The only [true] church…is truly apostolic. It is built on the foundation laid by the Apostles, and holds the doctrines which they preached. The two grand objects at which its members aim are apostolic faith and apostolic practice; and they consider the man who talks of following the Apostles without possessing these two things to be no better than sounding brass and tinkling cymbal.
J.C. Ryle

What fossils say about creation

What fossils say about creation

What Fossils Say About Creation Another look at the fossil record will reveal an interesting fact. The creationist theorizes that life appeared suddenly and in complicated form with many varieties. The evolutionist believes that life became more complex through slow and gradual change. If evolution is to support its model then there should exist millions and millions of fossils that are preserved in a state of change. That is to say, the environment and natural selection forced species to go through a change of structure. The invertebrates slowly and gradually changed and gave life to the vertebrates. In that case, the fossil record must be full of creatures which are in a state of transition. Some may have one-half or one-quarter of a back bone while others may have a backbone that is too large for their body structure. The fossil record should have myriad transitional forms. In the same manner, the fossil evidence should document the tremendous change from lizard to bird. The change from the scales of a lizard to the feathers of a bird should be well represented in the fossil record. This is a dramatic change from a crawling animal to a flying animal. Such a quantum leap in structure and function should be supported by millions of years of fossil evidence. What in fact does the fossil record reveal with regards to transitional forms? There is a lack of trans- itional forms in the fossil record (Morris 83). Darwin attributed this deficiency of evidence to the relatively short life of paleon- tology at the date his book was published (1859). However, in the more than one hundred years that have transpired, the evidence of transitional forms has not improved (Morris-Parker 96). Since Darwin’s time, paleontologists have been baffled by the lack of transitional forms (Coffin 424). Instead of a history of change and transition the evidence shows stability of species. Each species has remained relatively fixed. There is a variability about a mean. The dog family can be used as a good example. The Great Dane is an ext- remely large dog weighing more than one hundred pounds, while the Chihauhau is the smallest of dog species and may weigh between one and six pounds. There is tremendous variation in size between these two, but they are both dogs. This is exactly what is seen in the geologic record. There is a variability about a mean within a particular kind of species but distinct separation between types. Birds always remain in the bird family and lizards are always in the lizard family. The fossil record also shows an amazing amount of stability for some particular species. The Horseshoe Crab has remained stable for “hundreds of millions of years” and remains with us to this day. The Ginkgo tree has also remained stable and shown no evidence of change during “millions” of years and into the present (Coffin 339). This has baffled evolutionary scientists because it is contrary to the prediction of constant change and increasing complexity as time progresses. Some species have died out and become extinct, while others have appeared suddenly only to disappear again. There are other branches of science which also support the creation model. The recent revelations on the extreme complexity of the DNA molecule combined with the science of probability has shown that there is no chance for life to have occured by accident (Morris-Parker 235-239). The age of the earth is also highly debated. Recent studies of the decay of the earth’s magnetic field, helium and radiocarbon in the atmosphere have indicated that the earth may be tens of thousands of years old rather than billions of years old (Coffin 330-340). Studies of the Mount St. Helens volanic errup- tion have shown scientists that during a cataclysmic event geologic changes can occur which were thought to have taken thousands of years (Austin). The fossil record documents what creatures lived in the past. By looking at the evidence, without the pre-bias of evolution, one can come up with some startling conclusions.

References Cited Austin, Steven A. “Mount St. Helens and Catastrophism.” Acts and Facts. July 1986. Coffin, Harold. Origin by Design. Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Assoc. 1983. Darwin, Charles. The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. Akron. OH: The Werner Co. 1859. Gish, Duane T. “Fossil Evidence for Creation.” Conference Echoes. WFSI. Annapolis, MD: 9 March 1976. Gish. Evolution the Fossils Say No! San Diego, CA: Master Books. 1973. Levi-Setti, Riccardo. Trilobites. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press. 1975. Morris, Henry M. Evolution in Turmoil. San Diego, CA.: Master Books. 1982. Morris and Gary E. Parker. What is Creation Science? San Diego, CA: Master Books. 1982. Volpe, Peter E. Understanding Evolution. New Orleans, LA: William C. Brown Co. 1972.