ABSTRACTS
Are the Ashfall Site Sediments and Fossils Post-Flood?
Michael J. Oard
The fossils and sediments from Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park are analyzed to determine whether the depositional environment was Flood or post-Flood. Several indications of a post-Flood environment are presented, but other criteria suggest the fossil beds were laid down by the Flood, and evidence for a post-Flood environment can be explained within a Flood model. Like dinosaur tracks, eggs, nests, and bonebeds, this site can be explained as a landscape briefly exposed during the Flood by local or regional fall in “sea level.” The existence of mammal tracks places the time as early Flood.
The Region of Eden: Analysis and Debate
Joel D. Klenck
Eastern Anatolia, southern Iraq, and Jerusalem have been proposed as the regions that once contained the Garden of Eden. Several creationists have argued that it is impossible to locate the region of Eden due to the dramatic changes to the surface of the earth during the Noachian Deluge. However, a close analysis of relevant Biblical passages and the archaeology, geography, geology, paleontology, and paleobotany of Anatolia, the Near East, and North Africa suggest that the region of Eden was located in Southeastern Anatolia. This region provides source waters for four rivers, following Precambrian rift valleys or faults, which are connected to the Biblical locales of Asshur, Havilah, and Cush. The rivers traversed a landmass that originated in the Precambrian not covered by the alleged expanse of the Tethys Ocean. Furthermore, southeastern Anatolia is associated with the ancient kingdom of the House of Eden. Although the Bible states that the Flood was a global catastrophic event, the confluence of biblical texts with geographical, geological, and other data provides a compelling indication that its effects did not eradicate all evidence of Eden’s original location.
Provenance Studies of Clastic Sediments and Their Role in a Hydrodynamic Interpretation of the Genesis Flood
John K. Reed and Carl R. Froede Jr.
Studies tracing sedimentary particles to their source, referred to by geologists as provenance studies, can play an important role in the hydrodynamic approach to interpreting the rock record. This methodology is superior to the entrenched uniformitarian time-stratigraphic method, which filters interpretation through its geologic column because it 1) resolves presuppositional contradictions between the column and biblical history and 2) provides a sounder empirical foundation for interpretation. Ultimately, the hydrodynamic method could yield 3-D models of the flow regime of the Flood, calibrated to abundant forensic sedimentologic data. Though such models are not presently realistic, the empirical work necessary to support them can be done by the collection of local flow regime information from crustal sediments. Any future model will require calibration to flow information, which must be derived from sedimentological data—such as provenance studies. Examples of such studies suggest interesting lines of inquiry into nonuniformitarian alternatives and demonstrate additional shortcomings of the time-stratigraphic approach.
The Evolution of Dinosaurs: Much Conjecture, Little Evidence
Jerry Bergman
The evidence for dinosaur evolution was reviewed, along with the various theories of dinosaur evolution and the evidence for their support. Dinosaurs are commonly believed to have evolved from a small, crocodile-like animal; however, a review of the known fossils provides no evidence for dinosaur evolution from non-dinosaurs, despite the excellent and abundant dinosaur fossil record. This finding is very significant because the bones of many of the average- to larger-sized dinosaurs discovered to date are usually fairly well preserved due to their large size and thickness. Dinosaurs appear abruptly in the fossil record and disappear just as suddenly. The fossil findings for several major dinosaur species also were reviewed.
Stellar Radiation Entropy as Evidence of Supernatural Order and Creation
James R. Powell
The second law of thermodynamics, or increasing entropy, is one of the most fundamental and empirical laws of physics, and it holds great implications for understanding order and design in the universe and the origin of this order. Large increases in entropy from stellar radiation contribute to diffusion of energy and point to a high state of initial energy order that cannot be accounted for naturally or solely by the first law of thermodynamics. This is one of the greatest arguments for supernatural order that can only be the result of a Creator.