|
By
Peter Wilders What
theory other than evolution, unsupported by empirical proof, would receive
such an emotively hostile almost paranoid reaction from evolutionary
scientists when it is questioned? One
answer, certainly having its roots in others, is the requirement of the
scientific community for everything, including origins, to have a naturalistic
explanation. The supernatural is ipso
facto excluded. Evolution is promoted because it, alone, allows for things
to develop from particles to people without the intervention of a creator. The
theist evolutionist, as a last stand, agrees to reduce God’s participation in
the process to the creation of particles. The cosmologist and particle physicist
smile indulgently at this attempt to save the supernatural. After all, cosmology
with higher dimensional mathematics and computer simulations has answers, albeit
speculative, to account for the existence of particles. Quantum fluctuations of
nothing into elementary matter is just one of them. The
inevitable claim of the theist evolutionist that God programmed the first
particles to evolve into higher and more complex things has been quietly but
firmly rejected by particle physics and chemistry. Physical and chemical
analysis of matter excludes any possibility of it being directional. It is an
axiom of science that all material things obey natural laws. The spin of the
electron, developmental activity from seed to mature organism, everything
designed by the Creator has physical properties that can be detected and to some
extent analyzed. The notion of a powerful undetectable force guiding chemicals
into living matter and dinosaurs into birds, might comfort theistic
evolutionists, but has no place in science. Following
the Galileo affair, science began to
make its way independently from theology. Theology was not only demoted as Queen
of Science, but also gradually removed from the scientific arena. It became
progressively less necessary for a scientific hypothesis to recognize the laws
of nature as God’s means of governing his creation. The doctrine of Providence
was eventually dissociated from science, and secular humanism took control in
the schools. Naturalistic
theories of origins are now required teaching in the educational system.
Children’s minds, primed by television and science fiction to believe that
life evolved on Earth and throughout the universe, are ready to accept them. The
obvious clash between evolution and any biblical teaching they may have received
about creation and original sin is no problem. The schools and universities deal
with it by teaching evolution to be scientific knowledge
or certitude, and the Bible’s account of origins, belief,
largely based upon myth. In philosophy, students learn that, at a certain stage
in man’s evolution, religion was created by man as a protection against the
unpleasantness of facing harsh reality. Not
surprising in this climate, that the lapse rate of baptized Catholics when they
finish their schooling is over ninety percent and climbing. The Church
authorities seem powerless to stop it, and fail to see that by allowing
evolution to be taught they are contributing to the cause. Yet
the means exist, both in terms of science and theology, to reverse the
situation. Not only could the
decline be arrested, but the number of baptisms vastly increased. A
growing number of scientists are rejecting evolution theory. It cannot be
over-emphasized
that this could not happen if there were the slightest real proof that evolution
had ever happened. Scientists have trained minds and the ability to recognize
proof, if it exists. In looking for it, they have discovered that instead of
proof, all they have learned about evolution is based upon speculation. Not only
are there no developing organs in any form of living matter, which there
obviously should be if evolution was taking place, but it is a fact of genetics
that no new genetic information, a necessity for macroevolution, is produced
naturally. As a substitute for proof, they are told that given enough time
anything can happen. Frogs can turn into princes and apes into men. The
dimension of time has been used for too long as a smokescreen to conceal the
reality that there is not the slightest empirical proof to validate the theory. Yet
it continues to be taught exclusively, feeding the philosophy of materialism in
society and eradicating belief in God. Evolutionary
scientists, when they have finished choking, will retort that this statement is
a total distortion of the truth. They will trot out, amongst others, the tired
old arguments about peppered moths, Darwin’s finches and bacterial resistance
to antibiotics, none of which involve a change of main species. They will argue
that variation within species and the creation of sub-species, given time, will
lead to macroevolution. This is pure extrapolation based on nothing more than
speculation. They will still claim that transitional fossils exist, despite the
repeated statements to the contrary by their own establishment palaeontologists.
Scientifically, the case for evolution is bankrupt, but is kept alive by secular
humanists because it disposes of God the Creator. In
theology, a straightforward reading of the Lateran IV (1215) de
fide teaching on creation, positively excludes evolution. Read in
conjunction with Canon 5 of Vatican 1 (1869-70), it is difficult to see how God
can be relegated to creating just particles, or seeding primeval matter. The
infallible dogma is explicit, if anyone
does not confess that the world and all things which are contained in it, both
spiritual and material, as regards their
whole substance, have been produced
by God from nothing - let him be anathema. It is clearly stated
that each thing (such as each Genesis
kind) was created from nothing (instantly) in its whole substance, not one
thing gradually transforming into another over millions of years. It is a
mystery, how this Magisterial teaching could have been interpreted to
accommodate evolution. Rather
than leaning backwards to accommodate yet another modification of evolutionary
theory, why not spend time looking at the facts refuting the theory? This means,
of course, ignoring the hard core of secular humanists who rightly say there is
no alternative to evolution other than the intolerable Creator theory. Evolutionary science Evolution
has never been seen to happen in the several thousand years of reported human
history. Evolutionists say it happens so slowly that it cannot be observed. They
say it cannot be detected by modern instrumentation but is still happening. The
opponents of evolution say if it cannot be seen, on what grounds can it be said
to be still happening? This question irritates evolutionists, because they claim
clear visual evidence of development of change of species can be seen from
fossils in sedimentary rock strata. The
fact that some fossils in the higher strata are different from those in the
lower strata is interpreted as evidence that evolution has taken place. Even, as
most knowledgeable evolutionist admit, there are no unambiguous transitional
fossils, it is claimed that there are sufficient characteristics in the fossils
to demonstrate a species change. They say that as strata formed one on top of
the other over millions of years, the fossilised organisms buried in them
provide a record of species evolution. The column of stratified rock in the
Earth’s crust is used as a scale of geological time from which the date of
burial of the fossil is determined. If, due to tectonic activity, doubt exists
as to whether the strata are in the same position as when they were formed,
radiometric dating methods are used to provide an absolute date of burial. Science The
case for evolution of the species rests, therefore, upon: 1.
the sedimentary strata
having been accurately dated (strata are used to date the fossils) 2.
the assumed generic
relations between fossils of different species being correct 3.
confirmation by
radiometric dating of fossils Sedimentary strata Until
recently, the principles governing the formation of strata had not been tested
in the laboratory. The basic principles of superposition,
continuity, and original
horizontality were formulated by Nicholas Stenon in the seventeenth century.
They were subsequently used in the construction of
the geological time scale. The key principle, that of superposition,
because of its apparent simplicity, was never questioned. It stated that any
strata was younger than the one underneath it and older the one on top. How
could anything so obvious be doubted ? When the illustrious pioneers of
geology such as James Hutton and Charles Lyell examined stratified geological
formations, hundreds of meters high, there was no reason not to interpret the
successive strata in terms of the principle of superposition. It seemed logical
that strata, anywhere in the formation, should follow the principle of the lower
being older than the higher. When
the afore-mentioned basic principles were eventually put to the test in the
1990’s, the experimental results disagreed entirely with Nicholas Stenon,
Hutton and Lyell’s interpretation. The experiments showed that in the presence
of a water current, none of the principles of stratigraphy, including
superposition, applied. It
should be explained that 95% or more sedimentary rocks were originally formed
under water. This fact is attested by the ubiquity of marine fossils in such
rocks. Stenon and his successors were, of course, quite aware of the mainly
marine, or ocean environment, in which sediments were deposited, yet had
overlooked the effect of water currents. Stenon’s
principle of superposition required completely current-free water. For it to
apply, the principal particles of sediments concerned, such as sandstone,
limestone and clay, would have had
to fall vertically, but gently (so as
not to create a current), into the water from an unknown source above. In
reality, however, sediments are eroded, transported and deposited by means of a
current. Stratification
and lamination experiments, as published by the Geological Society (1993) and
the Academy of Sciences (1986, 1988) in France, demonstrate how the action of
water currents on sediments causes the constituent particles to segregate
according to size. As a result, each stratum tends to be composed of the same
type of sediment. In transgression conditions, whereby the seawater rises,
sediments are eroded and transported by fast flowing currents.
As the velocity of current slows the large particles drop out, next, the
less large ones and finally, when the water level reaches its maximum, and the
current speed is reduced to nil,
the fine particles deposit. The resultant bed of fine sediment contains
particles which were carried by the current until the velocity was sufficiently
slow for them to deposit. The larger sized particles in the bed below could have
been eroded at the same time as the finer particles in the upper bed. Both beds,
apparently successively deposited, have sediments of the same date of erosion.
It follows that the principle of superposition is invalidated because the lower
bed cannot be said to be older than the upper bed. The term principle
in the science of stratigraphy implies
universal application in all normal conditions. This is clearly not the case for
successive superposition of strata which does not take place in moving water. It
cannot be said, therefore, that the
sedimentary strata, and therefore the fossils in them, have
been accurately dated. Generic relationships between fossils The
second condition necessary to validate evolutionary theory is that the
assumption of generic relationships between fossils of different species is
correct. Phylogenetic trees are constructed on the assumption that organisms in
lower strata are parental to those higher up. The
assumption of evolutionary links between fossils in lower and higher strata
depends upon the validity of the principle of superposition of strata. This
principle having been used to date
both the strata and the fossils they contain, the fossils in lower strata were
considered to be older than the fossils in higher strata. As explained above
this principle has been experimentally refuted, and assumptions
based upon it of generic relationships between fossils, therefore, have no
value. Radiometric dating Radiometric
dating, long held as the means of confirming ages calculated by stratigraphy, is
now being seriously questioned. It has been discovered that historically dated
eruptions have been given ages of hundreds of thousands of years by radiometric
dating. For example the 1986 eruption of Mt. St. Helens, according to
radioisotope dating, took place between 350,000 and 2,800,000 years ago. There
are many other similar discordant radiometric dates. As with strata dating,
radiometric dating is based upon a number of unproved assumptions. Take the
potassium-argon method as an example. Radioactive potassium decays to the
non-radioactive daughter product argon gas
The freshly erupted lava is assumed to contain
radioactive potassium only. All the residual argon is thought to have
been evacuated as the liquid lava cooled and transformed into crystal. The
extraordinarily great ages given for the very young lava from Mt St. Helens is
due to the simple fact that argon gas continued to exist in the lava after the
lava had hardened. The false assumption led to lava less than twenty years old
being given an age of millions of years. The
final requirement of evolution theory, the
reliability of radiometric dating, is also not fulfilled. Conclusion The
removal of invalid dating principles in geology has highlighted the two major
misconceptions of the past century. First, fossils in strata sequences, do not
necessarily succeed each other in time. What appeared to be a fossil series
linking man with ape was based upon
false assumptions. As a result, the
millions of years believed to separate the two species have no scientific
support. Second, the vast number of years calculated by stratigraphy led to
Genesis 1-11 being dismissed as having no historical basis. In the new
situation, there is no further need to insert long geological ages between Adam
and Abraham causing acute embarrassment to exegetes like Dominican Père
Marie-Joseph Lagrange, founder of the Jerusalem Biblical School (Ecole Biblique
de Jérusalem). At the time of Fr. Lagrange, palaeontologists supported by
geologists were proposing that man appeared hundreds of thousands of years ago,
and rejected Noah’s Flood as
myth. This figure has subsequently been increased to nearly three million, and
is still rising. Fortunately, the refuted principles of geology have caused the
inflating bubble to burst. Biblical history, which was robbed of its dignity by
speculative science, has had it
restored by experimental science. Materialism cannot exist in a philosophical vacuum. It requires a philosophy to account for the existence of material things by natural means. Evolutionary philosophy, disguised as a science, fits the bill. It postulates a scientific explanation for the existence of all matter and energy. Its scientific claims have been shown to be false, and the materialism upon which modern society is undergirded, is without support. The lie of evolution propagated in the schools must be unmasked. Materialism, with evolution theory as its life-blood, is still killing the faith for billions. Its downfall is certain. Pray for enlightened missionaries to spread the good news. Never have such enormous returns been within the reach of the Church.
All Rights Reserved Updated: November 08, 2000 Built with Web Development Kit
|
