field. It is then shown that the life of the earth's magnetic field should be reckoned in thousands, not millions of years or billions of years. It is also shown that the stronger magnetic field in the past and its shielding effect would alter radiocarbon dates, reducing the previously held dates.
Natural Selection Reexamined
The process of natural selection is defined from the standpoint of population genetics. Examples are presented to show how natural selection might act gradually to eliminate harmful mutant genes from the population or to maximize the reproductive potential of gene combinations which are successful in a given environment.
A harmful mutant gene which confers some definite advantage in the heterozygous condition may persist in a state of balanced polymorphism. It is shown that balanced polymorphism is of limited significance, producing variation within the kind but as far as is known, no innovative evolutionary development of new kinds.
Supposedly helpful mutations might conceivably accumulate in a population by action of natural selection, but such a process would be so exceedingly slow that it would not account for the major adaptations of plant and animal species. Although genetic drift might cause a more rapid shift in gene frequencies, it produces non-adaptive changes and is not a valid basis for evolutionary progress. It is concluded that natural selection may lead to variations within the created kinds but it gives no promise as a mechanism of evolutionary descent.
The Nature Of Evolutionary
Thought
The argument that modern science is objective, and that the Christian must therefore accept its conclusions with regard to the fact of evolution is answered from the standpoint of the philosophy of science. Scientific method is examined in order to highlight the hierarchy of explanatory frameworks which guide the scientist in his research. Paleo- and neo-science are then analyzed in order to reveal the radical differences between them in regard to these frameworks.
It is concluded that the frameworks of paleo-science (of which Darwinism is a prime example) cannot be scientifically proven or disproven. In order to gain empirical import these frameworks must be combined with frameworks of neo-science, and it is only the latter which can be scientifically tested. In the adoption and retention of paleo-scientific frameworks, philosophical and religious commitments are primary. The implications of this situation are discussed.
On The Recent Origin Of The
Pacific Southwest Deserts
The history and migrations of the Pueblo Indian peoples are discussed in relationship to drying trends after the Noahic Flood. The decline of Lake Tulare, the Great Salt Lake, other surface reservoirs, artesian wells, and even glaciers are also correlated with flood geology. It is proposed that worldwide climate changes occurring after the Flood led to the migratory phases obvious in Pueblo Indian history. Finally, it is theorized that desert plants may have been catastrophically selected for survival in dry conditions when areas such as Lake Cahuilla became deserts.
Some Astronomical Evidences
For A Youthful Solar System
Data concerning meteoric dust, the Poynting-Robertson effect, and disintegration of comets are shown to indicate much shorter ages for the solar system than those assumed by evolutionists. All of these methods are demonstrated to support ages much lower than 5 x 109 years commonly asserted by uniformitarians.
Was The Origin Of Life Inevitable?
Authors of one widely used textbook of physical science imply that life was an inevitable natural sequel to the physical and chemical conditions of the early earth. An overview of enzyme chemistry, photosynthesis, and mathematical probability leads to the opposite conclusion - life was the result of careful planning and direct supernatural creation.
On The Relevancy Of Roche's
Limit To The Flood-Ice Dump Theory
The flood-ice dump theory of Patten is examined in view of objections to the use of Roche's fragmentation limit. A modified Roche's limit for rigid bodies with tensile strength is calculated and the tensile strength is found to be unimportant for an icy body of appropriate size.
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