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Creation News
 
Acquiring and Distributing Knowledge                       August 9, 2018
Regarding God's Creation
Gen 7:19  The water prevailed more and more upon the earth, so that all the high mountains  everywhere under the heavens  were covered. ... 8:4  In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat. 5 The water decreased steadily until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains became visible.   - NASU       (Bold emphasis added.)


                                                                                      Webinar link   

                 
             Last Meeting Cancellation Was Unavoidable
 
  I found the building dark and locked when I arrived before the last scheduled meeting. A security man said power would be back only the next day, so I got a cancellation notice out as soon as possible. My apologies to any who were already on the way to the meeting. We will simply delay the planned program to the next scheduled meeting, August 9 .

             
             Paleontology and the Flood Continued


In our previous meetings Dr. Kurt Wise's treatments of paleontology and geology of the Flood show systematically that there is a large array of evidence indicating that CPT provides a better framework for the fossil record than does evolution. I will summarize some of this below.
 
First, Abiogenesis, the origin of the first cell, is an inexplicable enigma. A simple explanation of the reasons why it is so radically inexplicable, see our abiogenesis article. Then also in the Cambrian Explosion where multicellular life first appeared and diversified
into nearly all of the phyla (basic body plans) that have ever existed.
 
Both abrupt disappearance and sudden appearance also occur in mass in the fossil record. These are conventionally interpreted as mass extinctions followed by rapid diversification filling the new ecological niches. The most famous mass extinction is the demise of the dinosaurs. The Permian extinction where perhaps 90% of species disappeared from the geologic column was even more severe. There are a number of others
less severe mass extinctions.  After these extinction events it is not far up the column before a variety of different life forms appear. There is not a lot of agreement on proposed mechanisms because it is very hard to explain all of the evidence in the evolutionary framework. Multiple mass extinction events followed by mass diversification simply does not correlate well with slow and gradual geology and evolution. Wikipedia has a reasonable article on extinction events here. In the list of possible causes plate tectonics is probably the most significant.  

 In 2007 Dr. Gene Hunt published a paper in the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences reporting a large scale study, "The relative importance of directional change, random walk, and stasis in
the evolution of fossil lineages." This was a large scale statistical study of over 250 sequences of evolving traits where he statistically examined the prevalence of 1) directional change which is expected to be dominate in evolution,  and 2) stasis which would indicate no evolution over significant time, and 3) random walk which would also indicate no discernible evolution in any consistent direction. He found that only 5% of cases showed directional change and the remaining 95% was split almost equally between random walk and stasis. This is not what was expected from evolution to say the least.

In 2014 Dr. Hunt collaborating  with other scholars on a much larger study using both empirical data and simulation data. When only the empirical data was considered similar results were obtained again with only about 5% directional change. Most of the remaining cases
were split between random walk and stasis.


A dominance of slow gradual evolution would logically demand a dominance of directional change, perhaps 80%, not 5%. It would also demand very little stasis over a long period of time, but the data says stasis is 40-50%. This stasis is really important because there is a lot of it spanning many, many geologic layers. Those that last through much geologic time into the present essentially unchanged are often called living fossils. There are a surprising number of these and Wikipedia has an interesting listing and discussion here. Another group called Lazarus fossils disappear at one geologic layer and reappear at a much higher geologic layer. Wiki article here.

These facts do not fit slow and gradual geology and evolution operating over many, many millions of years. So, it makes sense to consider alternative models.
 
CPT models: Catastrophic Plate Tectonics models have great explanatory potential.A worldwide cataclysmic flood produced
by catastrophic plate tectonics, rapid ocean plate subduction, continents rifting, moving and colliding. CPT would have generated a series of immense and smaller ocean surges which ripped up different parts of the pre-flood environment,and then redeposited that material over what was left from previous surge deposits. The largest surges laid down thousands of feet of sediment over a substantial fraction of a continent. These large surges also had contributions from smaller surges sampling different areas.Such surges would sample a different region of the pre-flood world and deposit that material with entrapped organisms over what was left from the previous surges. The areas ripped up would start with the continental shelves and progress inland controlled by the movement, tilting, rifting and bobbing of the continents pushed around by catastrophic plate subduction and circulating mantle.
 
At the boundary between surge deposits, one would expect a shift of the entrapped organisms from one group of ecologies
to the organisms from a second group of ecologies. At these  boundaries some organisms would disappear and others would appear. There would also be some organisms common to both ecologies in both  surge deposits. A
ll surges would entrap a substantial component of marine life as well because it was all moved by displaced ocean water. These surges sampling different regional ecologies could better explain the apparent mass extinction and proliferation events, living fossils and Lazarus fossils. These are simply organisms common to more than one, or overlapping, regional preflood ecologies.
 
CPT can also better explain why there is such a
small 5% component of    the directional change expected by evolution and why there are large components of random walk and stasis apparent in the fossil record contrary to evolution. Evolution did not the produce the different organisms entrapped in different surges.
The slow and gradual processes observed in the present are not the key to the past, rather the Flood is the key to the past. What we see in the rocks and fossils is not deep time, rather it is deep water and catastrophic conditions. The picture I paint here is only the top level but it seems to have great potential to fill in many details.
 
On August 9th we will see and discuss Dr. Wise's lecture continuing his treatment of the fossil record and the Flood. He will
finish up some comments continued from Part 1. He will then turn our attention to Paleontology and the Flood Part 2 which will tell us what this all implies about the pre-flood environment. It was for sure very different place than the present including much more diversity of life forms and habitats. It will be truly fascinating to see a paleontologist's assessment of the pre-flood world!


August 9, 2018
 Paleontology and the Flood, Part 2
IGHC lectures by  Dr. Kurt Wise
Meeting space kindly provided at:
Houston's First Baptist Church
 7401 Katy Freeway at Post Oak
Room 143,   7 PM

Come and bring your students, friends, skeptics, or pastors! All are welcome to bring their questions and join the discussion.  There will be great fellowship, snacks, and array of creation books and DVDs as well.  Please forward this newsletter to all who might be interested. More at www.GHCAonline.com .  

Blessings to all,
 
 Frank Mayo 

PSTake notice of the upcoming  International Conference on Creationism  (ICC) which will be held in Pittsburgh at end of July. This is the big event for technical minded YECs once every fifth year or so. I'll be there; will you? Everyone should at least order a copy of the Proceedings where all of the papers are published. The  abstracts  are now available on line. Take a look at the exciting research to be presented!

Examples of Important YEC Scientific Evidences 

Some major examples of physical evidence we point to include:
  • Remains of original soft tissue still found in dinosaur bones. Along with that tissue is C-14 that would decay completely away in less than a hundred thousand years, a tiny fraction of the dinosaur fossil's supposed age.
  • For many years geologists have found C-14 in fossil carbon throughout the fossil record.
  • The origin of the information and molecular machinery in the first living self-reproducing cell remains a complete enigma for biologist and biochemists.
  • In the origin of the universe, big bang theory is being recognized as a dead end by increasing numbers of secular scientists. The hypothesized inflation has nothing to start it, drive it forward, or stop it. Without inflation fatal flaws appear with the absence of predicted antimatter, magnetic monopoles, or any means for the whole universe to come to the same precise background temperature. Then the formation of the first stars is as enigmatic as the origin of the first biological cell. Dark matter and dark energy are as enigmatic as the deep space motions they are needed to explain.
At the root of all standard science are many assumptions that may be quite incorrect. At the top is that there is no God. Another is that present process can be used to explain everything in the past. When we look at a canyon we are taught to assume the river at the bottom cut the canyon. But perhaps tectonic events made the canyon and there is a river at the bottom because water always flows downhill. At the root of big bang theory is a pure assumption that has been named the "Cosmological Principle". Perhaps inaccuracies there are responsible for the big bang's multitude of problems.    
 
There is more about the role of assumptions in science found on our website here. There are many more resources on young earth and young universe evidences here.

Online Attendance Option for GHCA Meetings !

On the day of the meeting we will provide a link to attend via webinar.

Join any time after 7:00 pm on the day of the meeting.  The  meeting will start shortly after 7 pm. To attend by online webinar click the following link and follow the instructions below.

Webinar Link:          https://zoom.us/j/132442423   

After clicking the link  provided above a  "Launch Application" window will appear. Next, click on the "Launch Application" button to enter the webinar.  Checking the "Remember my choice" box will mean you don't have to do this on future GHCA webinars. You will be asked to enter your email address and name also. This application will connect you to the GHCA meeting video and audio. 
 
Please remind your friends, family, teachers,and church staff to sign up for their own copy of CREATION NEWS at the button above, or the "Join Our Mailing List" box at  www.ghcaonline.com (free and no-spam) .   
 
  Houston's First Baptist Church is located at 7401 Katy Freeway.   That is just west of the intersection of I-10 and Loop 610 West on the south side inbound feeder between Silber and N Post Oak.  Detailed directions to Houston 's First Baptist Church at The Loop campus can be found  here.
 
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Ongoing Prayer Needs and Praises!

Flooding victims!  Among these is our own bookseller Tom Henderson. Pray for God's provision, enabling, and protection as they make recovery efforts.

Christians around the world are being persecuted and murdered to force them out of their homes or to change their faith. Pray for protection for and support from Christian organizations in the West.

John Morris  is said to be recovering well now. But continue to pray for John and all the leaders, researchers, and writers in the YEC community.  
      
AIG, CMI, CRS, ICR, and LRA (Logos Research Ass.)  the big five YEC creation organizations doing active research, publication and speaking. Pray for inspiration, enabling and financing. 

GHCA and Roger Sigler, Fred Bauhof, Tony Comeaux, Pete Moore, Frank Mayo a nd other GHCA members working to do research, publication, or local teaching ministries in creation science. We all need the Lord's guidance, enabling and funding. 

Jobe and Jenna Dee Martin:    Give thanks for continued good health and continued production of great creation DVDs and speaking tours.

David and Mary Jo Nutting, f ounders of Alpha Omega Institute. Pray for their speaking staff and continued training young speakers.

John and Eileen Pendleton doing creation and gospel ministry in Zacatecas Mexico, Central and South America, and Cuba! Pray for support and funds.

News from Houston, Texas & around the World 
 
Houston:    
Let us know of events in Houston (just reply to this email newsletter).

Houston Science & Culture Network
Houston chapter of the Discovery Institute's division of Science and Culture.
More info at      discovery.org/SCNhouston   or   SCNhouston@discovery.org 


San Antonio:  Tx flag
The San Antonio Bible Based Science Association (SABBSA) usually meets the second Tuesday of each month, 7:00 p.m., at Jim's Restaurant located on the corner of Ramsey and San Pedro, approximately 1 mile outside Loop 410 across from Hovey's Motor Cars.  More info is at  www.sabbsa.org .
 
  
Dallas-Ft Worth:  
The Metroplex Institute of Origin Science (MIOS) meets at the Dr. Pepper Starcenter, 12700 N. Stemmons Fwy, Farmers Branch, TX, usually at 7:30 pm on the first Tuesday of each month. 
 
  
Lubbock Area (Crosbyton):
All year: Consider a visit to the  Mt. Blanco Fossil Museum, directed by Joe Taylor. The Museum is definitely worth the visit if you live near or are traveling through the Panhandle near Lubbock. If you call ahead and time permitting, Joe has been known to give personal tours, especially to groups. For more information, visit  http://www.mtblanco.com/.
  
   
Creation Evidences Museum  in Glen Rose TX (south of Ft. Worth), lectures 1st Sat. each month,  http://www.creationevidence.org/ .
  
Also see the nearby Dinosaur Valley State Park with many dino tracks, although presented with secular view of evolution,  (link here) .