ABSTRACTS
Toppling the Timescale Part IV: Assaying the Golden (FeS2) Spikes
John K. Reed
Stratigraphers today claim that chronostratigraphy and geochronology are one and the same, but this presents a problem; they have not found a reliable absolute chronometer for the rock record. To solve this dilemma, a new strategy has been proposed: define the timescale’s stages by the arbitrary assignment of each time-stratigraphic boundary. Above the Proterozoic, the beginning and end of each stage is either currently or soon to be represented by a “Global Stratotype Section and Point”—type sections scattered around the world. Below the Phanerozoic, each boundary is defined by a slightly different “Global Standard Stratigraphic Age”—an equally arbitrary numerical standard against which field radiometric dates can be correlated. As a result, the structure of the timescale has now been finalized, not by empirical science, but by the fiat pronouncements of the International Commission on Stratigraphy. Thus, the “scientific” discipline of stratigraphy diverges yet again from empirical science. This bureaucratic solution is a diagnostic symptom of the timescale’s erroneous core and a confirmation of decades of creationist critiques of uniformitarian history.
Statistical and Philosophical Notions of Randomness in Creation Biology
Jonathan Bartlett
Mutations that occur in the absence of selection have often been cited as evidence that mutations are philosophically random— that is, that they do not follow a predetermined pattern but occur haphazardly. Mutation in absence of selection, however, may be a part of an adaptation process, specifically engineered for maintaining variability in organisms as a hedge against future environmental changes. A statistically random distribution of a constrained set of semi-specific (i.e. nonphilosophically random) mutations in populations would enable them to preserve a fairly constant percentage of mutants, which would foster survival in adverse conditions.
Tides and the Creation Worldview
Don B. DeYoung
Lunar tides play a significant role in creation studies. Tides help our understanding of the fundamental law of gravity and also contribute to the biological health of the world’s oceans. Canada’s Bay of Fundy is one location where tides are especially evident, and an on-site description is included. The earth-moon tidal interaction results in a gradually receding moon and a slowing of the earth’s rotation. These dynamical changes are highly dependent on earth-moon separation and are in conflict with the evolutionary timescale..
Evolution and the Origin of Human Language
Jerry Bergman
A critical difference between humans and all other life-forms is language. Neo-Darwinism teaches that language evolved from gestures into grunts, then into primitive and, eventually, highly evolved languages. A comparison of ancient and modern languages reveals that the so-called primitive languages are as complex—or in some ways more complex—in grammar and syntax, the ability to accurately express ideas, and other central aspects of language as most modern languages. One advantage in studying ancient languages compared to other ancient artifacts is that many ancient languages are known today in a fair amount of detail. All languages change, as can be easily determined by a study of a single language such as English, but no evidence exists that language began as animal grunts and evolved into fully developed human language.