ABSTRACTS
Compelling Evidence for an Upper Cenozoic Flood/Post-Flood Boundary: Paleogene and Neogene Marine Strata that Completely Surround Turkey
Timothy L. Clarey and Davis J. Werner
The location of the Flood/post-Flood boundary has been debated for decades. The two most commonly proposed candidates are (1) the K-Pg boundary and (2) near the top of the Neogene. In an effort to resolve this issue, we examined the Paleogene and Neogene strata in the region containing the nation of Turkey, the presumed landing site for the Ark. We found uninterrupted marine strata, such as carbonate, salt and glauconitic sands, well above the K-Pg boundary, extending from Europe to the Middle East, that entirely surround modern-day Turkey. These findings lead us to conclude that the Flood/post-Flood boundary logically must lie above the level of these marine layers. We propose that the most likely boundary is near the top of the Neogene, that is, near the N-Q (Neogene-Quaternary) boundary.
A Little Flood Geology Part I: Importance of Flood Geology
Peter Klevberg
Floods are a key category of geologic processes. Creationists often refer to “Flood geology,” while those who try to emphasize evidence for intelligent design without any reference to the Bible often avoid geology entirely, and those with traditional old earth beliefs sometimes downplay the effects of floods. Floods observed in today’s world make important analogues to megafloods, including the Deluge of Noah’s day. This paper provides some examples of geologic work by floods and related processes in Central Montana as experienced by the author and also provides ideas about how these may apply to the study of earth history. It is important to recognize the limitations of analogues, especially effects of scale with these episodic events. Part I introduces flood geology and provides data and interpretations related to observed floods, starting with basic open channel flow equations and principles of scour analysis. Initial scour estimates for a flood in the study area are presented. Scour analysis is complex and beset by much uncertainty, but it is still very useful since science must be constrained by real world data.
Do Viruses Appear to Cluster Like Created Kinds?
Matthew Cserhati
In the book of Genesis, the creation of plants and animals is described, yet the creation of microbes (including viruses) is not mentioned. Some biologists think viruses are on the border between living and non-living organisms, since they cannot exist independently outside of their host. Some propose that retroviruses and the associated mobile genetic elements found in various animal species originated from within the host genome and fulfilled structural and regulatory functions, and were later exogenized. Previous creationist works have studied the baraminological relationships among insects, fungi, bacteria, and archaea using genomic data, but not that of viruses. This paper aims at performing such a genetic study in order to shed light on the possible baraminic relationships between prokaryotic viruses, otherwise known as bacteriophages. In this study, 159 bacteriophage strains which had 200 or more orthologous proteins in their genome were examined using the Gene Content Method. Eight phage clusters were found with varying sizes and varying host organisms. Some phage clusters infected only one family of bacterial hosts, whereas others were more promiscuous. Phages within some of the smaller clusters had a tight range for genome size, ORF number, GC%, and host morphology. In two larger clusters, phages infecting different bacterial host genera showed no significant genetic difference. Several smaller phage clusters were found, which were already described in the scientific literature, thereby adding candidate bacteriophage strains to these groups. It appears that God may have created several kinds of bacteriophages to keep various bacterial populations under control.
What the Cold-Water Cure Teaches Us About Darwin
Jerry Bergman
The cause of Darwin’s long-term health problems has been the subject of several books and scores of academic publications. Among the many theories include Darwin’s acknowledgment that his goal was to “murder God” by developing a creation theory that negated the most common reason given for belief in Him, namely the beauty and complexity of the physical world. This theory Darwin developed to that end was natural selection, although Darwin himself had doubts about the ability of the mechanism he proposed to account for all of creation. As will be reviewed, a good case has been made by several Darwin scholars for the murder hypothesis causing guilt that accounts for many, if not most, of Darwin’s psychological problems (which, in turn, had a large influence on causing his many physical maladies). The “cold-water episode” recounted in this paper supports this conclusion.
Strategies for More Clearly Delineating, Characterizing, and Inferring the Natural History of Baramins I:
Establishing Baraminic Status, with Application to the Order Galliformes (Class: Aves)
Jon Ahlquist and Jean K. Lightner
Baraminology is the study of created kinds, or baramins. A major goal of this branch of creationary science is identifying which species known today descended from a common kind of organism created at the beginning, as described in the opening chapter of Genesis. While numerous baramins have been tentatively identified, more work needs to be done to better establish and characterize these baramins. Here, using the galliform birds, or landfowl, as our example, we discuss and illustrate strategies that include examination of biblical data, tracking down hybridization data, opportunities for further studies using statistical baraminology, and incorporating rapidly accumulating molecular data. In the process we not only present further evidence substantiating that different families in the avian order Galliformes belong to a single baramin, but highlight future research opportunities that could further our understanding of this baramin. In future papers we will explore the diversity and relationships within this group and attempt to understand key aspects of their natural history from a biblical perspective.