Greater Houston Creation Association
Creation News
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Acquiring and Distributing Knowledge Regarding God's Creation
Webinar Meeting: March 11, 7 pm
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The Coconino Sandstone - A Flood Deposit
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This month the GHCA will start a series of topics in geology that are important from the creationist’s perspective. First, some background on where we have been, where we are going and background for the presentation title above.
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Most of last year the GHCA examined the archaeological and ancient linguistic work of Dr. Douglas Petrovich. Over the last decade or so Petrovich has produced a vast array of systematic archaeological evidence of the Hebrew sojourn in Egypt that is very much as the Biblical narrative presents. In addition there is much evidence that it was the Hebrew leaders of this period that produce the world’s first alphabetic language and that this language was the first written Hebrew. This work is extremely important because it can replace the decades old teaching that no such evidence existed. That old teaching led many to the conclusion that the Biblical narratives of Joseph, Jacob, Moses, and the plagues are largely mythological. That conclusion is still commonly taught but the tide is beginning to turn.
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Last month we reviewed the work of our Intelligent Design friends. For years they have carefully and diligently pursued the evidences in the living and fossilized world and found many reasons that the evolutionary idea of random purposeless evolution acting over vast eras of time is adequate to explain the world around us. As a result, there are an increasing number of high level scientists who are outspoken atheists admit that a high level of fine tuning in the physical and biological world is essential for the existence of life. Where there is a complex fine tuned system, i.e. a design, there must be a consciousness, a person and intelligent mind involved. That means that random, purposeless evolution is not possible. That leads to the question that if an intelligent mind is required for the development of life, then how much need is there for “deep time”, i.e. billions of years of random purposeless events that cannot do the job anyway. The scientific community does not seem ready to face that deep time question yet.
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Geologist over the last century presumed that almost everything geology must be explained in terms of the processes we observe around us and those operating at the speed we see them operating today. That approach is often called “uniformitarianism” and has ruled the main stream of academia for over a century. However, since the beginning of the modern creationist movement in the 1960s, many have been diligent to avoid those standard preconceptions, striving to diligently examine the actual physical evidence. That diligence has steadily paid off with large dividends of facts that are often contradictory of uniformitarianism and very often quite consistent with catastrophic events.
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For example, studies of the fossilized tree rings showed that trees on different layers of the famous Specimen Ridge formation in Yellowstone National Park grew at the same time, not in successive regrowth of forests which had been professed by experts for a century. Now it is generally agreed that catastrophic processes were involved. Perhaps processes like those at work during the Mount Saint Helens eruptions which were actually seen taking place in the 1980s.
While much of academia remains resistant to considering anything beyond uniformitarian, some began to take the role of catastrophe more seriously. While not a creationist, the British geology professor Derek Ager published a book titled, “The New Catastrophism, The importance of the rare events in geological history.” The book produced such a stir among his colleagues that Ager had to print a disclaimer in the second edition stating that he was not a creationist or a flood geologist.
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On March 11 at 7 pm the GHCA will host a presentation of the culmination of a decade of diligent work by a team of geology and geochemistry professionals. The subject of their research is the famous Coconino Sandstone which extends through a large fraction of the western USA. The Coconino is famous for being presented by the mainstream academia as windblown sand dune deposits right where flood creationist expect flood deposits.
Our virtual presenter will be the research team’s geochemist, Mr. Raymond Strom, President of Calgary Rock and Materials Services. His title is: The Coconino Sandstone - A Flood Deposit.
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Abstract: The Coconino Sandstone has historically been considered to be a wind deposit (aeolian) in a vast erg or sand sea. This deposit, which is the third formation down from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, had been presumed to be aeolian based on cursory data. This conclusion had been based on bed angles, grain size and roundness, and other characteristics thought to be associated with desert environments. Little actual technical work had been done, however, on the rocks themselves to determine if, in particular, the microscopic data supported this hypothesis. In the Creation community, Dr. Steve Austin and Dr. Andrew Snelling had looked at the macro features of the Coconino and had concluded that conventional models were inadequate to support the aeolian interpretation. In 2005, the Flood Activated Sedimentation and Tectonics (FAST) group was formed at the instigation of the ICR and Dr. Austin. Three individuals were assigned to the project - Dr. John Whitmore, Paul Garner and Raymond Strom, each with a special interest and set of expertise that would be brought to bear. Initially, the group was uncertain as to what would be found, but as the project proceeded, many amazing surprises surfaced. This will be a night you will not want to miss, as this represents a complete revamping of a dogmatic evolutionary model.
Note that this work is a research project of the Logos Research Associates organization. Visit their website here and review their large array of experts in many sciences leading research in creation science.
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Don’t miss this presentation! It is on the cutting edge of creation science presented by one of the research team members who was personally involved in doing the work. There will be a question and discussion time at the end. Forward this announcement to your skeptical friends, geologists and other scientists, or church leaders.
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YES, GHCA Still Need Operating Funds !
If you can, please mail a nondeductible contribution by check to GHCA, 12111 Attlee Dr, Houston, TX 77077. Many thanks, your help is essential.
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Sincerely,
Frank Mayo, President
Greater Houston Creation Association
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Houston Science & Culture Network
Houston chapter of the Discovery Institute's division of Science and Culture.
Tour calls out false claims. See also the link to Tour's response to critics.
Life's Origin: Lab + Information = Mind
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San Antonio:
The San Antonio Bible Based Science Association (SABBSA) usually meets the second Tuesday of each month, 7:00 p.m., at Faith Lutheran church just south of the corner of Thousand Oaks and Jones Maltsberger. 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.
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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. So, the entire fossil record is less than 100,000 years old.
- 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 galactic 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.
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