Elizabeth Mitchell #fundie answersingenesis.org
The absence of a unicorn in the modern world should not cause us to doubt its past existence. (Think of the dodo bird. It does not exist today, but we do not doubt that it existed in the past.).
The absence of a unicorn in the modern world should not cause us to doubt its past existence. (Think of the dodo bird. It does not exist today, but we do not doubt that it existed in the past.).
Answers in Genesis is excited to announce the launch of its online technical journal called Answers Research Journal (ARJ). Hosted at www.answersresearchjournal.org (but linked to AiG’s website), this will be a professional peer-reviewed technical journal for the publication of interdisciplinary scientific and other relevant research from the perspective of the recent Creation and the global Flood within a biblical framework.
Addressing the need to disseminate the vast fields of research conducted by creationist experts in theology, history, archaeology, anthropology, biology, geology, astronomy, and other disciplines of science, Answers Research Journal will provide scientists and students the results of cutting-edge research that demonstrates the validity of the young-earth model, the global Flood, the non-evolutionary origin of “created kinds,” and other evidences that are consistent with the biblical account of origins. The newly expanded research effort at Answers in Genesis, with the establishment of its Research Department, will facilitate this further venue for publication and dissemination of the results of creationist research.
[Question: Did God use the same design for humans as for monkeys?]
Have you ever gone shopping and seen a whole bunch of really neat skateboards? You might know what type they are because of how they are painted or designed. They are similar because the same company made them. Well, when you look at God’s creation, you find many similarities because the same Maker created them.
God created all living things, and it makes sense that a lot of these share many similar characteristics or design. The same God, the same Designer, created both monkeys and humans and thus there are some similarities. But the differences are also important. Man is not an animal! Our Bible verse here says that man was made in God’s image—a monkey wasn’t.
Man is very different from a monkey. Man can think, he can appreciate and write music, and he can build airplanes and bridges. Monkeys can’t do this. Humans can have a relationship with their God, and we can spend eternity with Him if we believe His Word concerning salvation. We can ask forgiveness for our sins and believe in Jesus Christ, who took the punishment for our sins. Monkeys and animals cannot do that!
Q-If God created the world 6,000 years ago or so, why are stars millions of light years away?
A-Brendon, what a question! Yes, we know from the dates God gives us in the Bible that He did create the whole universe about 6,000 years ago. When we hear the term light-year, we need to realize it is not a measure of time but a measure of distance, telling us how far away something is. Distant stars and galaxies might be millions of light-years away, but that doesn’t mean that it took millions of years for the light to get here, it just means it is really far away!
The Bible teaches the contrary: the earth is special. Earth is unique among all the worlds that the Lord created. The description of creation as recorded in Genesis 1 makes this abundantly clear. Five of the six days of creation are spent creating and forming the earth and the life on it. Only one day is spent creating the other objects in the universe. Undoubtedly, the earth is different.
In fact, the earth is three days older than any of the other planets and stars in the universe.8 The earth was made on the first day of creation; God made it in the beginning (Genesis 1:1). The lights in the sky were made on the fourth day of creation. These lights are the sun, moon, and stars (both the “true” stars and the “wandering stars”—planets). Perhaps the Lord created the earth first to show its special significance in His divine plan.
Clearly, other planets do exist. There are several other planets in our own solar system besides earth, and astronomers have detected quite a number of planets orbiting other stars, and yet, our ability to detect extra-solar planets is still quite limited. It therefore seems very likely that there are countless billions of planets which have yet to be detected, but these planets are not merely accidents of nature. God created all these worlds for His pleasure (Revelation 4:11) and to declare His creative wisdom and glory to us. Since the other planets serve a different purpose than the earth, we expect that the planets will be different in nature than the earth. Science has certainly confirmed this biblical expectation
Skeptics often claim, “The Bible is not a science textbook.” This, of course, is true—because science textbooks change every year, whereas the Bible is the unchanging Word of God — the God who cannot lie. Nevertheless, the Bible can be relied upon when it touches on every scientific issue, including ecology. It is the Bible that gives us the big picture. Within this big picture, we can build scientific models that help us explain how past events may have come about. Such models should be held to lightly, but the Scripture to which they refer is inerrant. That is to say future research may cast doubt on an actual model, without casting doubt on Scripture.
With this in mind, the question needs to be asked, “Is there a Bible-based model that we can use to help explain how animals might have migrated from where the Ark landed to where they live today?” The answer is yes.
Most of the examples of circular reasoning used by evolutionists are of the fallacious begging-the-question variety—they are arbitrary. Consider the evolutionist who argues:
“The Bible cannot be correct because it says that stars were created in a single day; but we now know that it takes millions of years for stars to form.”
By assuming that stars form over millions of years, the critic has taken for granted that they were not supernaturally created. He has tacitly assumed the Bible is wrong in his attempt to argue that the Bible is wrong; he has begged the question.
We often hear the word prehistoric used to describe dinosaurs or the woolly mammoths and other Ice Age creatures. It means that they existed before written history.
Could that be? What does the Bible tell us? God’s Word gives us a written record of earth history from the very beginning (Genesis 1:1). It describes how God created all things, including every kind of dinosaur and other creature, during the first six days of history, only 6,000 years ago.
What about cavemen? Surely they were prehistoric. Not really! Today we find evidence that some people lived in caves. But these were descendants of Noah. They lived in caves to protect themselves and their families from the weather and animals. They were very smart, like Noah!
The Bible says the first two people were Adam and Eve. They were created just 6,000 years ago with dinosaurs and all other land animals. All people are part of Adam's family.
Nothing is prehistoric!
[Note that this article was written for children.]
Scientists recently uncovered the fossilized footprints of an animal in southeastern Poland. It had feet and appeared to walk like a four legged creature. Why is this important?
It's important because some scientists have dated the fossilized footprints ten million years earlier than Tiktaalik, a fish-like creature that they believed was the “missing link” between water-dwelling creatures and land-dwelling creatures. Finding “older” fossil footprints, indicating that animals were already walking on land, makes these scientists doubt that Tiktaalik was first to begin walking on land.
Evolutionary scientists have made up an interesting story about how they believe fish eventually became land animals. They tell us that fish, living in water with low oxygen, first developed lungs. How could this happen? How could fish grow lungs so that they could breathe air? Then, supposedly, these fish changed their fins into front legs, to drag themselves out onto land.
The evolution story reads like a science fiction novel, and it is hard to believe that some scientists can present these theories and expect people to unquestionably believe them. When people turn away from God and His account of creation, they become “willingly ignorant.” The strangest ideas can be accepted as fact—even the idea that fish decided to grow all the body parts they needed to survive on land!
When it comes down to it, either Atlantis was a real place or it wasn’t. If it wasn’t, then the discussion is more-or-less finished. And considering that this story was passed down several times before Plato recorded it, we can assume that it has some inaccuracies.
Regardless, let’s assume for a moment that it was a real place and use a biblical framework to place it. Big-picture biblical explanations could be:
1. Atlantis was destroyed by the Flood, and we should not expect to find remnants of it.
2. Atlantis was destroyed after the Flood, and its remnants may still exist.
[Emphasis added]
Australian Lungfish
Created on Day 5
November 17, 2009
Design
The fossils of a creature almost identical to the Australian lungfish were found in Northern Ireland and were dated at 100 million years. With the Australian lungfish being limited to the waters of Queensland, Australia, how did remains of this creature get in Northern Ireland? Simple. Before the global Flood, the Australian lungfish may not have been limited to its present region. Also, the effects of the Flood could have moved this creature to the area of present-day Northern Ireland and buried it for people to find later. These fossil finds are an amazing testimony to God’s hand in creating the lungfish kind and to His hand in covering the entire earth in a global Flood.
1. If the Bible were not true, logic would not be meaningful. 2. Logic is meaningful. 3. Therefore, the Bible is true.
"Ultimately, if the Big Bang were good science, we would still have to reject it in favor of scripture because scripture is never wrong."
-Unnamed "scientist" speaking to students as representative (presumably) of AiG
Transcription:
“The opposable thumb is an amazing product of millions of years of evolu…”—CLICK! Change the channel!
Thank you God… for the gift of the opposable thumb!
Some people have wrongly assumed that Matthew and Luke (the author of Acts) are contradictory in their account of Judas’ death. Since the Bible is inerrant Judas cannot have died by hanging and died by falling and bursting open. Rather they are two different viewpoints of the same event. For example, if I saw a car hit a pedestrian, I might simply say that the pedestrian died because they were hit by the car. The coroner who came on the scene later but did not actually see the accident might give a graphic description of the injuries to the pedestrian. Both the coroner and I are describing the same event just different aspects of it.
Matthew tells us that Judas died by hanging (death is inferred from the passage). Luke, being a doctor, gives us a graphic description of what occurred following the hanging. The reason for ordering the events as such is twofold. First, if someone has fallen and their internal organs spilled out they would die and so could not subsequently die from hanging. Secondly, even when people suffer bad falls they do not usually burst open and have their internal organs spill out. The skin is very tough and even when cut in the abdominal area their internals do not usually spill out. Thus, it is unlikely that Judas could die in this manner merely from falling.
Gruesome as it is, Judas’ dead body hung in the hot sun of Jerusalem, and the bacteria inside his body would have been actively breaking down tissues and cells. A byproduct of bacterial metabolism is often gas. The pressure created by the gas forces fluid out of the cells and tissues and into the body cavities. The body becomes bloated as a result. In addition, tissue decomposition occurs compromising the integrity of the skin. Judas’ body was similar to an overinflated balloon, and as he hit the ground (due to the branch he hung on or the rope itself breaking) the skin easily broke and he burst open with his internal organs spilling out.
There is no contradiction surrounding Judas’ death; rather, merely two descriptions given by two different authors of the same event.
You see, if evolution is true, science has an even bigger problem than Cain’s wife to explain—namely, how could man ever evolve by mutations (mistakes) in the first place, since that process would have made everyone’s children deformed? The mere fact that people can produce offspring that are not largely deformed is a testimony to creation, not evolution.
The issue is this: did God have any involvement or not? Did God inspire the authors of the Scriptures? When someone claims that the Bible was written by men and not God, this is an absolute statement that reveals something extraordinary.
It reveals that the person saying this is claiming to be transcendent! When one claims that God was not inspiring the human authors of the Bible, that person is claiming to be omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent!
Although some evolutionists claim that the Intelligent Design Movement (IDM) is a sort of Trojan horse for creationism to get into schools, those in the IDM are not necessarily even Christian, let alone creationists.
Creationism begins with the belief that the Bible is God’s infallible Word to us. The Bible provides the framework by which we understand the world. Because the Bible teaches that there is a Creator and that the earth is young, creationists base all our research on this foundation.
Conversely, the IDM holds that certain aspects of living things and the universe can best be explained by being the work of an intelligent designer. The identity of this creator and whether or not the Bible is true are non-factors. While creationists may agree with some aspects of intelligent design theory, those who do conflate IDM with creationism likely do not understand either.
[About the sixth day of creation]
This means that each kind of dinosuar was created on the same day that god made the first two people, Adam and Eve! Do you realize what that means?
It means dinosuars and people lived toghether!
[The ninth commandment says we should never bear false witness against our neighbor (or anyone). But if the Nazis are looking for Jews, and you know where they are, it would not be wrong to lie, in order to protect them, nor would this be bearing false witness “against” someone]
If we love God, we should obey Him (John 14:15). To love God first means to obey Him first—before looking at our neighbor. So, is the greater good trusting God when He says not to lie or trusting in our fallible, sinful minds about the uncertain future?
Consider this carefully. In the situation of a Nazi beating on the door, we have assumed a lie would save a life, but really we don’t know. So, one would be opting to lie and disobey God without the certainty of saving a life—keeping in mind that all are ultimately condemned to die physically. Besides, whether one lied or not may not have stopped the Nazi solders from searching the house anyway.
As Christians, we need to keep in mind that Jesus Christ reigns. All authority has been given to Him (Matthew 28:18), and He sits on the throne of God at the right hand of the Father (Acts 2:33; Hebrews 8:1). Nothing can happen without His say. Even Satan could not touch Peter without Christ’s approval (Luke 22:31). Regardless, if one were to lie or not, Jesus Christ is in control of timing every person’s life and able to discern our motives. It is not for us to worry over what might become, but rather to place our faith and obedience in Christ and to let Him do the reigning. For we do not know the future, whereas God has been telling the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10).
First, the Bible itself claims to be the inspired Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16). For some reason, many people seem to dismiss this as if such internal evidence doesn’t count. But this is a double standard that they would not apply to most other books. Consider my book Taking Back Astronomy. This book claims to have been written by me, and most people would accept that it really is written by me simply because it says so. So, why do some people arbitrarily reject the Bible’s internal claim? This is the fallacy of special pleading and may indicate an anti-God bias that is part of our fallen nature.
There are many reasons we believe the Bible and all that it contains:
* The Bible claims to be the Word of God. 2 Timothy 3:16 states that every word of Scripture is inspired by God. 2 Peter 1:21 says that men of God wrote as they were “driven along” by the Holy Spirit.
* The Bible shows itself to be the Word of God. Every time there is a scientific or historical fact mentioned in the Bible, it has been shown to be true (the earth is round, currents in the sea, the prevailing winds, etc.). Even when a civilization mentioned has not been heard of before, archaeology eventually finds evidence that it really did exist.
* Jesus Christ quoted from the Bible and believed it to be true. Jesus used the Bible when He was being tempted by Satan. He also quoted the Bible numerous times and stated that He was fulfilling Scripture.
* Many Bible prophecies have already been fulfilled. There are thousands of prophecies in the Bible that have come true. Jesus Himself fulfilled over 600 through His life, death, and resurrection. Because so many prophecies in the Bible have already come true, we can trust that the rest will be fulfilled in the future.
* If the Bible is not true, then we have no basis for claiming we have been saved from our sins. It is only because of the Bible that we can say our sins have been forgiven. If we trust the Bible for our salvation, we must trust everything it says. Otherwise, we are picking and choosing only what we want to believe.
Transcript:
Which one are you going to trust?
Holy Bible? “It is written” Matt. 4:4
Or Evolution BELIEF? “It is written and rewritten and rewritten and Rewritten and…”
(On the question "How we know that only the Bible is the written and actual word of God, when other religion's book claim the same?")
The argument is not “The Bible is the Word of God because it says it is.” Rather, the argument is “The Bible is the Word of God because it says it is and any alternative leads to absurdity.”
If the Bible were not the Word of God, we would have no foundation for all the things we take for granted, such as laws of logic, uniformity of nature, and morality. The law of non-contradiction, for example, is based on the self-consistent nature of the biblical God (2 Timothy 2:13). The Bible itself tells us that all knowledge depends upon God (Proverbs 1:7; Colossians 2:3). Most other religious books do not make the claim that all knowledge is deposited in their god; and if they did, they would not be able to make good on the claim. Therefore, the argument will only work for the Bible.
[Why won't God heal amputees, you may ask? Well AiG has an answer that is so satisfying that it'll blow your fucking mind!]
God has done greater works than restoring limbs. If He created the entire universe out of nothing, spoke all plants and animals into existence, sculpted and breathed life into the first two humans, and raised His Son from death, it is clear that He has the power to heal amputees if and when it is His will.
[Ta da!]
At the university level, Jason discovered that an important element in scientific study and the drawing of conclusions was this: that scientists usually are not aware of their presuppositions (i.e. they interpret scientific evidence in light of their existing worldview). It thus made it easier for him to see that intelligent scientists, many who were his professors, can disagree on what the evidence really means, for they have different starting points. So as he read creation materials, he could see that when the evidence was properly interpreted, it always supported the biblical account of creation (even with the thorny question of starlight and time).
No apparent, perceived, or claimed interpretation of evidence in any field, including history and chronology, can be valid if it contradicts the Scriptural record.
Of course, as Christians, we have no reason to hide from evolutionary beliefs and presentations. In fact, we should know and understand evolution better than non-Christians.
A Feathered Dinosaur?
A common idea among those who believe molecules-to-man evolution is that dinosaurs have turned into birds over millions of years. But, from the Bible (Genesis 1), we know that God created all things about 6,000 years ago—birds on Day 5 of the first week, dinosaurs (land animals) on Day 6.
So what about the “feathered dinosaurs”? Do they prove that dinosaurs changed into birds? For example, some scientists have recently found bumps on the forearm of a velociraptor. They suggest that the bumps were where feathers attached to the bone.
Although no actual feathers were found with the velociraptor fossil (or any other dinosaur fossil, for that matter), it may be that some dinosaurs had feathers. But this group of animals would merely be a kind of feathered reptile—descendants of the animals that God created in the beginning. Feathers on reptiles have nothing to do with proving that one kind of animal changed into another kind. They just show the creativity and diversity of our wonderful Creator God!
(Someone needs to teach them how to do math)
The floodwaters (above) of the Canyon Lake Spillway along the Guadalupe River in Texas were moving at 107,000 ft3/sec (normal 175 ft3/sec). After the waters receded, carved bedrock was the result of the rushing water (below).
(As a note the speed of sound is 1125 feet per second)
"However, when the interpretation of scientific data contradicts the true history of the world as revealed in the Bible, then it’s the interpretation of the data that is at fault."
The construction of any biblical model of recolonization must include these principles. The model suggested on the following pages is constructed in good faith, to explain the observed facts through the “eyeglasses” of the Bible. The Bible is inspired, but our scientific models are not. If we subsequently find the model to be untenable, this would not shake our commitment to the absolute authority of Scripture.
The model uses the multiplication of dogs as an example of how animals could have quickly repopulated the earth. Two dogs came off Noah’s Ark and began breeding more dogs. Within a relatively short time period, there would be an incredible number of dogs of all sorts of different shapes and sizes.
These dogs then began to spread out from the Ararat region to all parts of the globe.
As these dogs spread around the world, variations within the dog kind led to many of the varieties we find today. But it is important to note that they are still dogs. This multiplication of variations within a kind is the same with the many other kinds of animals.
Each land animal kind was represented on Noah’s Ark by two or seven individuals. After the Flood, as each kind reproduced and spread out over the earth, different species within a kind resulted from natural selection (and other genetic factors). This is NOT EVOLUTION in the molecules-to-man sense, because no new information is added into the genes.
[On the recent ice discovery on Mars]
In fact, this particular icy discovery should cause a cold feeling for evolutionists, who would much prefer to find liquid water but instead have found only this scant evidence of subsurface ice. And of course, the very idea that liquid or frozen water on Mars is a “big thing” comes straight from the evolutionary faith that where there’s water, life will follow. In fact, that’s the entire premise of today’s Martian landers.
[snip]
Since the focus of God’s plan occurs on planet Earth—and since nearly every chapter of the Bible takes place somewhere on planet Earth4—when it comes to astronomy, creationists have a basic framework in which to research and explore but few revealed details. This doesn’t mean we can rewrite what God’s Word clearly teaches—that the entire universe dates back only 6,000 or so years, with most of the universe having been created on Day 4 of Creation Week. But looking to the heavens gives us a great opportunity to research, theorize, and sit in awe of God’s majesty and creation—and, as is the case more and more today, exercise our critical thinking skills.
If Nasa has indeed found (more) ice on Mars, it would neither be a major surprise nor a matter of worry for young-earth creationists. After all, we’ve known for a long time that there is plenty of ice on Mars (in the polar ice caps) and that a permafrost layer probably extends considerably beyond the ice caps.
In fact, this particular icy discovery should cause a cold feeling for evolutionists, who would much prefer to find liquid water but instead have found only this scant evidence of subsurface ice. And of course, the very idea that liquid or frozen water on Mars is a “big thing” comes straight from the evolutionary faith that where there’s water, life will follow. In fact, that’s the entire premise of today’s Martian landers.
[Crazy assertion in 3..2...1...]
The ice on Mars may possibly be, in part, a frozen remnant of a global Mars flood, which has been theorized by some creationists to have occurred near the same time as Noah’s flood—perhaps even as an extension of it. Even today, the Martian ice caps contain enough water to cover the entire Martian surface if the ice were to melt.
(This gem of Funditude comes to us from the "good" people who brought us the "Creation Museum" in KY, this is their July-September issue)
MONSTER RECORD
A partial fossil of what is presumed to be the largest known marine reptile has been found on a Norwegian island in the Arctic. Dubbed "the Monster," it appears to have been 50 feet long, larger than any other known pliosaur, including the well-known kronosaurs.
One expert suggested that The Monster would be able to "pick up a small car in its jaws and bite it in half."
Creationists suggest that biblical references to "sea monsters" such as Leviathan, could have been pliosaurs or plesiosaurs. Other old accounts of sea monsters, found across the globe, could be evidence that monsterous sea reptiles did not die out millions of years before humans appeared but were observed by people in relatively recent times.
Now here is the problem. If there are intelligent beings on other planets, then they would have been affected by the fall of Adam because the whole creation was affected. So these beings would have to die because death was the penalty for sin. One day their planet will be destroyed by fire during God’s final judgment, but they cannot have salvation because that blessing is given only to humans.
(just picking few pearls from a great article)
This is the fallacy of bifurcation (false dilemma). Some secular astronomers argue that there are only two options: steady state and big bang; steady state cannot justify the cosmic microwave background, so they conclude the big bang must be true. But, of course, there is a third alternative: the Bible is true.
...
"If supernatural explanations are allowed, which would we use?"
How about the one written by the God who actually created the universe, knows everything, never makes mistakes, and never lies?
...
Actually, every experiment we perform demonstrates the truth of the Christian worldview, and the falsehood of others, such as Buddhism and Hinduism.
It is very important to understand that creation is not actually “supported” by science; rather science is supported by creation.
[AIG makes a point, once again. Plus I love the name.]
For the author to claim that truth exists in order to establish his argument as being valid, he must have an objective source of authority to determine what is true. The naturalistic worldview of evolution cannot afford such an objective source. The Bible can.
