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The Creation Answers Book by David Catchpoole
More than 60 of the most-asked questions about Creation, Evolution, and the Book of Genesis Answered! Does God Exist? Six Days? Really? What about the Gap Theory? What About Carbon Dating? How can we see distant stars in a young universe? How did bad things come about? What about arguments for evolution? Who was Cain's wife? Were the 'sons of God' and/or the nephilim extra-terrestrials? Was the Flood global? What about continental drift? Noah's Flood what about all that water? How did the animals fit on Noah's Ark? How did fresh and saltwater fish survive the flood? Where are all the human fossils? What about the Ice Age? How did animals get to Australia? How did all the different 'races' arise? What about dinosaurs? What can I do?
Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
June 13, 2015
This book presents the evidence for young earth creationism in the form of 19 answers to questions commonly asked by evolutionists or skeptics. This includes:
How accurate is carbon dating?
How can we see stars in a young universe?
Who was Cain’s wife?
Was Noah’s Flood global? (also: Where did the water come from? How was continental drift involved?)
How does the Ice Age fit into a creationist model?
How did animals get to Austrailia?
What happened to the dinosaurs?
Most of the authors are scientists and they present alternate evidence to show that creationism is scientifically plausible. Their model of Noah’s Flood is very interesting. It begins with plate tectonic shifts that break up Pangea; it shows how a global flood and continuous rain could sustain itself for 40 days, how the flood waters and oceans could recede to their present positions, and how this would result in an Ice Age with land bridges between Asia and Australia and North America. These models make a lot of sense of the geologic and fossil information we see in the world today.
The book also presents many pictures of famous geologic formations commonly accepted as millions of years old, and they point out features and characteristics that are more consistent with flood deposits than slow, gradual evolution:
• Folds in the rock
• Flat, seamless, sorted layers with no sign of millions of years of erosion
• Polystrate fossils and other “pipes” of rock that cross geologic stratum that supposedly represent millions of years
• Marine fossils at the top of Mount Everest; etc.
Their model of a young solar system that attempts to explain how we see light from stars millions of light years away was also interesting but much less convincing. Even the authors admitted it is a work in progress.
There is also a very illuminating chapter on genetics that addresses why it was safe for Cain to marry his sister.
This book was useful for me. I was reading Bill Nye’s book Undeniable at the same time, which presents the pro-evolution view. I would turn to this book to see the flip side of the argument. Most of the time this book included more hard science and more compelling arguments.
I thought Creation Answers book was less effective in the chapters that dealt with pure theological questions, such as “Does the Book of Genesis teach there were gaps between the seven days” or “Were the Sons of God in Genesis 6:4 really extraterrestrials?” I preferred to stick with the science debates.
How accurate is carbon dating?
How can we see stars in a young universe?
Who was Cain’s wife?
Was Noah’s Flood global? (also: Where did the water come from? How was continental drift involved?)
How does the Ice Age fit into a creationist model?
How did animals get to Austrailia?
What happened to the dinosaurs?
Most of the authors are scientists and they present alternate evidence to show that creationism is scientifically plausible. Their model of Noah’s Flood is very interesting. It begins with plate tectonic shifts that break up Pangea; it shows how a global flood and continuous rain could sustain itself for 40 days, how the flood waters and oceans could recede to their present positions, and how this would result in an Ice Age with land bridges between Asia and Australia and North America. These models make a lot of sense of the geologic and fossil information we see in the world today.
The book also presents many pictures of famous geologic formations commonly accepted as millions of years old, and they point out features and characteristics that are more consistent with flood deposits than slow, gradual evolution:
• Folds in the rock
• Flat, seamless, sorted layers with no sign of millions of years of erosion
• Polystrate fossils and other “pipes” of rock that cross geologic stratum that supposedly represent millions of years
• Marine fossils at the top of Mount Everest; etc.
Their model of a young solar system that attempts to explain how we see light from stars millions of light years away was also interesting but much less convincing. Even the authors admitted it is a work in progress.
There is also a very illuminating chapter on genetics that addresses why it was safe for Cain to marry his sister.
This book was useful for me. I was reading Bill Nye’s book Undeniable at the same time, which presents the pro-evolution view. I would turn to this book to see the flip side of the argument. Most of the time this book included more hard science and more compelling arguments.
I thought Creation Answers book was less effective in the chapters that dealt with pure theological questions, such as “Does the Book of Genesis teach there were gaps between the seven days” or “Were the Sons of God in Genesis 6:4 really extraterrestrials?” I preferred to stick with the science debates.
September 18, 2024
Very well written, up-to-date (2019 edition), important topics covered. Some illustrations/photos are included.
Every Christian should familiarize himself with the content of this book even if nature study/nature history isn't your favorite topic. Your view on the credibility of the first 11 chapters of the Bible really matters. Let's believe the whole Bible and praise God there are so many evidences for even the first few chapters of the Bible!
Every Christian should familiarize himself with the content of this book even if nature study/nature history isn't your favorite topic. Your view on the credibility of the first 11 chapters of the Bible really matters. Let's believe the whole Bible and praise God there are so many evidences for even the first few chapters of the Bible!
November 7, 2015
This book gives some very credible answers to difficult questions regarding Genesis and creationism. I thought that it was well put together, didn't overstate its points, and for the most part, just stuck to facts. Very interesting read!
January 7, 2025
Blows evolution out of the water. By asking and answering some very common questions raised against creation and the truth of the Bible as history, the writers of this book demonstrate that evolution is not scientific fact and those who believe it is it , only do so because of their ideology.
This is a fascinating book, although I have to admit to not being able to follow all the evidence. The detailed proofs and explanations offered often left me scratching my head. I'm sure more scientifically minded readers would have no trouble understanding.
This was also a very faith affirming book for me as a Christian. If only I could remember the cool facts and statistics so I could share them with others, especially sceptics , whenever the occasion arose. Alas the best I can do is lend or give them the book or point them in the direction of Creation Ministry. The next time says to me 'evolution is scientific fact', I'll politely disagree and explain why.
Creation Answers is very well written and laid out. presenting compelling arguments fo accepting Genesis as history.
This is a fascinating book, although I have to admit to not being able to follow all the evidence. The detailed proofs and explanations offered often left me scratching my head. I'm sure more scientifically minded readers would have no trouble understanding.
This was also a very faith affirming book for me as a Christian. If only I could remember the cool facts and statistics so I could share them with others, especially sceptics , whenever the occasion arose. Alas the best I can do is lend or give them the book or point them in the direction of Creation Ministry. The next time says to me 'evolution is scientific fact', I'll politely disagree and explain why.
Creation Answers is very well written and laid out. presenting compelling arguments fo accepting Genesis as history.
December 29, 2024
Excellent resource covering a wide variety of topics including God's existence, the origin of the universe and Earth, human origins, Noah's Flood, and dinosaurs. It's written at the right level; not too scientific or theological for average person, but not oversimplified.
You can read the ebook online or download PDFs for free.
Notes
Does God exist?
When Christians commit atrocities (assuming they really are Christians), they're being inconsistent with their standard of morality. When atheists commit atrocities, they're being consistent with their belief that objective morality doesn't exist.
Only divine inspiration can explain existence of Bible, with its unity, preservation, historical accuracy, scientific accuracy, prophetic accuracy, civilizing influence, honesty, life-transforming message.
Evidence for Creator God of Bible
• Entropy prevents universe from being eternal.
• Changes in living things couldn't have occurred from natural processes, because mutations and natural selection lead to loss of information, not gain.
• Fossils don't show transitions from one basic kind of organism to another.
• There's evidence that universe is relatively young (not billions of years old).
• Hundreds of cultures have shared stories (such as a global flood), and all humans are related.
• Cell and organ systems couldn't have resulted from series of accidents; they require intelligent design.
Historical, or origins, science, differs from process, or operational science, because we can't do experiments directly on past events, and history can't be repeated. Inferences are drawn, and they involve guesswork and influence of non-scientific factors. The further in the past, the more guesswork.
1st & 2nd laws of thermodynamics are evidence that universe had beginning.
God doesn't need a cause because He's the Creator of time, outside of it, and has always existed.
Non-biblical evidence for God
• Natural law. Entropy. Specified complexity required for life couldn't have arisen except from outside info impressed onto matter. Universe couldn't have existed eternally, and required outside agent to create it.
• Living things. Natural selection selects from genetic info already present in population, so it involves loss, not gain, of genetic info. Mutations can't create new genes needed to increase functional complexity.
• Fossils. Expected millions of transitional fossils haven't been found; only a few disputable ones.
• Age of universe. Evidence that universe is relatively young: decay of Earth’s magnetic field, fragile organic molecules in supposedly ancient fossils, not enough helium in atmosphere, not enough salt in oceans, carbon-14 in coal and oil, polystrate fossils, inter-tonguing of non-sequential geological strata, small number of supernova remnants, magnetic fields on "cold" planets.
• Design and complexity. Coded info required to generate assembly sequences of living things isn't intrinsic to chemistry of components; it must originate with outside intelligence.
Archaeopteryx shows no sign of scale-to-feather or leg-to-wing transition.
Quantum mechanics can't produce something from nothing. For universe to be a quantum fluctuation presupposes something existed to fluctuate; quantum vacuum is matter-antimatter potential, not nothing.
Six days? Really?
Eastern Orthodox Church fathers didn't view days of creation week as long periods; they viewed week as real, but often also viewed it as typological of a total Earth history of 7,000 yrs.
Augustine and Origen adhered to neo-Platonic philosophy, so tended to allegorize Bible. They allegorized days of creation week, yet said that God created everything in an instant, and argued for Earth being thousands of yrs old.
Gen 1 & 2 aren't contradictory. Gen 1 gives big picture. Gen 2 is more detailed account of 6th day, focused on humans and garden, and recounts what God had done on other days.
Adam didn't name every species, only those God brought him (cattle, birds, beasts of field) (Gen 2:20). There were only a few created kinds at the time.
Most basic definition of "day" is "time for Earth to rotate on its axis." To separate day and night only requires a light source, and God created light on 1st day.
There was no 8th creation day, so no need to mention evening & morning marking end of 7th. Heb 4 doesn't say that 7th creation day is continuing, but that God's rest is continuing. Ex 20:10-11 shows that 7th day was like other 6 days.
Miracles aren't violations of providence, but additions to it.
Even if you stretch Gen 1 to accommodate millions of yrs, the order of creation events still contradicts secular science.
Plants were created on day 3, pollinators on 5 and 6. If days were millions of yrs, how did plants survive?
God created Adam on day 6, and he lived through day 7 and died age 930. If each day were millions of yrs, or 7th day was still continuing, Adam's death age is nonsense.
What about gap theories?
Problems with classical gap theory
• Its purpose was to accommodate millions of yrs of geological time, but it doesn't fit secular geology.
• It says Satan's fall and death and suffering of creatures occurred in world God called "very good" (Gen 1:31).
• It contradicts Sabbath command (Ex 20:8-11) which is based on 6 ordinary creation days.
• Its interpretation of Gen 1:1-2 is grammatically unsound.
What about carbon dating?
"But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’" (Mk 10:6) only makes sense with timeline beginning with creation week thousands of yrs ago.
Plants take up less C-14 than expected, so they test older than they are.
Ratio of C-14 and C-12 in atmosphere hasn't been constant, which affects carbon dating.
Number of cosmic rays entering atmosphere affects amount of C-14 produced, and that varies. As Earth's magnetic field weakens, more C-14 is produced, making things date older.
Volcanoes emit CO2 depleted in C-14.
Radiometric dating is based on assuming starting conditions (initial amount of daughter isotope), that decay rates have always been constant, that systems were closed so no parent or daughter isotopes were lost or added.
Radiometric labs often ask how old sample is expected to be. That shouldn't be necessary, if radiometric dating is completely reliable.
Many dating methods give wrong dates for rocks of known age (e.g., K-Ar dating of Mt. Ngauruhoe lava flows).
Different radiometric dating techniques often give quite different dates.
Fossils older than 100k yrs should have too little C-14 to measure, but labs often detect it in fossils supposedly millions of yrs old (e.g. coal).
Evidence Earth isn't billions of yrs old
• Evidence of rapid formation of geological strata (lack of erosion between layers, lack of disturbance by biological activity, lack of soil layers, polystrate fossils, thick layers bent without fracturing).
• Red blood cells, proteins, DNA, C-14 found in dinosaur bone.
• Decay rate of Earth's magnetic field prevents it from being > 10k yrs old.
• No very old (Stage 3) and few moderately old (Stage 1) supernova remnants in Milky Way or satellite galaxies.
• Level of salt in sea points to age < 62 mil yrs.
See Evidence for a Young World by Humphreys for more.
Orphan radiohalos suggest rock formed very quickly.
Helium is found in zircons from deep bores, but it should've diffused out if they were > 1 billion yrs old.
Tree ring dating can't accurately calibrate C-14 dating because it circularly relies on carbon dating wood fragments.
How can we see distant stars in a young universe?
Big Bang model also has problem with time of light travel (horizon problem). Faster-than-light inflation has been suggested as solution, but there's no known mechanism to smoothly start or stop it.
If God had created light on its way to Earth, that would mean what we see in deep space never occurred.
If speed of light (c) had declined over time, that should be detectable in light from distant galaxies, but it's not. There's evidence that c has remained constant.
According to general relativity, if universe has boundary and center, there can be net gravitational effects that affect flow of time during universe's history. Depending on how universe was created, "clocks" could have run at different rates on Earth compared to other parts of universe.
How did bad things come about?
Bible describes people & animals, but not plants, as having/being "nephesh" ("breathing creature"; having emotions, which may indicate level of consciousness). Plants don't have "nephesh." Bible says life/"nephesh" is in blood (Lev 17:11), and Adam didn't name "creeping things," so it's possible that microorganisms & invertebrates don't have "nephesh."
There was no violent death (especially involving bloodshed) of "nephesh" creatures before Fall.
God gave humans permission to eat meat after Flood (Gen 9:3). Some may have eaten meat before then anyway. Bible implies animals had little fear of humans before Flood (Gen 9:2).
Positions on origin of defence-attack structures (DAS)
1. DAS had a different pre-Fall function and became as they are through degeneration. Problems: DAS have complex, specific design; there are millions of DAS, and we don't know pre-Fall functions; creatures often have multiple related DAS (e.g., carnivorousness).
2. Design info for DAS was already in creatures pre-Fall, expressed after Fall. Problem: It's unknown how genetic self-activation could occur in vast number of creatures which interact.
3. Design info for DAS was added after Fall. This could be referred to in Gen 3:14-19 (cf. Rom 8).
What about similarities and other such arguments for evolution?
Even if humans were only 2% different from chimps, that's still 60 mil base pairs, too many for mutation to produce, even over millions of yrs.
Who was Cain’s wife?
Most mutations are only slightly harmful, so natural selection can't "see" them to eliminate them. So, it can't solve problem of genetic/mutational load.
Were the ‘sons of God’ and/or the nephilim extraterrestrials?
Adam's sin brought curse on entire universe (that's why new heavens and earth are needed). It doesn't make sense that intelligent aliens exist would be affected by the curse and potentially by restoration brought by Christ (last Adam), or that Jesus (who took and kept human nature) died for aliens. Purpose of creation was focused on humans.
Was the Flood global?
Evidence that Flood was global
• If it were local, Noah could've left area to escape.
• If it were local, ark wouldn't have needed to be large enough to hold all kinds of vertebrate animals in world.
• If it were local, animals wouldn't have needed to be on ark. Animals in other parts of world would survive. Or, God could've sent animals out of area before Flood.
If it were local, birds wouldn't have needed to be on ark, as they could've easily flown away.
• Judgment was on all people, not just people in local area.
• Flood was type of future universal judgment (2 Pet 3:6-7).
• Waters were 15 cubits above mountains (Gen 7:20).
• God promised to never send such a flood again; many local floods since then would be breaking promise.
• All people are descended from Noah's family (Gen 4; 5; 10); no other people survived Flood.
• Hebrew terminology of Gen 6-9 indicates Flood was global.
• NT speaks of Flood as global (Mt 24:39; Lk 17:27; 1 Pet 3:20; 2 Pet 2:5; 3:6; Heb 11:7).
Geologic evidence for global flood
• All around world are billions of dead things buried in water-carried mud and sand, in state of preservation that indicates rapid burial and fossilization.
• There's evidence that rock strata were laid down quickly, without significant time between (presence of animal tracks, ripple marks, raindrop marks, polystrate fossils; scarcity of erosion, soil formation, animal burrows, roots between layers; deformation of thick sediment layers without cracking or melting; sandstone dykes/walls and pipes/cylinders connected with sandstone many layers beneath ).
• Many geologic features and rock types are distributed across globe, indicating global flood.
• Unconformities (clear breaks in deposition sequence) have limited geographic extent.
Noah’s Flood—what about all that water?
Rainbows may have existed before Flood; God can make existing things signs (e.g., bread and wine in Lord's Supper).
A vapor canopy holding > 7 ft of rain would cause Earth’s surface to be intolerably hot, so a vapor canopy couldn't have been a significant source of Flood water.
Ps 148:4 refers to waters above heaves still existing after Flood, so it can't refer to vapor canopy that collapsed at Flood. It likely refers to clouds.
How did all the animals fit on Noah’s Ark?
Word translated "beast" or "cattle" ("behemah") refers to land vertebrates. Word translated "creeping things" ("remes") probably refers to reptiles in Flood narrative.
Insects and other invertebrates were small enough to have survived on floating vegetation mats. Gen 7:22 says Flood killed animals that breath through nostrils.
Where are all the human fossils?
Some "living fossils" are missing from intervening strata that supposedly represent millions of years, indicating there were no time gaps.
Most of fossil record represents order of burial during Flood. Living things in or close to water were buried 1st. The more mobile and intelligent animals were, the longer they could've survived. Living things buried last would be more likely to be uncovered by erosion at end of Flood, reducing chances of fossilization. Sorting action of water can also affect burial order.
What about dinosaurs?
Many dinosaur bones aren't completely mineralized. Some contain blood cells, hemoglobin, fragile proteins, soft tissue, DNA, radiocarbon. Such bones can't be millions of years old.
What should I do?
Arguments creationists shouldn't use
You can read the ebook online or download PDFs for free.
Notes
Does God exist?
When Christians commit atrocities (assuming they really are Christians), they're being inconsistent with their standard of morality. When atheists commit atrocities, they're being consistent with their belief that objective morality doesn't exist.
Only divine inspiration can explain existence of Bible, with its unity, preservation, historical accuracy, scientific accuracy, prophetic accuracy, civilizing influence, honesty, life-transforming message.
Evidence for Creator God of Bible
• Entropy prevents universe from being eternal.
• Changes in living things couldn't have occurred from natural processes, because mutations and natural selection lead to loss of information, not gain.
• Fossils don't show transitions from one basic kind of organism to another.
• There's evidence that universe is relatively young (not billions of years old).
• Hundreds of cultures have shared stories (such as a global flood), and all humans are related.
• Cell and organ systems couldn't have resulted from series of accidents; they require intelligent design.
Historical, or origins, science, differs from process, or operational science, because we can't do experiments directly on past events, and history can't be repeated. Inferences are drawn, and they involve guesswork and influence of non-scientific factors. The further in the past, the more guesswork.
1st & 2nd laws of thermodynamics are evidence that universe had beginning.
God doesn't need a cause because He's the Creator of time, outside of it, and has always existed.
Non-biblical evidence for God
• Natural law. Entropy. Specified complexity required for life couldn't have arisen except from outside info impressed onto matter. Universe couldn't have existed eternally, and required outside agent to create it.
• Living things. Natural selection selects from genetic info already present in population, so it involves loss, not gain, of genetic info. Mutations can't create new genes needed to increase functional complexity.
• Fossils. Expected millions of transitional fossils haven't been found; only a few disputable ones.
• Age of universe. Evidence that universe is relatively young: decay of Earth’s magnetic field, fragile organic molecules in supposedly ancient fossils, not enough helium in atmosphere, not enough salt in oceans, carbon-14 in coal and oil, polystrate fossils, inter-tonguing of non-sequential geological strata, small number of supernova remnants, magnetic fields on "cold" planets.
• Design and complexity. Coded info required to generate assembly sequences of living things isn't intrinsic to chemistry of components; it must originate with outside intelligence.
Archaeopteryx shows no sign of scale-to-feather or leg-to-wing transition.
Quantum mechanics can't produce something from nothing. For universe to be a quantum fluctuation presupposes something existed to fluctuate; quantum vacuum is matter-antimatter potential, not nothing.
Six days? Really?
Eastern Orthodox Church fathers didn't view days of creation week as long periods; they viewed week as real, but often also viewed it as typological of a total Earth history of 7,000 yrs.
Augustine and Origen adhered to neo-Platonic philosophy, so tended to allegorize Bible. They allegorized days of creation week, yet said that God created everything in an instant, and argued for Earth being thousands of yrs old.
Gen 1 & 2 aren't contradictory. Gen 1 gives big picture. Gen 2 is more detailed account of 6th day, focused on humans and garden, and recounts what God had done on other days.
Adam didn't name every species, only those God brought him (cattle, birds, beasts of field) (Gen 2:20). There were only a few created kinds at the time.
Most basic definition of "day" is "time for Earth to rotate on its axis." To separate day and night only requires a light source, and God created light on 1st day.
There was no 8th creation day, so no need to mention evening & morning marking end of 7th. Heb 4 doesn't say that 7th creation day is continuing, but that God's rest is continuing. Ex 20:10-11 shows that 7th day was like other 6 days.
Miracles aren't violations of providence, but additions to it.
Even if you stretch Gen 1 to accommodate millions of yrs, the order of creation events still contradicts secular science.
Plants were created on day 3, pollinators on 5 and 6. If days were millions of yrs, how did plants survive?
God created Adam on day 6, and he lived through day 7 and died age 930. If each day were millions of yrs, or 7th day was still continuing, Adam's death age is nonsense.
What about gap theories?
Problems with classical gap theory
• Its purpose was to accommodate millions of yrs of geological time, but it doesn't fit secular geology.
• It says Satan's fall and death and suffering of creatures occurred in world God called "very good" (Gen 1:31).
• It contradicts Sabbath command (Ex 20:8-11) which is based on 6 ordinary creation days.
• Its interpretation of Gen 1:1-2 is grammatically unsound.
What about carbon dating?
"But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’" (Mk 10:6) only makes sense with timeline beginning with creation week thousands of yrs ago.
Plants take up less C-14 than expected, so they test older than they are.
Ratio of C-14 and C-12 in atmosphere hasn't been constant, which affects carbon dating.
Number of cosmic rays entering atmosphere affects amount of C-14 produced, and that varies. As Earth's magnetic field weakens, more C-14 is produced, making things date older.
Volcanoes emit CO2 depleted in C-14.
Radiometric dating is based on assuming starting conditions (initial amount of daughter isotope), that decay rates have always been constant, that systems were closed so no parent or daughter isotopes were lost or added.
Radiometric labs often ask how old sample is expected to be. That shouldn't be necessary, if radiometric dating is completely reliable.
Many dating methods give wrong dates for rocks of known age (e.g., K-Ar dating of Mt. Ngauruhoe lava flows).
Different radiometric dating techniques often give quite different dates.
Fossils older than 100k yrs should have too little C-14 to measure, but labs often detect it in fossils supposedly millions of yrs old (e.g. coal).
Evidence Earth isn't billions of yrs old
• Evidence of rapid formation of geological strata (lack of erosion between layers, lack of disturbance by biological activity, lack of soil layers, polystrate fossils, thick layers bent without fracturing).
• Red blood cells, proteins, DNA, C-14 found in dinosaur bone.
• Decay rate of Earth's magnetic field prevents it from being > 10k yrs old.
• No very old (Stage 3) and few moderately old (Stage 1) supernova remnants in Milky Way or satellite galaxies.
• Level of salt in sea points to age < 62 mil yrs.
See Evidence for a Young World by Humphreys for more.
Orphan radiohalos suggest rock formed very quickly.
Helium is found in zircons from deep bores, but it should've diffused out if they were > 1 billion yrs old.
Tree ring dating can't accurately calibrate C-14 dating because it circularly relies on carbon dating wood fragments.
How can we see distant stars in a young universe?
Big Bang model also has problem with time of light travel (horizon problem). Faster-than-light inflation has been suggested as solution, but there's no known mechanism to smoothly start or stop it.
If God had created light on its way to Earth, that would mean what we see in deep space never occurred.
If speed of light (c) had declined over time, that should be detectable in light from distant galaxies, but it's not. There's evidence that c has remained constant.
According to general relativity, if universe has boundary and center, there can be net gravitational effects that affect flow of time during universe's history. Depending on how universe was created, "clocks" could have run at different rates on Earth compared to other parts of universe.
How did bad things come about?
Bible describes people & animals, but not plants, as having/being "nephesh" ("breathing creature"; having emotions, which may indicate level of consciousness). Plants don't have "nephesh." Bible says life/"nephesh" is in blood (Lev 17:11), and Adam didn't name "creeping things," so it's possible that microorganisms & invertebrates don't have "nephesh."
There was no violent death (especially involving bloodshed) of "nephesh" creatures before Fall.
God gave humans permission to eat meat after Flood (Gen 9:3). Some may have eaten meat before then anyway. Bible implies animals had little fear of humans before Flood (Gen 9:2).
Positions on origin of defence-attack structures (DAS)
1. DAS had a different pre-Fall function and became as they are through degeneration. Problems: DAS have complex, specific design; there are millions of DAS, and we don't know pre-Fall functions; creatures often have multiple related DAS (e.g., carnivorousness).
2. Design info for DAS was already in creatures pre-Fall, expressed after Fall. Problem: It's unknown how genetic self-activation could occur in vast number of creatures which interact.
3. Design info for DAS was added after Fall. This could be referred to in Gen 3:14-19 (cf. Rom 8).
What about similarities and other such arguments for evolution?
Even if humans were only 2% different from chimps, that's still 60 mil base pairs, too many for mutation to produce, even over millions of yrs.
Who was Cain’s wife?
Most mutations are only slightly harmful, so natural selection can't "see" them to eliminate them. So, it can't solve problem of genetic/mutational load.
Were the ‘sons of God’ and/or the nephilim extraterrestrials?
Adam's sin brought curse on entire universe (that's why new heavens and earth are needed). It doesn't make sense that intelligent aliens exist would be affected by the curse and potentially by restoration brought by Christ (last Adam), or that Jesus (who took and kept human nature) died for aliens. Purpose of creation was focused on humans.
Was the Flood global?
Evidence that Flood was global
• If it were local, Noah could've left area to escape.
• If it were local, ark wouldn't have needed to be large enough to hold all kinds of vertebrate animals in world.
• If it were local, animals wouldn't have needed to be on ark. Animals in other parts of world would survive. Or, God could've sent animals out of area before Flood.
If it were local, birds wouldn't have needed to be on ark, as they could've easily flown away.
• Judgment was on all people, not just people in local area.
• Flood was type of future universal judgment (2 Pet 3:6-7).
• Waters were 15 cubits above mountains (Gen 7:20).
• God promised to never send such a flood again; many local floods since then would be breaking promise.
• All people are descended from Noah's family (Gen 4; 5; 10); no other people survived Flood.
• Hebrew terminology of Gen 6-9 indicates Flood was global.
• NT speaks of Flood as global (Mt 24:39; Lk 17:27; 1 Pet 3:20; 2 Pet 2:5; 3:6; Heb 11:7).
Geologic evidence for global flood
• All around world are billions of dead things buried in water-carried mud and sand, in state of preservation that indicates rapid burial and fossilization.
• There's evidence that rock strata were laid down quickly, without significant time between (presence of animal tracks, ripple marks, raindrop marks, polystrate fossils; scarcity of erosion, soil formation, animal burrows, roots between layers; deformation of thick sediment layers without cracking or melting; sandstone dykes/walls and pipes/cylinders connected with sandstone many layers beneath ).
• Many geologic features and rock types are distributed across globe, indicating global flood.
• Unconformities (clear breaks in deposition sequence) have limited geographic extent.
Noah’s Flood—what about all that water?
Rainbows may have existed before Flood; God can make existing things signs (e.g., bread and wine in Lord's Supper).
A vapor canopy holding > 7 ft of rain would cause Earth’s surface to be intolerably hot, so a vapor canopy couldn't have been a significant source of Flood water.
Ps 148:4 refers to waters above heaves still existing after Flood, so it can't refer to vapor canopy that collapsed at Flood. It likely refers to clouds.
How did all the animals fit on Noah’s Ark?
Word translated "beast" or "cattle" ("behemah") refers to land vertebrates. Word translated "creeping things" ("remes") probably refers to reptiles in Flood narrative.
Insects and other invertebrates were small enough to have survived on floating vegetation mats. Gen 7:22 says Flood killed animals that breath through nostrils.
Where are all the human fossils?
Some "living fossils" are missing from intervening strata that supposedly represent millions of years, indicating there were no time gaps.
Most of fossil record represents order of burial during Flood. Living things in or close to water were buried 1st. The more mobile and intelligent animals were, the longer they could've survived. Living things buried last would be more likely to be uncovered by erosion at end of Flood, reducing chances of fossilization. Sorting action of water can also affect burial order.
What about dinosaurs?
Many dinosaur bones aren't completely mineralized. Some contain blood cells, hemoglobin, fragile proteins, soft tissue, DNA, radiocarbon. Such bones can't be millions of years old.
What should I do?
Arguments creationists shouldn't use
May 10, 2019
As a go-to for answers to some of the most common objections to a Biblical world view, this book has few rivals. With well researched responses to many obstacles to faith, this belongs in every Christian's library.
January 24, 2017
Great
Some of this is over my head and a hard read but most of it is clear and makes perfect sense. I wish I had read this book a while ago. I was the person that said it doesn't matter either way because I was ignorant to the science. But that was my feelings and others cannot come to faith due to some of these questions. Now I know and will be recommending this book a lot.
Some of this is over my head and a hard read but most of it is clear and makes perfect sense. I wish I had read this book a while ago. I was the person that said it doesn't matter either way because I was ignorant to the science. But that was my feelings and others cannot come to faith due to some of these questions. Now I know and will be recommending this book a lot.
February 10, 2020
I read this book in little bits I’ve ether course of almost a year because there is a lot of technical information to digest, but man is it meaty and good! The scientific evidence supporting what the Bible teaches is hard to deny.This will be one I keep on the shelf to reference in the future.
July 18, 2013
The first few chapters were extremely difficult to understand. When it became easier to read it actually made so much sense.
June 27, 2019
Many wonderful insights and truths that are thought-provoking. Some explanations work better than others do.
Among the most fascinating topics: DNA in dinosaur fossils; fossilising while giving birth; layers of rock can take place over a few days; fossils that remain upright across sedimentary layers; people’s footprints in dinosaur prints; dinosaur footprints in rock.
Also intriguing: blood clotting cannot evolve.
And so much more.
January 5, 2025
A helpful treatise written mostly in layman's terms.
However, many topics addressed won't normally come up with your basic public-school-style "evolutionist-on-the-street". Most of your atheist friends aren't going to bring up the topics written about in the book.
It's basically information you'd use during drawn-out social media debates. So if that's what you're looking for, this book will be very helpful!
However, many topics addressed won't normally come up with your basic public-school-style "evolutionist-on-the-street". Most of your atheist friends aren't going to bring up the topics written about in the book.
It's basically information you'd use during drawn-out social media debates. So if that's what you're looking for, this book will be very helpful!
February 28, 2020
This book had all the information I’ve asked for and more. For Christians who feel convicted about the truth of God’s word, here you will find answers. These answers are scientific and are answers one can research more. A full review to appear on my blog in time.
April 18, 2020
Good for what it is: a reference book. Nice tidbits of information throughout. Not extensive by any means, but a good overview of radiometric dating methods, gap theory, various objections to the Flood and a bunch of other stuff.
November 5, 2020
I wish I worked at Answers Creation
March 13, 2024
Lots of great information and scientific evidence for God as creator of the world.
March 30, 2024
Just perfectly awesome and true.
September 14, 2024
Excellent look at the major points of debate between creationists and evolutionists, such as the question of distant starlight and how Noah's Ark functioned. Unfortunately, the authors also dumped Protestantism into the book, such as using the final chapter as a plea for readers to accept "Christ as your personal Savior".
May 23, 2017
Great book, but a technical and hard read.
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