The Quill and the Crowbar

Thursday, December 29, 2005

Fifty-two questions about creation vs evolution

Evolution Takes an Exam

This is a test to determine whether the theory of evolution can answer questions arising from things we see in our world. In order for a theory of origins to have merit, it should A. explain consistently and adequately what we perceive in today's earth and space environment B. be demonstrable as to its mechanics of operation and effects C. not violate natural laws D. be useful for predicting causes and effects and outcomes in the future E. maintain its prominence through scientific means rather than through speculation and whimsy or an authority appeal.

Evolutionists should take the following evaluation without resorting to religious beliefs and biases, concern about vested interests (eg. a university post or previous publications), but through the use of the best human logic including analysis, synthesis, inductive and deductive reasoning and common sense) Ruling out God or evolution or anything in order to give a response would not satisfy the requirements of this evalutation.

(Please answer true or false to the following test items.)

1. There are millions and millions of dead things buried in rock layers all over the earth.
2. There are millions and millions of dead things buried in rock layers laid down by water all over the earth.
3. Gradualism and uniformitarianism adequately explain why plants and animals are found fossilized in strata on the tops of mountains to the depths of valleys (These are the tenets of evolution that say it took billions of years of extremely slow deposition of sediment over the top of life forms to turn them into fossils.)
4. If you throw a fish out on the bank of a stream, it will disappear in a short time and not become a fossil.
5. The fossil record reveals that there have been no widespread cataclysms on earth.
6. The fossil record shows that animals have perished by the millions right in the midst of vital behaviors like eating and swimming, that they are often found in enormous numbers and at all ages crushed together in the same strata.
7. Mammoths and other animals and plants accustomed only to tropical and semi-tropical climates have been found quick-frozen in Siberia and other far north reaches of our planet.
8. Gradualism and uniformitarianism can account for almost all the fossil record.
9. One can find a complete geological column on earth that shows a progression of the simplest life forms at the bottom to the most complex life forms in the top layers.
10. There is no such thing as described above other than the drawings of evolutionists in museums and books.
11. The fossil record is complete with transitional forms between species and classes of animals.
12. The missing links are not missing. I would certify there is a bonafide "missing link" available for close study.
13. The Grand Canyon of the Colorado physically had to be formed over millions and millions of years of erosion.
14. Scientists always tell the truth.
15. The canyons and topography of the Mt. St. Helens country was formed over millions and millions of years.
16. A stalactite or stalagmite requires eons of time to develop.
17. Coal and oil have never been formed through heat and pressure in a matter of a few hours.
18. The cambrian layer contains all kinds of fossils including soft tissued jellyfish and other fish.
19. According to the fossil record, beneath the cambrian layer is the pre-cambrian which is evidentially devoid of life.
20. The cambrian layer reveals clearly that life came into being all at once. It was not a slow developmental process.
21. The same types of organisms can often be seen at both lower and higher levels in the strata.
22. If an animal in a lower strata is dated at ten million years and the same animal is found at a million years level there is a problem with evolutionary dating.
23. All reputable scientists believe the Grand Canyon was formed over millions and millions of years.
24. If an eighty foot tree pokes its way up through millions of years of the geologic column, logic compels us to believe the dating process could be in error.
25. A good scientist will rule out intelligent design a priori.
26. A good scientist will rule out Darwinian evolution a priori.
27. A good scientist will discard a theory which fails again and again to explain the evidence of the senses, clear logic, and scientific investigation.
28. The flood theory can't be a good one because too many Christian fundamentalists hold to it.
29. Finding a huge whale's skeleton 3000 feet up in the mountains must mean the denizen of the deep walked up there.
30. Finding a gold bracelet inside a vein of coal mined from underground, or finding a metal hammer inside a coal formation must mean they came to rest there during the coal formation process.
31. The presence of human made artifacts within coal strata indicates the presence of humans before or during such placement.
32. Human tracks and dinosaur tracks have never been found at the same level of strata or next to each other in the history of the world.
33. Complete skeletons of homonids (ape/human ancestors) are found in the natural history museums of the world.
34. Modern man, diseased man and monkeys have all been promoted as missing links by anthropologists.
35. A good anthropologist can accurately construct a hominid from a jawbone or a few teeth.
36. Fossils of pre-horses have been found to prove the horse evolved.
37. We only have artists' renderings and speculation as "evidence" of the horse's evolution.
38. Haeckel discovered that the human embryo goes through stages that prove that humans came from lower orders of lifeforms (including aquatic lifeforms).
39. An embryo goes through a gill slit stage.
40. Haeckel falsified his "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" study and was found out many decades ago.
41. Science has proved there is no God.
42. Science has proved there was a big bang.
43. Evolution is justifiably taught as fact in our public schools and universities (It is morally justifiable to teach a theory as truth or as law to the young.)
44. The big bang theory says that a pinpoint of matter exploded and flew outward to generate all the stuff, energy and order of the universe.
45. Accepting an intelligent designer for everything is a threat to Darwinian evolution.
46. Local floods can account for the fossil evidence we see in our world.
47. A worldwide flood could also be a gentle flood.
48. All the order we see in nature is imposed there by what we want to see. Our minds make order out of randomness.
49. Inanimate matter can give rise to intelligent life without a creator and sustainer.
50. If we see a Ford, we know there was a designer.
51. If we see the earth, the sky, the waters, and look into outer space, the order we perceive necessitates an intelligent designer.
52. We can name many big bangs that bring order rather than fragmentation and chaos (An explosion in a brick factory will build a fine brick home).

(This evaluation is a work in progress. I would hope to add 50 questions a day or however often as I research and validate the questions. Please take the tests as they progress and contact me to discuss what you see here. You are always welcome at this blogspot regardless of your scientific, philosophical, religious, etc. orientation. Of course, if you call me names I'm free not to post your comments.)


Rather than wait, in case someone wants instant gratification upon taking the test, answers are listed here:

1.T
2.T
3.F
4.T
5.F
6.T
7.T
8.F
9.F
10.T
11.F
12.F
13.F
14.F
15.F
16.F
17.F
18.T
19.T
20.T
21.T
22.T
23.F
24.T
25.F
26.F
27.T
28.F
29.F
30.T
31.T
32.F
33.F
34.T
35.F
36.F
37.T
38.F
39.F
40.T
41.F
42.F
43.F
44.T
45.T
46.F
47.F
48.F
49.F
50.T
51.T
52.F

Hope you did well. If not, you will find resources at AIG, ICR, and CRS on the Internet, and in some excellent books, some of which are referenced at this blogsite

Wonderfully and Fearfully Made


A very special little guy, my grandson, Ethan.

Monday, December 26, 2005

The Quill and the Crowbar: Religion of Doubt (Poem)

The Quill and the Crowbar: Religion of Doubt Poem)

Religion of Doubt

I would live "sans" religion of doubt.
No cutting edge sermon it preaches for me.
Was Thomas commended for all of his doubting
By Jesus who saved him from sin on the tree?

What of Bereans who searched Paul's words daily?
Was their search for doubt or certitude?
Who would want to call these souls noble
If not truth, but doubt, was the goal they pursued?

Ancient Babylon boasted a choir of false idols
Still the Devil fans forth in his death dealing hand.
Some fools will play each false card with vigor
Before heeding the life in God's clear command:

"For I am the way and the truth and the life,
No-one comes to the Father but only by me."
What part of "me" do we misunderstand?
From the sin of rebellion, Oh Lord! keep us free!

No-one finds joy and "peace like a river"
When tempest tossed and drowning in doubt.
Peter would have traded his faith for a shroud,
But Truth gave a hand and pulled the man out.

Why on earth hitch our wagon to a contrary star
That wanders in darkness of space in its head?
Those following Nietsche, Kant, Gibran, or Marx
Are knocking at Hades; those guys are dead.

Forty years in the wilderness of Zin
Sojourned God's children, grumbling seed.
Nothing would please them, not even God,
Though he provided for all their great need.

"Oh! we want to go back to Egypt," they whined
Till Moses put strong hands to his ears.
He rued his commission to guide these complainers.
They could bring an iron man to tears.

Nebuchadnezzar doted on lions,
Fed them on young men, fed them on old,
Starved them a bit to improve human flavor,
Prepped them for Daniel praying too bold.

You know the story, how they hurled Daniel
Down to the cats into imminent peril.
But did he cry "Stop, I may reconsider,"
Offering Nebuchad tears by the barrel?

No! He would not doubt his conviction
Though he be mauled and grated like cheese.
God puzzled the lions with cases of lockjaw,
Later fed them on doubters, their maws to appease.

Abednego, Meschak, and Shadrach were tinder--
Could burn down to ash as quickly as we,
But nothing doubted, bathed in fire's climate,
Like stones in a pitcher of mildly warm tea.

They, like Daniel, loved no false counsel,
Feared no dissemblers, recked no king's rod,
Chased no delusions, shunned self-promotion,
Bent their knees solely and wholly to God.

The Quill and the Crowbar

The Quill and the Crowbar



Soon

Planet
Earth Death
Rate One Per Person
Ready Or Not
The Judge
Comes




Ambassador: December 2005

We Are Miracles

People are miracles
Seeking to find
The essence of meaning,
The maker of miracles.
The essence is God;
The maker, the same.


Go

Go with His commission, go.
Christ said "Go" then said "Lo,
I am with you always."
Go in prayer, go to share
Good News beyond compare;
Go highways and byways.

Why tarry so beside the road?
Jesus packs your heavy load,
And He it is who lifts you.
Go. What is your constraint?
Warriors were not trained to faint.
Gospel feet, go quickly.

Do just what the Savior said.
He who raised those humble dead
Now reigns in you to raise mankind.
Go boldly out into the world
Where Satan's fiery darts are hurled.
Christ is stronger. Trust Him.

Good soil awaits the Living Word.
Tents of ease must be deferred.
Christ rewards our toil.
For God will send the latter rains
To soften up the loam again.
Love even grows in winter.

Go. March upon the gates of Hell
That open wide its jaws to swell,
And shout "Your slaves surrender!"
Angels high applaud the show
When saints turn out to face this foe
What earthly power can hinder?

The Holy Spirit craves the Word
Genesis to Revelation be heard.
Why tarry we here longer?
Since God brings all His truth to pass,
Let fear of man be dead at last;
Our awesome God is stronger.

Sunday, December 25, 2005

First Post


This is a first post. My grandson Aaron!

This is a test!

Friday, December 23, 2005

A Christmas Gift

Dear Dad,

Merry Christmas. You need a blog to spread your message to the world. This site will be a useful tool!

Love,
Owen