13. Bone of Contention, Part 1

Plot Summary

Dr. Kendall Park and his family are trapped inside the Hidden Cave and must fight for survival! Meanwhile, the credit for Dr. Park’s fossil discovery, which earlier had cost him his job, is being claimed by an old friend.  (Taken from here.)

The Study Guide for episodes 13-14 can be found here.

Topics:

• Red blood cells in a T-Rex fossil
• The age of the earth
• Evolution is a random process
• Stalactites and Stalagmites
• Evidence for a young earth
• Young Earth Creationism

Review

Red Blood Cells Found in a T-Rex Fossil

The Story: In 1998, Dr Park and his team found a Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil that still had red blood cells in it.  He is upset because his former colleague, Dr Marcel Dubois, is now taking credit for his discovery.  Dr Park says that now he is a Creationist, that discovery would be even more important because red blood cells could not possibly survive 65 million years and is more evidence that the earth is young.  (5:53-6:53)

The Facts: This issue will be dealt with in more detail in the next episode.

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The Age of the Earth

Bishop Ussher

The Story: Dr Park explains that according to the Bible, by counting up the genealogies, the earth is (only) about 6000 years old, and not millions of years old as evolutionists claim. (6:53-7:12)

The Facts: Bishop Ussher, a Church of Ireland bishop, worked out using the Bible’s chronologies that the Earth was created in 4004 BC.   Based on this calculation, this would make the world about 6000 years old.

Not all YECists hold the view that the earth is only about 6000 years old.  Henry M. Morris, the founder of the Institute of Creation Research believed that the world was no older than 10,000 years. 10,000 years is 67% more than 6000 years. The Institute for Creation Research is the original creator of the Jonathan Park series.  So, it is interesting that the present producers have a more conservative estimate of the age of the earth.

According to mainstream science, the world is about 4.54 billion years old.  This number was arrived at by looking at a number of things ( not just counting up chronologies).

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Evolution Is a Random Process

The Story: Dr Park says, “Evolution says that everything has come together by random chance.” (7:15-7:20)

The Facts: No, it does not.  Evolution is fundamentally NOT a random process.

(This statement that ‘evolution is a chance/random process’ gets repeated often. )

The Story: Dr Park explains that since ‘random chance’ is ‘impossible’, evolutionists had to come up with a better explanation, namely, that of time.  Given enough time, ie, millions of years, the more likely things were able to form by random chance. (7:20-7:32)

The Facts:

Macroevolution = Microevolution + Time

The above equation pretty much sums it up (no pun intended).

The bottom line, however, is that Evolution is not a random process.

The facts are right, but when Dr Park says that ‘evolutionists had to come up with a better explanation’, he is attaching an intention to the actions.  How does he know his statement to be true?

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Stalactites and Stalagmites:

The Story: Jessie and Jonathan talk about a bat trapped inside a stalagmite in Hidden Cave.  Dr Park explains that evolutionists say that it takes millions of years for stalactites and stalagmites to form; if they are right, then there is no way that the earth is young (like the Bible says).  The stalagmite in the cave must have formed so quickly that it provided minerals that replaced the cells in the bat’s body causing it to fossilise.  If this process had taken millions of years, the bat would have rotted long ago.

The characters then give other examples where stalactites/stalagmites have formed quickly:

1. Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine, Cripple Creek, Colorado: The mine closed in 1961.  Only 40 years later, some of the stalactites and stalagmites formed were nine feet tall and five inches thick.
2. Sequoyah Caverns, Alabama: Stalagmites have been observed to grow 10 inches in one year.
3. Jenolan Caves, New South Wales, Australia: Apparently, in 1954 someone placed a lemonade bottle under a stalactite.  Thirty-three years later, this bottle was completely encased inside a stalagmite.

They conclude that when evolutionists say that cave formations prove the earth to be millions of years old, it simply isn’t true. (7:50-11:48)

The Facts: Simple answer: not all stalactites and stalagmites are the same.  They don’t always take millions of years to form.  It depends on the material.  Some materials dissolve quicker than others.

Here is a good answer to the claim that stalactites and stalagmites can be formed quickly.  It is claim #22, so you will need to scroll down a bit.

Cave formations are not the only thing scientists look at when determining the age of the earth.

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Evidence for a Young Earth:

The Story: Dr Russell Humphreys, an ICR physicist, is mentioned as saying that if we examine all of the known phsical indicators, 90% of them would show that the earth is much younger than what the evolutionists claim.

Three examples:

1. Shape of our galaxy: Our Milky Way is a spiral with distinct arms and is windin itself up.  If it were billions of years old, it would have wound up already.
2. Comets: While comets circle the sun, they lost a part of themselves.  We should not see them anymore if our solar system is 4.6 billions years old.
3. Silt on the ocean floor: There should be a lot more sediment on the ocean floors.  Also, the amount of salt and other minerals in the ocean indicate a young earth.
4. The moon: Scientists have measured that our moon is moving away from the earth at a rate of one centimetre a year.  If this is so, then once upon a time the moon’s gravitational force would have been so strong that life on earth would have been near impossible.

(16:50-18:00)

The Facts:

The spiral ‘problem’ is addressed here.

The comet ‘problem’ is addressed here. Old comets have indeed diminished to nothing.  Newer comets enter the solar system from time to time.  And there are comets beyond the orbit of Neptune that do not lost part of themselves at all.

The ocean ‘problem’ is addressed here. Dr Humphreys failed to take into consideration the amount of salt and other minerals leaving the ocean.

The moon ‘problem’ is addressed here.

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Young Earth Creationism:

The Story: The characters talk about the importance of countering the idea that the universe is billions of years old. They discuss why it is important for Christians to understand that there is scientific evidence for a young earth, exactly the way the Bible says.  Martha wonders how Christians can take the eternal truths of an all-knowing God and try to fit them into the beliefs of ‘sinful man’.  Angela says that some Christians try to get around the literal meaning of ‘day’ in the Bible by saying that those days are actually millions of years.  Dr Park explains that the word for day in the Bible, yom, means a 24-hour day, especially in Genesis because it refers to ‘morning and evening’.  Also, if yom meant millions of years, then there would be problems.  For example, are we to believe that we are meant to work for six million years and then take a one-million-year rest?  How did plants survive for one million years before the creation of the sun?  The characters all agree that these ideas are silly and ridiculous.  Only Creation makes sense.  (21:20-23:30)

The Facts: This little segment is YEC propaganda.  I am also disturbed by the characters ridiculing non-YEC beliefs and showing poor logical thinking skills.

Christians, by definition, follow the teachings of Jesus Christ.  I find it noteworthy that neither the Apostles’ Creed nor the Nicene Creed make any mention of belief in the Bible.  It is true that some Christians do not subscribe to any kind of creed at all, and some churches do list ‘belief in the Bible’ in their statement of faith.  Different people may say they ‘believe in the Bible’ and yet interpret in different ways.  According to wikipedia, there are at least ten different methods and perspectives of biblical criticism.

“Beliefs of sinful man” Martha is implying that since evolutionary ideas come from Man (who is sinful), it is inferior to creation ideas which come from God (who is perfect).  This is a genetic fallacy, which is the basing a conclusion on something’s origins rather than investigating it on its own merits.

“Yom” Yes, yom does indeed means ‘day’.  This does not prove that the earth is young, merely that the author of Genesis 1 decided to use yom in writing the creation account.  On the seventh day, there is no mention of ‘and there was evening and there was morning’ like there is on the other days.

Here is an Old-Earth Creation take on the word ‘Day’.

The account in  Genesis 2 makes no mention of days at all. Also,the deity is referred to as ‘the LORD God’ in chapter 2, whereas he is referred to as ‘God’ in Chapter 1.  This is not a minor difference.  More information here.

“How did plants survive without the sun?” *sigh* I guess the same way there could be evening and morning for three ‘yoms’ without the sun.

The characters (once again!) assume that there are only two models: evolution and (young-earth) creationism.  Since evolution is the idea of ‘sinful man’ and it cannot fit a literal interpretation of Genesis, then it follows that evolution is wrong.  Firstly, creation and evolution are not mutually exclusive. Theistic evolutionism is a model where both can co-exist.  Secondly, there are other models.

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Conclusion

Less than ten minutes’ worth of ‘science’ content.  The historical content and places mentioned are true and correct.  The science portion leaves much to be desired.  There was a lot of effort taken to show how ‘evolution’ is wrong, impossible or just plain silly and therefore Creation must be right.

If you are going to listen to this program, please take the time to read up on the claims.  Do not merely take their word for it.  I find it extremely telling that in their Study Guide, they encourage their listeners to research and follow up any questions by referring to creation resources.  And Creationists want Evolutionists to look at both sides?