A YOUNG-EARTH CREATIONIST CRITIQUES THE NAS GUIDEBOOK
Jonathan David Sarfati is a young Earth creationist researcher, author and speaker for Creation Ministries International (CMI). This book was originally published in 1999; the revised 6th edition was published in 2019.
He wrote in the Introduction, “The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has recently published an educator’s guidebook entitled ‘Teaching about Evolution and the Nature of Science.’ It has been made available to educators … to encourage teachers to incorporate more evolution in their classes and basically teach particles-to-people evolution as a fact… [This book] seeks to redress the lopsided pro-evolutionary way in which origins are taught. The NAS guidebook… contains the most up-to-date and major arguments for evolution… [This book] responds to many of the [guidebook’s] arguments … so that a general critique of evolution can be made available to challenge educators, students, and parents. At the same time, [this book] gives … positive information … to defend the creationist position. Thus, it provides a good summary7 of the arguments against evolution and for creation.”
He states in the first chapter, “It is a fallacy to believe that facts speak for themselves---they are always INTERPRETED according to a framework. The framework behind the evolutionists’ interpretation is NATURALISM---it is assumed that things made themselves, that no divine intervention has happened, and that God has not revealed to us knowledge about the past… So it’s not a question of biased religious creationists versus objective scientific evolutionists; rather, it is the biases of the Christian religion versus the biases of the religion of secular humanism resulting in different interpretations of the same scientific data… It’s not really a question of who is biased, but which bias is the correct bias with which to be biased!” (Pg. 15-17)
Of antibiotic and pesticide resistance, he comments, “what has this to do with the evolution of NEW KINDS with new genetic information? Precisely nothing… the resistance was already there, and creatures without resistance are eliminated. In other cases, antibiotic resistance is the result of a mutation, but in all known cases, this mutation has destroyed information… Another example … is the transfer of pieces of genetic material … between bacteria, even between those of different species. But this is still using PRE-EXISTING information, and doesn’t explain its ORIGIN.” (Pg. 40-41)
The NAS guidebook notes that Darwin suggested that “on rare occasions, snails might have ‘floated in chunks of drifted timber across moderately wide arms of the sea…’ Thus, Darwin helped answer a problem raised by skeptics of the Bible and its account of the flood and ark: ‘How did the animals get top faraway places?’ This also showed that some invertebrates could have survived the flood outside the ark, possibly on rafts of pumice or tangled vegetation… Other experiments by Darwin showed that garden seeds could still sprout after 42 days’ immersion in salt water, so they could have traveled 1,400 miles … on a typical ocean current. This shows how plants could have survived without being on the ark… even if they were often soaked. Therefore, the creation-flood-migration model could also have led to such experiments, despite that [the NAS guidebook] implies.” (Pg. 45-46)
He argues, “The inability to imagine functional intermediates is a real problem. If a bat or bird evolved from a land animal, the transitional forms would have forelimbs that were neither good legs nor good wings. So how would such things be selected? The fragile long limbs of hypothetical halfway stages of bats and pterosaurs would seem more like a hindrance than a help.” (Pg. 54-55)
He points out, “We should remember that that the media often sensationalize ‘proofs’ of evolution, but the later disproofs, even by other evolutionists, hardly rate a mention. For example, in 1996 there were headlines like ‘Feathered Fossil Proves Some Dinosaurs Evolved Into Birds’… Creationist publications advised readers to be skeptical and keep an open mind. They were vindicated when four leading paleontologists… later found that the ‘feathers’ were just a parallel array of fibres, probably collagen.” (Pg. 60)
He asserts, “Many of the alleged transitional forms are based on fragmentary remains, which are therefore open to several interpretations, based on one’s axioms… such remains are often likely to be interpreted as transitional… and is also prevalent in ape-man claims… But when more bones are discovered, then the fossils nearly always fit one type or another, and are no longer plausible as transitional. It’s also notable that alleged intermediate forms are often trumpeted in the media, while retractions are usually muted or unpublicized.” (Pg. 77)
He contends, “[Creationist] physicist Dr. Russell Humphreys points out that under [General Relativity], gravity distorts time. Prof. John Hartnett… extended Dr. Huimphreys’ pioneering model using the space-time velocity metric of the late Israeli physicist Prof. Moshe Carmeli… Hartnett used this new physics to accurately describe galaxy rotation curves and cosmic expansion… he applies this successful physics to a universe centered on our galaxy. And when Carmelian physics is applied with this assumption, Hartnett shows that the light from distant stars could have travelled to Earth in the biblical timescale---as measured by Earth clocks.” (Pg. 95)
Of radiometric dating, he asserts, “physicists Drs. Eugene Chaffin and Russell Humphreys suggest that nuclear decay rate was highly accelerated during Creation week and possibly during the flood year. They support this theoretically by applying quantum mechanics and the effect of the universe’s expansion, and evidentially by the amount of helium still retained in minerals, and by mature uranium radiohalos and their lack in ‘Phanerozoic’ strata.” (Pg. 110)
He acknowledges, “Creationists admit they can’t PROVE the age of the earth using a particular scientific method. They realize all science is tentative because we do not have all the data, especially when dealing with the past. This is true of both creationist and evolutionist arguments… Creationists understand the limitations of these dating methods better than evolutionists who claim they can use various present processes to ‘prove’ the earth is billions of years old. In reality, all age-dating methods, including those which point to a young earth, rely on unprovable assumptions. Creationists ultimately date the earth using the chronology of the Bible. This is because they believe this is an accurate eyewitness account of world history, which is consistent with much data.” (Pg. 116)
He notes, “This is not to say that no mutation is ‘beneficial’; that is, it helps the organism to survive. But… [this] is usually the result of LOSS of information, or sometimes a transfer of information---NEVER the result of NEW information. Other beneficial mutations include wingless beetles on small desert islands… the wind is less likely to blow them o0ut to sea. Obviously, this has nothing to do with the origins of flight in the first place, which is what evolution is supposed to be about.” (Pg. 127)
This book (and its more detailed sequel) will interest young-earth creationists.