Creation by Evolution and Catatrophism

[PGL]

I am perturbed, flabbergasted, and disturbed by the continuing efforts of ignorant, misguided, and scripturally incorrect religious people to foist their misconceptions, under the guise of ‘scientific theories’ (creationism, intelligent design, etc.) upon the educational system. ANY school of thought which has ANY supernatural mechanisms as a means is inherently disqualified to be a scientific discipline. In addition to the obvious damage and hindrance to our educational curricula, these attempts are a huge misrepresentation of spiritual reality and Biblical truth; and are a tremendous disservice to God and His interests concerning the human race. Please objectively consider the enclosed information. May it finally put to rest the ‘red herring’ of an evolution/Genesis conflict. Should you find it to be of value, feel free to disseminate it as far and wide as you wish.

The validity of evolution would not, in the slightest degree, diminish the evidential necessity of the existence of God, nor would it preclude the validity of divine creation.

Evolutionists for nonscientific reasons have erroneously discarded the Genesis account and, equally erroneously, religionists have discarded evolution as being contradictory to a Genesis account.



...The more famous subject of Darwin's uniformitarianism, usually termed "evolution," comes to the front. This is always a controversial and emotional subject, and is usually discussed in a quasi‑scientific manner. 128



Evolution was, in its conception, an applied extension to biology of the school of thought known as uniformitarianism. Evolution itself is a logical explanation of the information that it correlates, and the evidence of the appropriate scientific fields has consistently verified the mechanisms necessary for substantiating the validity of evolution. Evolution, while it is not a proven process in the strictest sense, is completely valid in its viability and is the only logical process (i.e., one amenable to scientific analysis) so tenable.



Modern humanists, increasingly anti‑Genesis in outlook, were growing in numbers and in positions of importance, especially in academic circles. To Voltaire, for instance, any mention of the Flood was offensive; it implied too much of God, or of judgment, or of the Judeo‑Christian heritage. Despite evidence left by fossils and sedimentary strata, as well as literary heritages, a Biblical Flood was taboo to him, and to many others.

Voltaire was somewhat typical of the anti‑spiritual humanists of his day. He was thoroughly anti‑Christian and anti‑Judaistic. He felt that the burial of the Bible in general and the Genesis record in particular, would be a great service to mankind.130




The human error in the promotion and promulgation of evolution was, and still is, of two aspects: Firstly, as we shall see later on in this chapter, the school of thought that gave rise to the theory of evolution- Uniformitarianism‑ is totally in contradiction to scientific evidence. Uniformitarianism was founded on insufficient and incomplete data, and the motives for its adoption were more anti‑Genesis than they were pro‑scientific.



The second mistake, resulting from the same anti‑spiritual motivation as the first, was in the use of evolution as one pillar of a mechanistic explanation capable of circumventing the problem of first cause, i.e., the origination of everything. Evolution is merely a process and is not an explanation of actual creation; the explanation of creation per se does not lie within the realm of scientific explanation.



The only distinct meaning of the word "natural" is stated, fixed, or settled; since what is natural as such requires and presupposes an intelligent agent to render it so, i.e., to effect it continually or at stated times, as what is supernatural or miraculous does to effect it for once.132



The only distinct meaning of the word "natural" is stated, fixed, or settled; since what is natural as such requires and presupposes an intelligent agent to render it so, i.e., to effect it continually or at stated times, as what is supernatural or miraculous does to effect it for once.132



The author of the above is referring to the implications of natural as is connotated by the term "natural selection." The very working mechanism of evolution implies intelligence behind such a process no less so than does that of a supernatural divine creation.



I see no good reason why the views given in this volume (the Origin of Species and the Descent of Mari) should shock the religious feelings of anyone.... A celebrated author and divine has written to me that "he has gradually learnt to see that it is just as liable a conception of the Deity to believe that he created a few original forms capable of self development into other and needful forms as to believe that He required a fresh act of creation to supply the voids caused by the action of His laws. 133

(These are Charles Darwin's own words here)




The validity of evolution would not, in the slightest degree, diminish the evidential necessity of the existence of God, nor would it preclude the validity of divine creation.


Evolutionists for nonscientific reasons have erroneously discarded the Genesis account and, equally erroneously, religionists have discarded evolution as being contradictory to a Genesis account.

Now it is time to logically examine the merits and foibles of the "pro-Creation" argument.


The orthodox Christians escaped the greater error altogether; but, nevertheless gave clear testimony to the influence of the popular belief in their interpretation of the commencing chapter of Genesis. For they made the first verse signify the creation of a confused mass of elements, out of which the heavens and earth were formed during the six days, understanding the next sentence to be a description of this crude matter before God shaped it. And their opinion has descended to our days. But it does not appear to be substantiated by Scripture, as we shall presently see, and the guile of the serpent may be detected in its results. For how great a contest has it provoked between the Church and the World!



For we are told that in the beginning God created (bara) the heaven and the earth; but the Scriptures never affirm that He did this in the six days. The work of those days was, as we shall presently see, quite a different thing from original creation: they were times of restoration, and the word asah is generally used in connection with them.

Now asah signifies to make, fashion, or prepare out of existing material; as, for instance, to build a ship, erect a house, or prepare a meal.139



Today, to be pro‑spiritual and to appreciate the Judeo‑Christian heritage, one must, it seems, be anti‑scientific. This is a common consensus; it is a mirage.140



To promote the literality of the six days of restoration makes equally as much sense as the Roman Catholic Church's defense of the earth as the center of the universe in the time of Copernicus. It is theologically incorrect to think that the 6 days were literal 24-hour days, since time elements (lights) were not assigned until the 4th day. The damage done by such misguided, and scripturally mistaken believers, in making Christians appear to be ignorant and illogical people, has been inestimable. What would cause some of the better scientific minds of the last century to illogically jump to conclusions in a frenzied effort to discredit the Bible in general and Genesis in particular? What would cause religious people to feel compelled to attack evolution as if they were defending the Faith? The answer to these questions is obvious if we rephrase them with the word who instead of what. Who has always endeavored to cause the human race to strain out a gnat and swallow a camel? None other than our most subtle enemy, Satan.

 

[PGL]

B. Catastrophism

Let me clarify one thing from the start: I absolutely believe in the prophetic word of the Bible; that the past cataclysmic events portrayed in the Bible were performed by God exactly as written and that, where it is recorded as such, He told His people ahead of time, before the event. What I am saying is that to avoid compromising free will by leaving too much evidence of what could only be direct divine intervention, God executed such large‑scale cataclysmic events by natural means in conformity with the laws of the physical universe. Thus, we should expect to find evidence of the means used to cause these events.


As far north as Spitzbergen, in the polar circle, at some time in the past, coral reefs were formed, which do not occur except in tropical regions; palms also grew on Spitzbergen. The continent of Antarctica, which today has not a single tree on it, must have been covered at one time by forests, since it has coal deposits.186



Every indication is that the mammoths died suddenly, in intense cold, and in great numbers. Death came so quickly that the swallowed vegetation is yet undigested in their stomachs and their mouths....

In the case of the mammoths, the span of time between death and freezing call be estimated quite accurately through an examination of the carcasses. This is determined by the extent of water separation within the cell, for water begins to separate within the cell at death, and it ceases to separate at freezing. The smaller extent of separated water indicates that carcasses were frozen rapidly, perhaps at temperatures below –150degrees F.

Temperatures of this severity exist in our solar system, but not at the surface of the Earth.188


`Sedentary rock covers high mountains and the highest of all, the Himalayas. Shells and skeletons of sea animals are found there. This means that at some time fish swam over these mountains. What caused the mountains to rise?

A force pushing from within or pulling from without or twisting on the sides must have elevated the mountains and lifted continents from the bottom of the sea and submerged other landmasses. 193



As we have seen, evolution is a viable process, and its validity is substantiated not only by scientific evidence but also by Scripture itself. However, the school of thought that gave birth to evolution‑ Uniformitarianism‑ is in complete contradiction to all the evidence: geological, historical, and astronomical. Strict Uniformitarianism, at least to the extent of preclusion of astral catatrophism, is untenable and insupportable.


Uniformitarianism as a school of thought was founded on incomplete data, before the discovery of the asteroid belt, planetary moons with retrograde orbits, and the overlapping of the orbits of Neptune and Pluto, all of which are in direct contradiction to Uniformitarianism. Uniformitarianism alone is incapable of furnishing a mechanism both for the so‑called Ice Age(s) and mountain‑building; or of explaining the sudden deaths of the mammoths, among many other things. Only astral catastrophism offers a viable mechanism for the occurrence of these events. That astral catatrophism has in fact occurred is borne out by the mute witness of the meteoritic scars of Mars, Mercury, the Earth, and its moon. That astral catatrophism of a sufficient magnitude involving the Earth has indeed occurred is evidenced by the "Carolina craters" and the related pair of holes in the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean off the southeastern coast or the United States. That such events do occur in historical times is evidenced by the Siberian meteorite of Jun 30, 1908 and by the near‑miss of the Earth in February of 1936 by a much larger asteroid, which passed within the orbit of the moon.


And Jehovah said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thy hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valor.... So the people shouted, and the priests blew the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, that the people shouted with a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city. (Josh. 6:2, 20)



The great walls of Jericho- they were twelve feet wide‑ have been excavated. They were found to have been destroyed by an earthquake.198


The direct correlation between biblical catastrophic events and natural terrestrial effects is readily substantiated, but what is the indicated causal mechanism for these catastrophic events?


The evidence mandates that the short‑period comets of our solar system had to have been acquired (through gravitational capture) from interstellar space within recent geological times, probably within historical times. This acquisition by the sun of previously extra‑solar (system) material is not limited only to cometary material or to material of cometary size. It is probable (indeed required by the known evidence) that the planets were acquired by the sun in the same way


It has been shown in this book, however, that forces which at present do not act on the earth, did so act in historical times, and that these forces are of a purely physical character. Scientific principles do not warrant maintaining that a force which does not act now, could not have acted previously. Or must we be in permanent collision with the planets and comets to believe in such catastrophes? 207


And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and Jehovah caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all the night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left. (Exod. 14:21‑22)


In some parts of Egypt, where bolides chanced to fall, we propose that entire communities were demolished, (as in the case of the collapsed building where Job's children were having a birthday party exactly 216 years earlier). In addition, as we shall soon show, tidal waves perhaps 100 feet high swept the Mediterranean coast of Egypt. (When the tidal wave emanated from Krakatoa in 1883, it was a maximum of 100 feet high on the nearby coasts of Java and Sumatra and 36,000 people were drowned.) A tidal bore sweeping up the Nile Delta would also create ample havoc for that, the richest part of Egypt. 215


THERA. Thera is an island 70 miles north of Crete in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, and about 180 miles southeast of Athens. It is a caldera, about eight miles across on one side and ten miles across on tile other. The rim of the caldera projects above sea level; the crater is below sea level. A caldera is formed when a marine volcano expels several cubic miles of ash

 

[PGL]

ash and lava, and the expulsion results in a hollow center. The hollow center is partly below sea level. The volcanic walls then collapse, leaving merely the rim. Thera is the largest known carldera on Earth....

The eruption of Thera has been correlated within the last two decades with the cataclysmic events simultaneous with the Exodus Catastrophe. The correlation in timing has been by carbon‑14 datings, by buried archaeological pottery, and by historical analysis. Certain timbers remain there, buried in the paroxysm, which yield carbon‑14 dates identical to those of the Exodus upheaval. The correlations in timing have been well documented by Mavor, Luce, and more recently, in National Geographic.... Assuming that the effect would dissipate with distance, how large would the tidal wave have been on the Levant Coast or moving up the Nile Delta, or across the Suez Isthmus? A wave of 100 feet in height could be a conservative estimate. The Suez Isthmus is 500 miles from Thera.

The paroxysm of Thera correlates with the Exodus holocaust in Egypt. Three days after the passover, the tidal waves generated by the collapsing walls of the volcanic cone would correlate with the water overwhelming Egyptian charioteers as they pursued the children of Israel across the Suez Isthmus. The site of the inundation of the Egyptian army and deliverance of the fleeing Hebrew is thought to be an arm of Lake Menzilah, an ancient lagoon adjoining the Mediterranean Sea, and was not the Red Sea as we know it today. 216


So often the Flood has been pictured as having been caused only by excessive rain.... Now if the Flood had been a local phenomenon, then the accounts of an overwhelming flood might presumably have come in from one or two particular regions of localities of the Earth. Yet the accounts of an ancient Flood of continental proportions persist in over 40 different cultures in each hemisphere.

Similarly, water‑lain strata occurs on a global scale, and at almost every elevation, both above and below mean sea level.... Evidence of a World Flood of continental dimensions occur both in the traditions of man and in the fossils and strata of his terrestrial domain. Furthermore, evidences of former gravitational interactions and tidal responses occur among other planets.... this particular account of a Flood given in Genesis ... teaches that the rain was associated with the Flood, but not that rain was the primary cause of the Flood. The two phenomena were merely simultaneous....

The proposition herein set forth is that the Flood was caused by tidal movements of the oceans, tides in sub-continental proportion. Rain was also involved, but its ratio was the proverbial drop in the bucket.222


Obviously, an astral body large enough to have caused the phenomenon of the Flood was far too large to be termed a comet per se. Such a body could well have had an exterior crusting of "cometary" ice, though, but would more properly be termed a planetary body than a comet. A mechanistically plausible theorization that explains heretofore unaccountable (by Uniformitarianism) astral and terrestrial phenomena is ably presented by Mr. Donald W. Patten in The Biblical Flood and the Ice Epoch. I highly recommend this book for its cogent evaluation and presentation.


Author's Note: Since my writing of this section, rock specimens have been found in Antarctica that have been shown to have been at one time on the surface of Mars; and also some which had, at one time, been on the surface of the far side of the moon.

Also, within the last 20 years a complete, detailed planetary topological mapping of Venus was carried out by satellite. Venus has a violent (600 mph) and corrosive (sulphuric acid) atmosphere. Yet craters (with little or no detectable erosion) were found that had to have been formed within recent, perhaps historical times. This alone directly disproves Uniformitarianism. When NOVA asked an astrophysicist about this, his reply was: ‘I don’t see how Uniformitarianism can ever possibly explain those craters. But I’m not willing to give it up.’

Sir, your answer is the epitome of religious dogmatism and not that of objective, scientific methodology.


There is no exception to the rule that every organic being naturally increases at so high a rate, that, if not destroyed, the earth would soon be covered by the progeny of a single pair. Even slow‑breeding man has doubled in twenty‑five years, and at this rate, in less than a thousand years, there would literally not be standing‑room for his progeny. 226


We see, by the scientific evidence above, that both the details and the postulated date of occurrence of the Genesis Flood are not in conflict with any known genetic or population contingencies, which are the relevant areas of consideration.

The occurrence of the Flood should exhibit peculiar evidence in certain specific archaeological areas. Remember, the re‑population of the Earth after the Flood began from just one place in the Middle East, the place where the ark landed. It is almost certain that man, before the Flood, had settled in all areas of the globe. However, since his evolution occurred only in the Old World, the amount of archaeological evidence of his pre‑Flood existence in the New World would be much less prevalent than in the Old World. It is to be expected, then, that the Flood left much less archaeological evidence of pre‑Flood man in the New World than in the Old, since such evidence was more recent and of a much shorter duration. There should thus be a discrepancy in the archaeological evidence of the We see, by the scientific evidence above, that both the details and the postulated date of occurrence of the Genesis Flood are not in conflict with any known genetic or population contingencies, which are the relevant areas of consideration.

The occurrence of the Flood should exhibit peculiar evidence in certain specific archaeological areas. Remember, the re‑population of the Earth after the Flood began from just one place in the Middle East, the place where the ark landed. It is almost certain that man, before the Flood, had settled in all areas of the globe. However, since his evolution occurred only in the Old World, the amount of archaeological evidence of his pre‑Flood existence in the New World would be much less prevalent than in the Old World. It is to be expected, then, that the Flood left much less archaeological evidence of pre‑Flood man in the New World than in the Old, since such evidence was more recent and of a much shorter duration. There should thus be a discrepancy in the archaeological evidence of the Old World.



As we have seen, there is no evidence of true fossil man in the Americas. Archaeological evidence, however, points to considerably greater antiquity for man than do the known skeletal remains. 232



The reality both of the Flood and of its global magnitude has been consistently substantiated not only in the literary heritage of diverse cultures worldwide but also by the archaeological and geological evidence.


The only material consideration, scientifically, is whether or not such an explanation is mechanistically possible within the confines of the laws of the physical universe. Such an explanation for the biblically (among other numerous sources) recorded catastrophes, which is imminently feasible mechanistically, is ably presented in the book The Long Day of Joshua and Six Other Catastrophes. I strongly recommend this book to all skeptical inquirers after truth.


A Message for the Human Race

 

[Job 33:6]

"Uniformitarianism alone is incapable of furnishing a mechanism both for the so‑called Ice Age(s) and mountain‑building"

Have you not heard of the milankovitch cycles and plate tectonics?