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The Bible states that the heavens and the earth were created in six literal days. God created Adam and Eve and placed them in a garden called Eden. Adam and Eve sinned, bringing sin into God's perfect creation, and sin brought with it the consequence of death. The Bible goes on to state that:
"The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time." (Gen 6.5)
So God elected to start over, wiping all the wicked people off the face of the earth and begin again with the family of one righteous man: Noah (Gen 6:8-10).
What is the best evidence of this creation account? The first question to answer is what kind of evidence should we be looking for? The first criteria is that it should be evidence that is accessible and acknowledged by all - on both sides of the debate. The second criteria has to due with the explanatory power of the evidence, which is explained below.
I was recently at a meeting [1] where Creation Ministries International (CMI) geneticist and speaker Rob Carter gave a talk about creation. Dr. Carter presented a helpful diagram of the type of evidence he likes to present when arguing for creation. It will be helpful here. The diagram looked something like this:
The circles represent competing
theories, in this case secular origin theories vs. the Biblical account
of creation. Let's say the blue circle represents evidence that supports
the Biblical creation account and the red circle represents evidence
that supports secular theories of creation. The colored areas in the
circle then represent 1 of 3 types or domains in terms of support the
evidence gives for one theory or the other:
Domain A - (Blue) - is evidence that only supports the creation account
and thus disproves the secular account.
Domain B - (Purple) - is evidence that supports either the creation or the secular account.
Domain C - (Red) - is evidence that supports only the secular account and thus disproves the creation account.
In terms of explanatory power, the type of evidence we're looking for is in domain "A" - evidence that only supports the creation account, and thus disproves the secular account. Before going onto the evidence let me give you examples of each type. We'll go in reverse order.
Domain C (evolution only) type evidence would be finding thousands of examples of creatures in the process of transition between one species and another as Darwin predicted. There should not be just "one" or just "a single" missing link, but literally thousands of transitional forms showing the intermediate states between one species and another. To date there is not a single, undisputed example of a creature in a transitional state or a "missing link." Not one. Every time evolutionists find what they think is an example, it turns out to be a fully formed, creature existing as designed. (Or a fraud.[2])
For example consider archaeopteryx. Evolutionists claim it as transitional between dinosaurs and birds. Creationists claim it as a fully functional, non-transitional, unadulterated bird. So that's a disputed example. If it were undisputed, it would go in as category C. But since Creationists can also explain it (and they do - as a bird), it must be put into category B. In case you're wondering, no domain C (explained by evolution only) evidence has ever been found. Indeed, evolutionists can't even imagine what the functional transitionary forms would look like[3], a tacit admission that transitionary forms wouldn't work. Or as noted evolutionist Stephen Gould put it, "What good is half a jaw or half a wing?"[4]
Archaeopteryx as depicted at the Answers in Genesis Creation Museum
Domain B (evidence that could support evolution or creation) Here's a better example of domain B type evidence: variation (also known as micro evolution). Evolutionists claim this as a mechanism of evolution. Creationists also claim it as a valid process, but it is not a creative process, it is a removal process - removing information from creatures allowing them to adapt in a particular environment, but making them less fit in another. (Flies without wings on a windy island might be less prone to being blown into the sea, but are overall less fit to survive.) Thus variation cannot be used as support for "evolution only" because Creationists also acknowledge it and explain how it is used.
Domain A - (Evidence used for creation only) It would be tempting to say something like "just look around - the fact that we're here is proof of creation" and rely on the philosophical proofs like the Kalam cosmological argument[5] to prove that the creation had to have a creator. But secularists also have a creation story, they call it "The Big Bang", so from their perspective, the fact of creation must be put in domain B - evidence that both theories explain.
No, we need evidence that only supports the Creation account, and fortunately, we have that in the Global Flood. The Global Flood is evidence for Creation only because in their attempts to "free the science from Moses"[6] as lawyer turned geologist Charles Lyell put it, secularists have rejected a global flood. In 1830 Lyell wrote "Principles of Geology" a 3 volume work in an attempt to discredit the Biblical account of creation. To this day secularists deny there was a catastrophic global flood, even though they recognize the signs of a catastrophic flood, because they see them in the geology of Mars[7] (which has no water), but reject it on earth - where 71% of the surface is covered by water.
Lyell tried, as Answers in Genesis (AIG) director of research Andrew Snelling explains it, "...to explain the whole rock record by only slow gradual processes so as to reduce the flood to a geological non-event."[8] In other words his goal was to deny and discredit a global flood - in order to "free science from Moses." (Of course Moses is mentioned because the account of the flood appears in the writings of Moses in Genesis chapters 6 through 10.) And to this day scientists continue to deny a global flood. Thus evidence of a global flood can only be evidence for creation since secular scientists deny a global flood ever happened. So what evidence do we have of a global flood?
The best evidence we have has been succinctly stated in a phrase often found in the presentations of AIG speakers.[9] As Bryan Osborne of AIG told Creation in the 21st Century host David Rives:
"If there was a global flood as described in the Bible, David, we
would expect to find billions of dead things, buried in rock layers,
laid down by water, all over the earth. And guess what we find?
Billions of dead things, buried in rock layers, laid down by water,
all over the earth."[10]
The first thing we should note is already our first criteria is met. Everyone acknowledges the truth in each of the statements. Together, these are powerful statements with a lot of significance that's supports the creation account that's not immediately apparent, so let's unpack them a little bit:
- Billions of dead things
i.e. fossils. We rarely see fossils forming now. When creatures die they are quickly consumed by scavengers leaving no trace. So the secular model has no expectation of finding the billions of fossils that we find. How then, did we get the evidence of billions of dead things? If there were a global flood that killed "every creature that has the breath of life in it" (Gen 6.17) then you would expect to find billions of dead creatures - mixed together (more on that later ) - since they would be preserved by the rapid burial of a flood. - Buried in Rock Layers
Why are we able to find the "billions of dead things" since fossils don't normally form? Which begs the question how do you get fossils? To make a fossil, the creature has to be buried quickly enough and deeply enough to not be eaten by scavengers. And they must have died in conditions appropriate for the bones to be mineralized. Like what would happen as a result of a flood. The evidence of the fossil record is evidence of rapid burial in mud and debris that mineralize bones, and turned the mud into rock layers. It is not evidence of a slow process that took millions of years. Fossils do not form in the slow accumulation process to build layers described by secular theories. They would disappear long before the layer was complete. The layers had to have been deposited quickly - as they would have been in a global flood. - Laid down by water
The rock layers these creatures were buried in started as sediment - mud, eroded rock, sand, etc. carried by water currents until they settled and hardened into sedimentary rock layers. The movement by the water would have been a dynamic process, with deposits being laid down "...one following the other until thick sequences of layers had accumulated, trigged by a combination of consecutive tidal waves (tsunamis), tides, pulses of gravity-driven underwater mud flows, and other processes."[11] The deposits that were laid down amassed quickly (within the year of the flood duration). They did not amass over hundreds of millions of years as a result of slow, gradual, calm processes as required by secular theories. - All over the earth.
The sedimentary layers are not local phenomenon. They span entire continents and are found around the world. "Many geologists are already aware that there are six thick sequences of fossil-bearing sedimentary strata, known as megasequences, which can be traced right across the North American continent."[12] These megasequences go beyond North American to other continents. "Such global-scale deposition of sediment layers (e.g. chalk and coal beds) is, of course, totally inexplicable to uniformitarian (long-ages) geologists by the application of only today's slow-and-gradual geologic processes that only operate over local to regional scales."[13]
This in itself is powerful evidence - not of the slow and steady results from projecting processes we see today back billions of years. Rather this is evidence of a catastrophic global flood, and in my estimation proof of the creation account. But we don't have to stop there, there's more Domain A type evidence of a global flood:
- Bent rock Layers
Bent rock layers can be found in many mountain areas and sedimentary rocks. The rock can only be bent while soft (as it would be in a flood). The suggestion that heat (like from a volcano) could do it would also change the rock material in the process so does not explain the rocks as we see them - unchanged by heat processes.[14]
- No Erosion between rock layers
If the rock layers truly took millions of years to form, why is there no erosion between the layers? No dust? No evidence of rain? Places like the Grand Canyon are not evidence of a slow, millions-of-years process because there's a lack of erosion and soil between the rock layers. The layers in the canyon are evidence of rapid deposition with gorges cut after deposition by large volumes of moving water. Like what a flood would produce. Evolutionists cannot explain why processes that supposedly took millions of years did not leave evidence of erosion or dust between the layers that certainly would have been exposed to erosion processes.
Rather it appears that the layers were "laid down like bricks"[15] as geologist Tim Clarey says, quickly with no time for erosion or dust to settle between them.
- Rock Layers that span entire
continents
As noted above (under "All over the earth") - sedimentary rock layers span multiple continents. "This was documented five decades ago in 1963 and subsequently verified by numerous observations so that it is now well recognized."[16] This cannot by explained by slow and gradual secular processes that operate only locally.River polished rocks in the Grand Canyon
Creationists claim the Grand canyon was formed quickly in the catastrophe of the flood which deposited the layers which were then cut into gorges when the water drained as the flood receded. Secularist claim the grand canyon was formed slowly over millions of year by the gentle process of the Colorado river winding through the canyon. If that were true you'd expect to find rocks polished by the river for the entire depth of the canyon. That's not the case as grand canyon tour guide Russ Miller explains from the vantage point of a river tour in the canyon:"As the water runs over rock over a long period of time it polishes the rock. Well when you're down on the river, the rock tends to be polished for about 20-30 feet above the river, but after that it's not polished. That's because those layers were cut through very quickly [by the flood] and the river then entered the already formed canyon and has only had the opportunity to polish the rock at the very lowest levels of the canyon."[17] (bracketed words added for clarity)
Thus the upper rocks are not polished because they're too high for the river to reach. So the river did not cut through them to form the gorges.
- T Rexes found with 5 species of
sharks
Evolutionists claim the fossil record is the record of evolutionary development. Thus from the bottom up, in broad strokes you see fish, then amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds - the order of evolutionary development. These are of course separated by millions of years according to evolutionists. So you wouldn't expect to find fish buried with reptiles. Creationists claim the fossil record is a record of deposition from the flood - so you would expect to find many types of creatures mixed together based on where the currents carried them.
And what do we find? Geologist Tim Clarey reports that "T Rexes have been found in Montana with the same rocks that have 5 species of shark."[18] This is expected in the creation model. But finding reptiles (from the Jurassic period 140-210 million years ago (mya)) with marine animals (Devonian period 350-410 mya) can't be explained in the secular model due to the supposed long ages between when the animals supposedly existed.
While these alone are sufficient to establish the creation account as verified we can also add Domain B type evidence which also speak powerfully of a global flood: (Though evolutionists may claim they have an answer for these.)
- Flood stories found in
virtually all people groups[19]
This makes sense - if all people are descended from the 8 people on Noah's ark. The story of survival on the ark would have naturally been a part of the knowledge base of each family group.
- Clams - buried closed
Clams have a muscle that keeps the shells closed. When they die, the muscle relaxes and the shells open - which is how they're normally found when dead. Many fossilized clams have been found closed - meaning they were buried too deep too quickly to dig themselves out as they normally would. What's even more remarkable are the reports that they're even found fossilized and closed clams on top of the highest mountains like Mt. Everest.[20] Creationists don't claim the flood covered Everest. Rather the flood created Everest. And the clams were deposited during that creation process as the mountain was driven to rise above the waters of the flood - bringing sedimentary rocks in the process - rocks that contained the clams.
- Multiple Parallel lines of
Dinosaur Tracks
Scientists from China have found thousands of dinosaur foot prints.[21] These prints don't show them milling around leisurely grazing. No these tracks show all the animals moving with speed in one direction. Scientists suggest the animals were panicked and running. What were they running from? Some suggest a migration or predators, but among the animals running were the top predators tyrannosaurs and coelurosaurs along with the large bulky hadrosaurs. What dinosaurs would migrate with tyrannosaurus? And what predators would all of these creatures (including tyrannosaurus) be running from - through mud soft enough to create footprints that was then quickly covered which preserved the tracks? What makes more sense is the dinosaurs - all of them - large and small - were panicked and running through mud trying to flee the rising waters of Noah's food.
Note these evidences are cumulative. Atheists and evolutionists like to play the game, "give me your best evidence" and want to convince you if they can explain your best evidence with their theory, they need go no further - the rest is likewise covered. No, all the evidence must be individually be explained, not just some of it. And particularly the Domain A type evidence.
Put it all together, and you get a very powerful argument for creation. And really if the facts are properly understood, all you really need is the one statement: As a result of the flood we'd expect to find:
Billions of dead things,
Buried in rock layers,
Laid down by water,
All over the earth.
And that's precisely what we find. What we don't find are any transitionary forms. There is no evolutionary explanation that explains all these facts. The most reasonable explanation is that the creation and flood happened as recorded in the Bible.
Duane Caldwell | April 16, 2019
Follow @rationalupdates
Notes
1.
Midwest Creation
Fellowship hosted CMI geneticist and speaker Dr. Rob Carter
on 2/4/2019
Back
2. Famous
frauds include
Piltdown Man and
Haeckel's embryos
Back
3. Gould on the inability to even imagine
transitionary forms:
"The absence of fossil evidence for intermediary stages
between major transitions in organic design, indeed our
inability, even in our imagination, to construct
functional intermediates in many cases, has been a
persistent and nagging problem for gradualistic accounts of
evolution." [emphasis added]
S.J. Gould, "Is a New and General Theory of evolution
Emerging?" Paleobiology 6(1), 1980, p.127.
ref. from Noah's Flood and the Earth's Age Answers in
Genesis DVD featuring Dr. Andrew Snelling, Lecture, 2009
Back
4. Ref by
Andrew Snelling from Creation In the 21st Century with
David Rives episode aired 3/23/2019
Back
5. The Kalam
Cosmological Argument for the Existence of God:
Major Premise: Everything that begins to exist has a creator
Minor Premise: The Universe began to exist
Conclusion: Therefore the Universe has a creator
(That creator must be God.)
Back
6. Charles
Lyell admitted in private correspondence that he was trying
to get churches to reject the Biblical account of creation.
For more see, "Charles Lyell's hidden agenda - to free
science 'from Moses'",
by David Catchpoole and Tas Walker, CMI, 19 August 2009,
https://creation.com/charles-lyell-free-science-from-moses
Back
7. On
Catastrophic floods on Mars:
Chelsea Gohd, "Catastrophic Floods Rapidly Carved the
Surface of Mars", Discover Magazine, November 19, 2018,
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2018/11/19/catastrophic-floods-rapidly-carved-the-surface-of-mars/
Back
8.
Noah's Flood and the
Earth's Age, Answers in Genesis DVD featuring Dr. Andrew
Snelling, Lecture, 2009
Back
9. Andrew
Snelling, AIG Director of Research, gives the same evidence
in a presentation.
Creation In the 21st Century with David Rives episode
aired 3/29/2019
You will also find the same concept in CMI material - just worded a bit differently:
"All around the world, in rock layer after rock layer, we find billions of dead things that have been buried in water-carried mud and sand."
The Creation Answer Book
(7th edition), D Batten, D
Catchpoole, J sarfati, C Wieland; Powder Springs Ga,
Creation Book Publishers, 2017, essay, "Was the Flood
Global", p. 156
Back
10.
Creation In the 21st Century with David Rives episode
"From Creation To Babel And Beyond" aired 11/25/2017 with
Guest Bryan Osborne from Answers in Genesis
Back
11. "Do
Fossils Show Signs of Rapid Burial" essay by Dr. John D.
Morris in The New Answers Book 3, Ken Ham General
Editor, Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2009, p. 92
Back
12. "Could
the Flood Cataclysm Deposit Uniform Sedimentary Rock Layers"
essay by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling in The New Answers Book 4,
Ken Ham General Editor, Green Forest, AR: Master Books,
2013, p. 174
Back
13. "Doesn't the Order of Fossils in the
Rock Record Favor Long Ages", essay by Dr. Andrew A.
Snelling in The New Answers Book 2, Ken Ham General
Editor, Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2008, p. 346
Back
14. For
more see:
"#2 Bent Rock Layers, 10 Best Evidences From Science That
Confirm a Young Earth", Dr. Andrew Snelling, AIG Magazine,
Oct 1, 2012,
https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rock-layers/2-bent-rock-layers/
Back
15. Creation In the 21st Century with
David Rives episode "The Truth of the Genesis Flood"
aired 4/21/2018 with geologist Tim Clarey from the Institute
for Creation Research
Back
16. "Could
the Flood Cataclysm Deposit Uniform Sedimentary Rock Layers"
essay by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling in The New Answers Book 4,
Ken Ham General Editor, Green Forest, AR: Master Books,
2013, p. 174
Back
17.
Creation In the 21st Century with David Rives episode "A
Pinch of Leaven" aired 3/11/2016 with
Grand Canyon tour guide Russ Miller
Back
18.
Creation In the 21st Century with David Rives episode
"The Truth of the Genesis Flood" aired 4/21/2018 with
geologist Tim Clarey from the Institute for Creation
Research
Back
19. World
wide flood stories are acknowledged by both creationists and
evolutionists. See
World Wide Flood Stories at Answers in Genesis or
Flood Stories around the World at Talk Origins (secular)
Back
20. For
Clams on Mt. Everest see the testimony of Joe Taylor here:
How Can You Drown a Clam?, Creationism.org
Back
21.
"Thousands of Dinosaur footprints found in China", Tas
Walker, CMI, 23 February 2010,
https://creation.com/dinosaur-footprints-found-in-china
Back
Images
All images
used by permission
The Floating Ark, highlight from Creation Museum exhibit,
© Duane Caldwell, 2017
Archaeopteryx at Creation Museum © Duane Caldwell, 2017