Nebraska Man Debunked (1928). In 1922 a
single molar tooth was found and named Hesperopithecus, or
"Nebraska Man." An artist was told to make an "apeman"
picture based on the tooth, which went around the world. Nebraska
Man was a key evidence at the Scopes trial in July 1925 (The
evolutionists had little else to offer!). *Grafton Smith, one of those
involved in publicizing Nebraska Man was knighted for his efforts in
making known this fabulous find. When paleontologists returned to the
site in 1928, they found the rest of the skeleton,—and
discovered the tooth belonged to "an extinct pig"! (*R.
Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution, 1990, p. 322). In 1972, living
specimens of the same pig were found in Paraguay.
George McCready Price (1870-1963) had a
master’s level degree, but not in science. Yet he was the
staunchest opponent of evolution in the first half of the 20th century.
He produced 38 books and numerous articles to various journals. Price
was the first person to carefully research into the accumulated findings
of geologists, and he discovered that they had no evidence supporting
their claims about strata and fossils. Since his time, the situation
has not changed (*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution, 1990, p.
194).
Along with mutations, the study of fossils and strata
ranks as the leading potential evidences supporting evolutionary claims.
But no transitional species have been found. Ancient species (aside
from the extinct ones) were like those today, except larger, and strata
are generally missing and at times switched—with "younger"
strata below "older." Because there is no fossil/strata
evidence supporting evolution, the museums display dinosaurs and other
extinct animals as proof that evolution has occurred. But extinction
is not an evidence of evolution. Much more on this in chapter 12, Fossils
and Strata.
*Oliver Wendel Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935),
powerfully affected the U.S. Supreme Court in both viewpoint and legal
precedents. He was forceful in his positions and a leading justice for
30 years. The prevalent view since his time is that law is a product
of evolution and should continually evolve in accord with social policy.
But this, of course, keeps taking America further and further from the
U.S. Constitution.
*Vladimir (Nikolai) Lenin (1870-1924)
and *Josef Stalin (1879-1953). Lenin was an ardent
evolutionist who, in 1918, violently overthrew the Russian government
and founded the Soviet Union.
According to *Yaroslavsky, a close friend of his, at
an early age, while attending a Christian Orthodox school, Stalin began
to read *Darwin and became an atheist (*E. Yaroslavsky, Landmarks
in the Life of Stalin, 1940, pp. 8-9). Stalin was head of the Soviet
Union from 1924 to 1953. During those years, he was responsible for
the death of millions of Russians who refused to yield to his
slave-state tactics. The Soviet Union under Stalin was an
outstanding example of Darwinist principles extended to an entire
nation.
*Austin H. Clark (1880-1954), an ardent
evolutionist, was on the staff of the Smithsonian Institute from 1908 to
1950 and a member of several important scientific organizations. A
prominent scientist, he authored several books and about 600 scientific
articles. But, after years of honestly trying to deal with the fact
that there is no evidence of cross-species change, in 1930 he wrote an
astounding book, The New Evolution: Zoogenesis. In it, he cited
fact after fact, disproving the possibility that major types of plants
and animals could have evolved from one another. The book was
breathtaking and could not be answered by any evolutionist. His
alternate proposal, zoogenesis, was that every major type of
plant and animal must have evolved—not from one another—but directly
from dirt and water! (*A.H. Clark, The New Evolution: Zoogenesis,
1930, pp. 211, 100, 189, 196, 114). The evolutionary world was
stunned into silence, for he was an expert who knew all the reasons why
trans-species evolution was impossible.
*Richard Goldschmidt (1878-1958). The
same year that *Clark wrote his book (1930), Goldschmidt gave up
also. An earnest evolutionist, he had dedicated his life to proving
it by applying X-rays and chemicals to fruit flies at the University of
California, Berkeley, and producing large numbers of mutations in them. After
25 exhausting years, in which he had worked with more generations of
fruit flies than humans and their ape ancestors are conjectured to have
lived on our planet, Goldschmidt decided that he must figure out a
different way that cross-species evolution could occur. For the next
ten years, as he continued his fruit fly research, he gathered more
evidence of the foolishness of evolutionary theory;—and, in 1940, he
wrote his book, The Material Basis of Evolution, in which he
exploded point after point in the ammunition box of the theory. He
literally tore it to pieces (*Norman Macbeth, Darwin Retried,
1974, p. 152). No evolutionist could answer him. Like them, he was a
confirmed evolutionary atheist, but he was honestly facing the facts.
After soundly destroying their theory, he announced his new concept: a
megaevolution in which one life-form suddenly emerged completely out of
a different one! He called them "hopeful monsters."
One day a fish laid some eggs, and some of them turned into a frog, a
snake laid an egg, and a bird hatched from it! Goldschmidt asked for
even bigger miracles than A.H. Clark had proposed! (*Steven M.
Stanley, Macroevolution: Pattern and Process, 1979, p. 159).
American Humanist Association (1933). "Humanism"
is the modern word for "atheism." As soon as it was formed
in 1933, the AHA began working closely with science federations, to
promote evolutionary theory, and with the ACLU (American Civil Liberties
Union), to provoke legal action in the courts forcing Americans to
accept their evolutionary beliefs. Signatories included *Julian
Huxley (*T.H. Huxley’s grandson), *John Dewey, *Margaret Sanger, *H.J.
Muller, *Benjamin Spock, *Erich Froom, and *Carl Rogers (*American
Humanist Association, promotional literature).
*Trofim Lysenko (1893-1976) rose to
power in the 1930s in the USSR by convincing the government that he
could create a State Science that combined Darwinian evolution theory
in science, animal husbandry, and agriculture with Marxist theory.
With *Stalin’s hearty backing, Lysenko became responsible for the
death of thousands, including many of Russia’s best scientists. Lysenko
banned Mendelian genetics as a bourgeois heresy. He was ousted in
1965 when his theories produced agricultural disaster for the nation.
(He claimed to be able to change winter wheat into spring wheat, through
temperature change, and wheat into rye in one generation.)
*Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) was
chancellor of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. He carefully studied
the writings of *Darwin and *Nietzsche. Hitler’s book, Mein
Kampf, was based on evolutionary theory (*Sir Arthur Keith,
Evolution and Ethics, 1947, p. 28). The very title of the book ("My
Struggle" [to survive and overcome]) was copied from a
Darwinian expression. Hitler believed he was fulfilling evolutionary
objectives by eliminating "undesirable individuals and inferior
races" in order to produce Germany’s "Master Race" (*Larry
Azar, Twentieth Century in Crisis, 1990, p. 180). (Notice that the
"master race" people always select the race they are in as the
best one.)
*Benito Mussolini (1883-1945), the
Italian Fascist dictator, was also captivated by *Darwin and *Nietzsche;
and Neitzsche said he got his ideas from Darwin (*R.E.D. Clark,
Darwin: Before and After, 1948, p. 115). Mussolini believed that
violence is basic to social transformation (*Encyclopedia
Britannica, 1962, Vol. 16, p. 27).
Coelacanth Discovered (1938). It was once an
"index fossil, used to date a sedimentary strata. Evolutionists
declared it as having been dead for 70 million years. If their strata
theory was correct, no living specimens could occur, since no
coelacanth fossils had been found in the millions of years of higher
strata. But then, on December 25, 1938, a trawler fishing off South
Africa brought up one that was 5 feet in length. More were found
later. Many other discoveries helped disprove the evolutionists’
fossil/strata theories. Even living creatures like the trilobite have
been found! (*"Living Fossil Resembles Long-extinct
Trilobite," Science Digest, December 1957).
Hiroshima (1945), is an evolutionist’s
paradise; for it is filled with people heavily irradiated,
which—according to evolutionary mutation theory—should be able to
produce children which are new, different, and a more exalted species. But
this has not happened. Only injury and death resulted from the August 6,
1945, nuclear explosion. Mutations are always harmful and frequently
lethal within a generation or two (*Animal Species and Evolution, p.
170, *H.J. Muller, Time, November 11, 1946, p. 38).
First Mechanism Changeover (1940s). *Darwin
originally wrote that random activity naturally selects itself into
improvements (a concept which any sensible person will say is
totally impossible). In a later book (Descent of Man, 1871),
Darwin abandoned "natural selection" as hopeless, and returned
to Lamarckism (the scientifically discredited inheritance of acquired
characteristics; if you build strong muscles, your son will inherit
them). But evolutionists remained faithful to Darwin’s original
mechanism (natural selection) for decades. They were called "Darwinists."
But, by the 1940s, many were switching over to mutations as the
mechanism of cross-species change. Its advocates were called "neo-Darwinists."
The second changeover would come in the 1980s.
Radiocarbon dating (1946). *Willard Libby and
his associates discovered carbon-14 (C-14) as a method for the dating
of earlier organic materials. But later research revealed that its
inaccuracy increases in accordance with the actual age of the material
(*C.A. Reed, "Animal Domestication in the Prehistoric
Near East," in Science, 130, 1959, p. 1630; University of
California at Los Angeles, "On the Accuracy of Radiocarbon
Dates," in Geochronicle, 2, 1966 [Libby’s own laboratory]).
Big Bang Hypothesis (1948) Astronomers were
totally buffaloed as to where matter and stars came from. In
desperation, *George Gamow and two associates dreamed up the astonishing
concept that an explosion of nothing produced hydrogen and helium,
which then shot outward, then turned and began circling and pushing
itself into our present highly organized stars and galactic systems.
This far-fetched theory has repeatedly been opposed by a number of
scientists (*G. Burbidge, "Was There Really a Big Bang?" in
Nature 233, 1971, pp. 36, 39). By the 1980s, astronomers which
continued opposing the theory began to be relieved of their research
time at major observatories ("Companion Galaxies Match Quasar
Redshifts: The Debate Goes On," Physics Today, 37:17, December
1984). In spite of clear evidence that the theory is unscientific
and unworkable, evolutionists refuse to abandon it.
Steady State Universe Theory (1948). In 1948,
*Fred Hoyle, working with *Hermann Bondi and *Thomas Gold, proposed this
theory as an alternative to the Big Bang. It declared that matter is
continually "blipping" into existence throughout the universe
(*Peter Pocock and *Pat Daniels, Galaxies, p. 114; *Fred Hoyle,
Frontiers of Astronomy, 1955, pp. 317-318). We will learn that in
1965, the theory was abandoned. *Hoyle said it disagreed with several
scientific facts.
(1949-). When the communists took control of China in 1949, the first
new text introduced into all the schools was neither Marxist nor
Leninist, but Darwinian. Chinese communist leaders eagerly grasped
evolutionary theory as a basic foundation for their ideology. The
government established the Paleontological Institute in Beijing, with a
large staff of paleontologists.
*Sir Julian S. Huxley (1887-1975).
Grandson of *Darwin’s "bulldog" (*Thomas Huxley), *Julian
Huxley was the leading spokesman for evolution by natural selection in
the mid-20th century. Upon being named the first director-general of
UNESCO, he was able to make evolution the keystone of United Nations
scientific policy. He saw it as his opportunity to extend
evolutionary thinking to the nations of the world, and he made the
most of it (*Julian Huxley, UNESCO pamphlet).
Piltdown Skull Debunked (1953). This piece
of skull and separate jaw was the only clear evidence that man was
descended from an apelike creature. In 1953, *Kenneth Oakley
(British Museum geologist), *Joseph Weiner (Oxford University
anthropologist), and *Le Gros Clark (anatomy professor at Oxford) managed
to get their hands on the Piltdown skull and jaw—and proved it a total
forgery. The newly developed fluorine test revealed the bones to be
quite recent. Additional research showed the bones had been stained with
bichromate, to make them appear aged. Drillings into the bone produced
shavings instead of powder. The canine tooth was found to have been
filed and stained. Weiner published a book about the Piltdown forgery in
1955 (*William L. Straus, Jr., "The Great Piltdown Hoax,"
Science, February 26, 1954; *Robert Silverberg, Scientists and
Scoundrels: A Book of Hoaxes, 1965).
Amino Acid Synthesis (1953). When *Stanley
Miller produced a few amino acids from chemicals, amid a continuous
small sparking apparatus, newspaper headlines proclaimed: "Life has
been created!" But evolutionists hid the truth: The experiment had
disproved the possibility that evolution could occur.
The amino acids were totally dead, and the
experiment only proved that a synthetic production of them would result
in equal amounts of left- and right-handed amino acids. Since only
left-handed ones exist in animals, accidental production could never
produce a living creature (*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution,
1990, p. 274).
Discovery of DNA (1953). *Rosiland Franklin
took some special photographs which were used in 1953 by *Francis Crick
and *James Watson (without giving her credit), to develop the astounding
helix model of the DNA molecule. DNA has crushed the hopes of
biological evolutionists, for it provides clear evidence that every
species is locked into its own coding pattern. It would be impossible
for one species to change into another, since the genes network together
so closely. It is a combination lock, and it is shut tight. Only
sub-species variations can occur (varieties in plants, and breeds in
animals). This is done through gene shuffling (*A.I. Oparin, Life:
Its Nature, Origin and Development, 1961, p. 31; *Hubert P. Yockey,
"A Calculation of Probability of Spontaneous Biogenesis by
Information Theory," Journal of Theoretical Biology, Vol. 67, 1977,
p. 398).
The odds of accidentally producing the correct DNA
code in a species or changing it into another viable species are
mathematically impossible (*J Leslie, "Cosmology, Probability,
and the Need to Explain Life," in Scientific American and
Understanding, pp. 53, 64-65; *E. Ambrose, Nature and Origin of the
Biological World, 1982, p. 135).
Five Polls about Evolution (1954). (1) The
general public supports the teaching of creation in public schools,
not just evolution, by a massive majority of 86% to 8% (AP-NBC News
poll). (2) A national poll of attorneys agree (56% to 26%)
and find dual instruction constitutional (63% to 26%, American Bar
Association-commissioned poll). (3) A majority of university
students at two secular colleges also agree (80% at Ohio State, 56%
at Oberlin, Fuerst, Zimmerman). (4) Two-thirds of public
school board members agree (67% to 25%, American School Board
Journal poll). (5) A substantial minority of public school
teacher favor creation over evolution (Austin Analytical
Consulting poll; source: W.R. Bird, Origin of Species Revisited,
1954, p. 8).
Courville’s Research (1956). After 15 years
of careful research, Donovan A. Courville, a Loma Linda University
biochemist, published an important book, Exodus Problem and Its
Ramifications. Courville correlated ancient Egyptian and Bible
events and dates, providing us with one of the best ancient chronologies
available. He showed that Manetho’s king-list overlapped,
resulting in a major reduction in the duration of Egypt’s dynastic
history and a placement of its first double-ruler dynasty at around 2150
B.C. This study, along with others reviewed in chapter 21, Archaeological
Dating, shows that archaeological dating does correlate closely
with Bible history. (Due to a lack of space, as we neared publishing
time we had to omit most of this chapter; but it is on our website.)
*Thompson’s Attack on *Darwin
(1956). W.R. Thompson, a leading evolutionary scientist, was asked to
write the Introduction to the 1956 reprint edition of
Darwin’s Origin of the Species. In it, Thompson
scathingly attacked Darwin’s theories on every essential point as
worthless (*W.R. Thompson, Introduction to Charles Darwin, Origin
of the Species, 1956 edition).
Children’s Books (1958). While
evolutionists secretly recognize that their theory is falling through
the floor, to the gullible public it is praised more and more as the
scientifically proven answer to the mystery of life and matter. In
1958, the Wonderful Egg was published and immediately recommended
by the *American Association for the Advancement of Science as a
worthwhile science guide for little children. Two major NEA affiliates
(the *American Council on Education and the *Association for
Childhood Education International) gave it their highest
recommendation. The book tells about a mother dinosaur who laid a
"wonderful egg" which hatched into a baby bird—"the
first baby bird in the whole world! And the baby bird grew up . . with
feathers . . the first beautiful bird that ever sang a song high in the
tree tops . . of long, long ago" (quoted in H. Morris and G.
Parker, What is Creation Science? p. 148).
Geoscience Research Institute (1958). This
creationist organization, now located in Loma Linda, California, was
organized specifically to carry on research work, in the area of
creationism, and produce educational materials for scientists and
science teachers.
Darwinian Centennial Celebration (1959). As
the year 1959 approached, evolutionists saw it as a splendid opportunity
to ballyhoo the glories of evolutionary theory. As the 100th anniversary
of Darwin’s Origin of the Species approached, a flood of books
and articles appeared. The largest meeting was held at the University
of Chicago, where *Julian Huxley gave the keynote address, focusing his
attention on a triumphant, total repudiation of God.
The same year, two major books attacking evolutionary
theory in great detail were released: The first was *Gertrude
Himmelfarb’s Darwin and the Darwinian Revolution. Holding a
doctorate from the University of Chicago, her book was a powerful exposé
on the havoc the theory has wrought on the modern world. The second
in-depth book was by *Jacques Barzun, history professor and dean of the
Graduate Faculties at Columbia University. His book, Darwin, Marx,
Wagner, declared that evolutionary theory was directly responsible
for European wars from 1870 to 1945.
Biological Sciences Curriculum (1959).
Another significant event that year was the establishment of a
standardized Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) for
public secondary schools. The stated objective was the teaching of
evolution, sex education, racial problems, and the need for legalizing
abortion (*A.B. Grobman, Biological Science: An Inquiry into
Life, p. xv). BSCS quickly received a $7 million grant from the
National Science Foundation, to develop this new series.
Shortly afterward, a second major textbook revision
project, Man: A Course of Study, was given $7 million by the
National Science Foundation. It was filled with humanism and morally
objectionable interpretations of personal and social life.
Revolt in France (early 1960s). A
large number of French biologists and taxonomists (species
classification experts) rebelled against the chains of the evolutionary
creed and declared that they would continue their research, but
would no longer try to prove evolution, which they considered an
impossible theory. Taxonomists who joined the revolt took the name "cladists"
(*Z. Litynski, "Should We Burn Darwin?" in Science Digest,
Vol. 51, January 1961, p. 61).
First Quasar Discovered (1962). Telescopes
found a mysterious object, which was named 3C273, which had a
spectrum that was unintelligible. This peculiar object radiated most
strongly in the far blue and ultraviolet fringes of the visible
spectrum. It was a total mystery until February 1963, when *Jesse
Schmidt recognized that the problem was that it had a radical 16%
shift toward the red. If the speed theory of redshift, promoted by
evolutionists, was correct,—that meant the object was moving away
from us at 16% of the speed of light—and was a massive 3 billion
light-years from earth!
As more—and apparently "faster"—quasars
were discovered, the situation kept worsening. Ultimately, their
existence debunked the evolutionist’s speed theory of redshift. Yet
the redshift and background radiation were the only two
"evidences" of an earlier Big Bang! For example, in
1977, a quasar was found which, according to the redshift theory, was
moving faster (eight times faster) than the speed of light! Of course,
scientists know it is impossible for anything to travel faster than the
speed of light (*George Abell, Exploration of the Universe, 1973, p.
409; *Time-Life, Cosmic Mysteries, 1990, pp. 68-69; *Sky and Telescope
53, 1977, p. 1702).
Creation Research Society (1963). This
important creation research organization was founded by doctoral
scientists, with the express purpose of conducting research into
creation-evolution topics and publishing regular reports on them.
Its reports have been of a high scientific caliber.
Background Radiation (1965). Using a
sensitive radio astronomy telescope, *A.A. Penzias and *R.W. Wilson
(researchers at Bell Laboratories), discovered low-energy microwave
radiation coming from outer space. Big Bang theorists immediately
claimed that this proved the Big Bang! They said it was the last
part of the explosion. But further research disclosed that it came
from every direction instead of only one; that it was the wrong
temperature; and that it was too even. Even discoveries in the 1990s
have failed to show that this radiation is "lumpy" enough
(their term) to have produced stars and planets.
Steady State Universe Theory Abandoned
(1965). *Fred Hoyle abandoned the steady state theory entirely in a public
announcement at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement
of Science. He listed five scientific reasons why it was impossible (Nature,
October 9, 1965, p. 113).
The Switzerland Meeting (1965). It was not
until the 1960s that the neo-Darwinists (those who had given up on
natural selection and believed that mutations were the mechanism of
cross-species change) began fighting with one another in earnest. At
this meeting of mathematicians and biologists, mathematical doubts were
raised about the possibility of evolution having occurred. At the
end of several hours of heated discussion, it was decided to hold
another meeting the next year.
The Wistar Institute Symposium (1966). A
milestone meeting was the four-day Wistar Institute Symposium, held in
Philadelphia in April 1966. A number of mathematicians, familiar with
biological problems, spoke—and clearly refuted neo-Darwinism in
several ways. An important factor was that large computers were by
this time able to work out immense calculations—showing that
evolution could not possibly occur, even over a period of billions of
years, given the complexities of DNA, protein, the cell, enzymes, and
other factors.
We will cite one example here: *Murray Eden
of MIT explained that life could not begin by "random
selection." He noted that, if randomness is removed, only
"design" would remain,—and that required purposive planning
by an Intelligence. He showed that it would be impossible for even a
single ordered pair of genes to be produced by DNA mutations in the
bacteria, E. Coli (which has very little DNA), with 5 billion
years in which to produce it. Eden then showed the mathematical
impossibility of protein forming by chance. He also reported on his
extensive investigations into genetic data on hemoglobin (red blood
cells). Hemoglobin has two chains, called alpha and beta. A minimum of
120 mutations would be required to convert alpha to beta. At least 34 of
those changes require changeovers in 2 or 3 nucleotides. Yet, Eden
pointed out, if a single nucleotide change occurs through mutation, the
result ruins the blood and kills the organism! For more on the Wistar
Institute, read the following book: *Paul Moorhead and *Martin Kaplan
(eds.), Mathematical Challenges to the Neo-Darwinian Interpretation of
Evolution, Wistar Institute Monograph No. 5.
Antelope Springs Tracks (1968). Trilobites
are small marine creatures that are now extinct. Evolutionists tell
us that trilobites are one of the most ancient creatures that have ever
lived on Planet Earth, and they lived millions of years before there
were human beings. *William J. Meister, Sr., a non-Christian
evolutionist, made a hobby of searching for trilobite fossils in the
mountains of Utah. On June 1, 1968, he found a human footprint and
trilobites in the same rock, and the footprint was stepping on some of
the trilobites! The location was Antelope Springs, about 43 miles [69
km] northwest of Delta, Utah.
Then, breaking off a large, two-inch thick piece of
rock, he hit it on edge with a hammer, and it fell open in his hands. To
his great astonishment, he found on one side the footprint of a human
being, with trilobites right in the footprint itself! The other half of
the rock slab showed an almost perfect mold of a footprint and fossils.
Amazingly, the human was wearing a sandal! To make a longer story
short, the find was confirmed when scientists came and found more
sandaled footprints. Meister was so stunned that he became a
Christian. This was Cambrian strata, the lowest level of strata in
the world; yet it had sandaled human footprints! ("Discovery
of Trilobite Fossils in Shod Footprint of Human in ‘Trilobite Beds,’
a Cambrian Formation, Antelope, Springs, Utah," in Why Not
Creation? 1970, p. 190).
The Alpbach Institute Symposium (1969). A
follow-up meeting of scientists was held and given the title, "Beyond
Reductionism." But it only resulted in fruitless discussions
by scientists who had carefully researched the problems, with men who
were desperately trying to defend evolutionary theories, against an
ever-growing mountain of evidence to the contrary.
First Moon Landing (1969). By the 1950s,
scientists were able to predict that, if the moon was billions of
years old, it would have a thick layer of dust many miles thick.
This is due to the fact, as *R.A. Lyttleton explained, the lunar surface
is exposed to direct sunlight and strong ultraviolet light and X-rays
from the sun gradually destroying the surface layers of exposed rock,
reducing them to dust at the rate of a few ten-thousandths of an inch
per year. In 5 to 10 billion years, this would produce 20-60 miles
[32-97 km] of dust (*R.A. Lyttleton, quoted in R. Wysong,
Creation-Evolution Controversy, p. 175).
Because of this, NASA first sent an unmanned lander,
which made the discovery that there is very little dust on the moon’s
surface. In spite of that, Neil Armstrong feared that he and Edwin
Aldrin might suffocate when they landed. But because the moon is young,
they had no problem. Landing on July 20, 1969, they found not
over 2 or three inches [5.08 or 7.62 cm] of dust on its surface.
That is the amount one would expect if the moon were about 6000-8000
years old.
In *Isaac Asimov’s first published article (1958),
he predicted that the first rocket to land on the moon would sink
ingloriously in the dust, and everyone inside would perish (Article
mentioned in *Isaac Asimov, Asimov on Science: A Thirty-Year
Retrospective, 1989, pp. xvi-xvii).
Bone Inventory (1971). A complete listing
of all the Australopithecine finds, up to the end of 1971, was
printed in a new book. This included all the African bones of our
"half-ape, half-human ancestors" (*Time-Life, The Missing
Link, Vol. 2). Although over 1400 specimens are described, most
are little more than scraps of bone or isolated teeth. Not one complete
skeleton of one individual exists. When parts of bones are found,
they, of course, can be moved into various positions and be interpreted
as belonging to different creatures with very different skull and jaw
shapes. To this day, there is no real evidence of any genuine
non-human ancestor of ours. Chapter 13 explains why reputable
scientists question or reject the various finds by anthropologists.
*Matthews Attacks Darwinism (1971). By
the latter part of the 20th century, even though the ignorant public
continued to be told that evolution was a triumphant, proven success, it
was difficult to find any scientist who would defend Darwin’s theories
before his peers. *L. Harrison Matthews, another distinguished
scientist, was asked to write a new introduction to Darwin’s Origin
of the Species, to replace *Thompson’s 1956 Introduction
which scathingly attacked Darwinism. In his Introduction,
Matthews said that Thompson’s attacks on Darwin were
"unanswerable." Then Matthews proceeded to add more damaging
facts (*L. Harrison Matthews, Introduction to Charles Darwin,
Origin of the Species, 1971 edition). The evolutionary theory must
have run into hard times, when book publishers cannot find a reputable
scientist who is appreciative either of its basic teachings or its
founder.
Nice Symposium (1972). By the early 1970s,
not only were biological evolutionists in turmoil, but cosmologists
(astronomical evolutionists) were also. The Nice Symposium met in
April 1972, to summarize what had been accomplished and list what was
still unknown. The unanswered questions included just about every aspect
of evolution in outer space! (See "Nice" in Index for a
number of the questions.) How did hydrogen clouds form themselves into
stars? How did linear momentum from the theorized Big Bang change itself
into angular momentum—and begin circling. How did the planets and
moons form? The entire list is mind-boggling. After all these years,
the astronomers still do not have answers to any of the basic
evolutionary problems (Review of the Nice Symposium, in R.E.
Kofahl and K.L. Segraves, The Creation Explanation, pp. 141-143).
Institute for Creation Research (1972). Henry
Morris and associates founded the Institute for Creation Research (ICR)
this year. It has since become the leading anti-evolution
organization in the world and is located in El Cajon, California.
Return of the Hopeful Monster (1972).
*Stephen Jay Gould, a highly respected paleontologist at Harvard; *Niles
Eldredge, the head paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural
History in New York City; and *Steven M. Stanley, of Johns Hopkins
University, have led out in resuscitating *Richard Goldschmidt’s
"hopeful monster" theory—and demanding that the
community of evolutionary scientists consider it as the only possible
mechanism for trans-species changeovers.
It was first revived in a cautious science paper
presented by *Gould and *Eldredge in 1972 (Punctuated
Equilibria: An Alternative to Phyletic Gradualism, 1972), but it was
not until 1977 that an article by Gould brought it back to center stage
("Return of the Hopeful Monsters," in Natural History,
June-July, 1977). The increasing despondency among evolutionists,
over their inability to use natural selection or mutations, to provide
even the slightest evidence of cross-species evolution, eventually led
large numbers of scientists, in the 1980s, to switch over to this
astoundingly ridiculous concept that millions of beneficial mutations
occur once every 50,000 years to two creatures, a male and female who
are living near each other—thus producing a new species pair!
Poll of Citizens and Parents (1973). A survey
of 1346 homes found that 89% said creation should be taught in the
public schools. In a separate poll of 1995 homes, 84% said
scientific evidence for creation should be presented along with
evolution ("A Comparison of Students Studying . . Two
Models," in Decade of Creation, 1981, pp. 55-56).
Dudley’s Radiodating Research (1975). Radiodating
of the sedimentary rocks, based on uranium, thorium, and other chains,
had become relied on heavily to provide the "millions of
years" dates. But a broad variety of research data repeatedly
demonstrated that these methods are extremely unreliable (much more on
this in chapter 6, Inaccurate Dating Methods). *H.C. Dudley,
one of these researchers, found that using pressure, temperature,
electric and magnetic fields, stress in monomolecular layers, etc., he
could change the decay rates of 14 different radioisotopes. The
implications of this are astounding. The strata were laid down
under great pressure, and samples would vary widely to temperature and
other changes. Such discoveries, along with the fact that the dates
never agree with one another, greatly reduce the value of radiodating
uranium, thorium, and other rocks (*H.C. Dudley, "Radioactivity
Re-Examined," in Chemical and Engineering News, April 7, 1975, p.
2).
*Leakey’s Footprints (1977).
Throughout the 20th century, human footprints have been found in
supposedly ancient rock, sometimes with dinosaur prints. We will
mention only a couple examples in this chapter (see chapter 13, Ancient
Man, for more). In approximately 1977, *Mary Leaky found at
Laetoli in Africa, 30 miles [48 km] south of Olduvai Gorge, human
footprints which, by the strata they are on, evolutionists date at
nearly 4 million years in the past. Yet they are identical to modern
human footprints. These and other footprints disprove evolutionary
theories, especially those in which dinosaur prints are found with human
footprints. Dinosaurs are said to be dated from 65 million to 135
million years ago; whereas man is said to have appeared far more
recently (National Geographic, April 1979; Science News, February
9, 1980).
Plesiosaur Discovered (1977). Scientists
have wondered for decades whether an "extinct" dinosaur would
ever be found alive. Then, in April 1977, a Japanese fishing vessel
caught a 4000 pound [1814 kg], 10 meter [33 ft] creature in its nets off
the east coast of New Zealand. A qualified zoologist was on board and
photographed and examined it carefully and confirmed that, indeed, it
was a plesiosaur, a sea-dwelling dinosaur which supposedly had
been dead for 100 million years! They were so thrilled, that they
published scientific papers on it and issued a postage stamp! But,
recognizing that the creature would disprove their fossil/strata theory,
Western scientists said it must have been a sea lion! There was an
almost total news blackout on this in the West, with the exception
of a few publications (*New York Times, July 24, 1977; Nature,
July 28, 1977). For more information and pictures, turn to chapter
12, Fossils and Strata.
Chinese Characters Explained (1979). Chinese
is one of the most ancient written languages in existence. Each
Chinese character is a combination of several different words. C.H. Kang
and Ethel R. Nelson did extensive research into Chinese words and
discovered the characters contain the story of Creation, the Garden
of Eden, the fall of Adam and Eve, and the Flood story. For example,
the word, "boat," is made up of two words: vessel and eight
(Genesis 7:7, 13:8:13). Tempter is devil, cover, and tree (Genesis
3:1-6). In chapter 14, Effects of the Flood, will be found
several more examples, plus an illustration of what some of them look
like (C.H. Kang and Ethel R. Nelson, The Discovery of Genesis: How
the Truths of Genesis Were Found Hidden in the Chinese Language, 1979).
Poll of University Students (1979). A poll of
students at Bowling Green State University, Ohio, found a clear majority
of both undergraduate and graduate students taking biology classes
favored the teaching of both creation and evolution in the schools.
Undergraduate students: 91%, graduate students: 71.8% (Jerry Bergman,
"Attitude of University Students toward the Teaching of Creation
and Evolution in the Schools, Origins, Vol. 6, 1979, pp. 64-66).
Polystrate Mystery Solved (1980). Upright (polystrate)
tree trunks, 10-30 ft [31-95 dm] in length, have often been found in
coal beds. Yet the coal beds were supposed to have been laid down over
millions of years. Why are vertical tree trunks in them? Just after the
Mount St. Helens explosion in May 1980, analysis of nearby Spirit Lake
revealed many vertical, floating tree trunks in it. During the Flood,
such tree trunks could easily have quickly been surrounded by sediments
and buried (*Edward L. Hold, "Upright Trunks of Neocalamites
form the Upper Triassic," Journal of Geology, 55:511-513, 1947;
Steven A. Austin, "Mount St. Helens and Catastrophism," in
Impact, July 1986, pp. 1-3).
Sunderland Interviews the Experts
(1980-1981). Over a one-year period, and with their permission, Luther
Sunderland tape-recorded interviews with three of the most important
paleontologists in the world, who are in charge of at least 50 percent
of the major fossil collections on the planet, covering every basic
fossil discovery in the past 150 years. He found that not one of
them could name a single missing link, a halfway species between our
regular species (L.D. Sunderland, Darwin’s Enigma, p. 89).
There are no transitional forms. For more on this, see chapter 12, Fossils
and Strata.
Chicago Evolution Conference (1980). While
the newspapers, popular magazines, and school textbooks emblazoned
evolutionary theory as being essentially proven scientifically in so
many ways, the evolutionary scientists were discouraged. They knew the
truth. The Switzerland, Wistar, and Alpbach meetings had clearly shown
them theirs was a losing cause. However, in yet another futile effort,
in October 1980, 160 of the world’s leading evolutionary scientists
met again, this time at the University of Chicago. In brief, it was a
verbal explosion. Facts opposing evolution were presented, and angry
retorts and insults were hurled in return. The following month, *Newsweek
(November 3, 1980) reported that a large majority of
evolutionists at the conference agreed that the neo-Darwinian mechanism
(of mutations working with natural selection) could no longer be
regarded as scientifically valid or tenable. Neither the origin nor
diversity of living creatures could be explained by evolutionary theory (*Roger
Lewin, "Evolutionary Theory Under Fire," in Science, November
21, 1980; *G.R. Taylor, Great Evolution Mystery, 1983, p. 55). Why
is the public still told that evolution is essentially proven and all
the scientists believe it,—when both statements are far from the
truth?
New York City Evolution Conference (1981).
The following year, another important meeting was held, this one at the
American Museum of Natural History in New York City. *Colin
Patterson, senior paleontologist at the British Museum of Natural
History, read a paper in which he declared that evolution was
"positively anti-knowledge" and added, "All my life I had
been duped into taking evolution as revealed truth." Yet
Patterson is in charge of millions of fossil samples, and he is
well-acquainted with the collection. Commenting on the crisis, another
scientist, *Michael Ruse, wrote that the increasing number of critics
included many with "the highest intellectual credentials" (*Michael
Ruse, "Darwin’s Theory: An Exercise in Science," in New
Scientist, June 25, 1981, p. 828).
Panspermia (1981). Amid the cries of
desperation and despair, arising from evolutionary scientists, one of
the most famous scientists of the 20th century, a Nobel Prize winner,
came up with a new theory. In 1981, *Francis Crick, the co-discoverer of
the structure of the DNA molecule, published a book, declaring that "directed
panspermia" was responsible for life on earth. According to
this theory, people from another planet sent a rocket down here, with
living creatures on it, in order to populate our planet! Crick
admits that this does not explain how nearly all our plant and animal
species came into existence. Nor does it explain the transportation
problem. Centuries of travel through the cold of outer space
would be required. This theory is a desperate, gasping effort to provide
a solution to the question of how living creatures originated, a puzzle
which thousands of scientists in 150 years of diligent work have not
been able to solve. Very few intellectuals have accepted panspermia.
Cambridge Evolution Conference (1984).
Desperate for a solution, at a 1984 seminar held at Cambridge
University, *Stephen Gould’s "hopeful monster" theory was
discussed (the wild idea that a lizard laid an egg, one day, and a bird
hatched). *Karl Popper’s theory of science was also discussed.
Popper is the leading expert on the philosophy of science. His position
is that a theory must be testable. Evolution, of course, does not meet
the test. (See chapter 37, Philosophy of History, on our
website.)
Second Mechanism Changeover (1980s). The
utterly unscientific "hopeless monster" theory, which *Richard
Goldschmidt’s proposed in the 1930s, totally astounded the
evolutionary world. Yet, as the years passed and a great mountain of
evidence surfaced against both natural selection and mutations as
mechanisms of cross-species change, the experts felt desperate. —There
was nothing left but the theory of sudden, miraculous "million
mutation," beneficial changes once every 50,000 years, which
*Gould, *Stanley, and their associates were increasingly urging.
Just as astronomers had, in desperation, accepted the ridiculous Big
Bang explosion theory 20 years before as the cause of a universe of
orderly galactic systems, so the biological evolutionists now went
farther out on their own evolutionary limb. Geneticists, biologists,
and paleontologists recognized that the evolution of one species out of
another was impossible otherwise. Evolutionists, feeling hopeless,
returned to the hopeful monster.
Answers in Genesis (1980s). Ken Ham started
Answers in Genesis, a creationist organization now located in Florence,
Kentucky. It has rapidly become a powerful voice in unveiling
evolutionary errors in meetings on college and university campuses and
elsewhere. For every one creationist organization now in operation,
there ought to be a hundred.
*Halton C. Arp Eliminated (1983). A
leading astronomer and president of the Astronomical Society of the
Pacific in the early 1980s, Arp carried on research for over 30 years,
including extensive research time at Palomar and Mount Wilson
Observatories. He studied over 260 galaxies in more than 80 groups and
tabulated 24 main galaxies and 38 discordant redshift companions, plus
much more. All of this refutes the speed theory of redshift which,
along with background radiation, was the crutch that evolutionists
leaned on to defend the Big Bang (*Halton Arp, Quasars,
Redshifts and Controversies, 1987, p. 5, plus many scientific articles).
Threatened with disbarment from U.S. observatories, if he did not
stop tearing down one of the two Big Bang pillars, he refused. A few
eminent astronomers, including the renowned astrophysicist, *Geoffrey
Burbidge, made impassioned pleas for everyone to keep an open mind, but
to no avail. In 1983, Caltech’s telescope allocation committee
decided that Arp’s line of research was not worthy of support and
he was to receive no more time for his work at the telescopes of the
Mount Wilson and Palomar observatories. Refusing to switch over to
politically acceptable studies, he left Caltech for a position at the
Max Planck Institute in Munich, where he continued to pursue his ideas.
Referring to his abrupt and ignoble ouster, Burbidge later wrote, ‘No
responsible scientist I know, including many astronomers who were
strongly opposed to Arp’s thesis, believes justice was served’
" (*Time-Life, Cosmic Mysteries (1990), pp. 67-68).
Orce Man Debunked (1984). Thrilling news! At
last one of our half-ape ancestors had been found in the Andalusia
region of Spain. Certified as the "oldest man in Europe" by
a distinguished team of paleontologists, it made the headlines as
invitations were mailed to scientists throughout the continent to attend
a meeting, where they could deliver learned papers about the matter.
But then scientists in Paris discovered that it was a
skull fragment of a four-month-old donkey. Spanish officials had to
quickly mail 500 letters canceling the meeting ("Ass Taken for
Man," *London Daily Telegraph, May 14, 1984).
Archaeopteryx Debunked (1985). Although no
cross-species (half of one species and half of another) had ever been
found, something close to it had been discovered. As mentioned earlier,
in 1861 a fossilized feather was found in the limestone deposits in
Solnhofen, Germany (near Eichstatt). It was considered valuable since it
reportedly came from the late Jurassic strata—and there were not
supposed to be any birds back then. Soon another fossil was offered for
sale (always from the owners of the same quarry). It was a bird with
feathers, with the head and neck missing. The British Museum paid a lot
for it. So, in 1877, another bird with feathers was offered for
sale—and this one looked like it might have the head of a small
dinosaur!
In 1985, six leading scientists, including *Fred
Hoyle, examined the fossil—and found it to be a hoax. For details,
see chapter 17, Evolutionary Showcase.
Arkansas Creation Trial (1981). In December
1981 at the Federal District Court in Little Rock, Arkansas, Judge
William Overton presided over a trial to decide whether the State of
Arkansas could place concepts about creation in public school textbooks.
The courtroom of 200 was packed with reporters. The ACLU had over 50
lawyers and paralegals working on the case. In contrast, the Arkansas
Attorney General’s office could only commit three of its attorneys to
the case. One ACLU witness, *Francisco J. Ayala, testified that the
origin of living creatures from dirt and water, though it occurred, was
not part of evolution! That nicely took that evolutionary puzzle out of
the court trial. At any rate, on the basis of a variety of dodges and
misstatements by the plaintiffs, the judge ruled against Arkansas State.
It is a known fact that the ACLU has advised every state legislature,
considering enactment of a law permitting equal time for both views,
that the ACLU will give them another full-blown "monkey
trial," as they did at Dayton, Tennessee in 1925. The evolutionists
never defend their position with scientific facts, for they do not have
any. Instead, they use ridicule and lawsuits (Norman Geisler, The
Creator and the Courtroom, 1982; Robert Gentry, Creation’s Tiny
Mystery, 1986).
Radioactive Halos Disprove Molten Earth Theory
(1986). Robert V. Gentry carried on research into radiohalos in granite
for years, but was discharged from Oak Ridge Research Laboratory in 1982
because he testified in defense of Arkansas State at the above-mentioned
trial. He then put his years of research findings and professional
articles into a book (Creation’s Tiny Mystery, 1986). In brief,
billions upon billions of polonium 218 radiohalos are in granite, yet
each halo was formed in less than 3 minutes. There is no way the halos
could get in there after the granite was formed, yet the granite had to
be solid when the halos formed. This means the granite was created
solid in less than three minutes! Since granite is the basement
rock under every continent, it would be impossible for the earth to
once have been a molten mass as conjectured by the evolutionists.
Interestingly enough, granite can be melted; but it will reform into
rhyolite, never into granite. See chapter 3, Origin of the Earth,
for a brief summary of data on this; go to our website for a complete
study on the subject.
Poll of Biology Teachers (1988). A survey,
conducted by the University of Texas, found that 30% of 400 high-
school biology teachers believe in Biblical creation and only 19%
believe in evolution (Waco Tribune-Herald, September 11, 1988).
Chernobyl (1990) is another evolutionist’s
paradise. Since mutations are today thought to be the leading mechanism
for achieving evolutionary change for the better, the intense
radiation which the people received on April 27, 1990, should have
brought them great benefit because of all the mutations it induced. They
should be stronger, healthier, have improved organs, and produce
children which are higher forms of life. But this has not happened.
Scientists know that even Marie Curie and her daughter died as a result
of working with radiation. Mutations result in harm and death, never in
evolutionary change (*Isaac Asimov, Asimov’s New Guide to Science,
1984, pp. 691-692).