The Editor

Creationism, defined as a movement that uses scientific data to support the belief that the Earth is less than 10,000 years old, received a new lease of life in 1961 with the publication of a book by John Whitcomb and Henry Morris entitled The Genesis Flood. When I first read it, I had no geological knowledge and was much impressed. In March 1993, however, I made the acquaintance of two Christian geologists, Michael Garton and Paul Garner. Although, like Whitcomb and Morris, they believed that the Flood was a historical, world-destroying event, they argued that deposits younger than the Carboniferous, about half way up the macro-fossil record, contained too much evidence of passing time to be characterised as Flood deposits and must have formed later. They had been much influenced by German geo-biologist Joachim Scheven, who had made a similar proposal. We discussed the issues, and the more we did so, the more this revision of the standard creationist interpretation seemed to make sense.

We thought our ideas needed a wider forum. After lengthy correspondence, the editor of the Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal (now Creation Journal) agreed to publish a suite of papers setting out the issues and in the end I wrote the leading paper, entitled ‘Can Flood geology explain the fossil record?’ This suggested that the Flood had begun no later than the Mesoproterozoic and had ended somewhat before the close of the Carboniferous. While still written from a creationist position, it offered an in-depth critique of the Whitcomb-&-Morris model.

In the face of evidence such as successive animal tracks in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic, successive outpourings of lavas that were clearly subaerial, chalk deposits consisting almost entirely of plankton debris, we were hopeful that creationists would be stimulated to a wholesale rethink. It never came. We were accused of being renegades. Undeterred, I began researching the critical evidence that would need to be satisfied in the Palaeozoic. Would the new model stand up? The answer proved to be no. In many ways the proposal was as flawed as its American counterpart. In a subsequent paper (CEN Tech J. 12:67) I asked whether it was right for creationists to be castigating evolutionists for their preconceptions while being unconcerned about the beam in their own eye.

It became clear that creationism from first to last needed to undergo profound self-examination. The ideas being promoted were far from robust, and the culture in which it debated ideas and dealt with dissent was worryingly sectarian. My rather solitary attempt to re-think the fundamental questions led to the recolonisation theory, the essentials of which (since much refined) were first published in a Genesis Agendum occasional paper in 1998.

The theory abandoned the articles of faith on which creationism had built its world view (the ultra-short chronology, the idea that fossils were the remains of organisms buried in the Flood, the belief that the Precambrian represented rocks from the original creation). Creationist organisations accordingly closed their doors. Michael also abandoned Flood geology and decided to pursue a long-held interest in the Cambrian rocks of north-west Scotland by enrolling for a PhD. Paul returned to the fold. At the same time, another door opened at Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm, which saw the merits of the new approach to Earth history and invited my help in communicating some of it to visitors. The decision to set up this separate website was made in September 2005.

Unless otherwise credited, I am the author of the material published on this site. It is hoped, however, that in due course others will make contributions.

We created this website in the belief that the issues discussed are important and the public needs to know that there is a more satisfactory way of understanding the history of life than the extremes of creationism and evolutionism. If you would like to support this venture, help in the following areas would be greatly appreciated:

• publicising the work
• arranging a meeting or speaking tour
• financial support
• website design
• research projects
• article writing

If you wish to discuss any of these, please contact me.

… and the Sponsor: Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm

Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm, located just south of Bristol in the UK, is owned by Anthony and Christina Bush, who opened it in 1999 on their previous dairy farm. Now a fully accredited member of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the centre offers an opportunity to see, touch and smell most of the exotic animals you would expect to find at a zoo alongside a wide range of animal kinds that were wild once but are now domesticated. It is North Somerset’s top leisure attraction.

Anthony, who read Mathematics at Oxford University, had long been concerned at the way academics accept the theory of evolution without critical questioning or an awareness of its shortcomings. In the light of his farming experience he knew that some sort of evolution had occurred: breeding programmes can lead to very rapid changes in body form, and he could conceive that natural selection had led to similar differences between one species and another. However, the larger gaps that existed between, say, cattle and horses seemed to be of a different nature. When in the winters of 1997 and 1998 he made an intensive study of the fossil record, he found that these gaps between higher-level groups of animals were just as real in prehistoric times as they are today.

Having also studied at Theological College and trained as a Church of England Lay Reader, Anthony was troubled by how far many churchmen had lost confidence in the historicity of the biblical texts and assimilated a view which left the Creator remote from his creation. Not only was God rendered remote in time but many churchmen no longer considered it reasonable to see evidence of his direct handiwork in the creation itself: the appearance of design, beauty, providence and power was all seen as illusory. Part of Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm’s mission therefore became “to give people scientific permission to believe in God��?, the same God who had revealed himself in Jesus Christ.

Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm has its own website for visitors and those interested in issues of creation and evolution. The farm itself includes a great number of displays and other exhibition material in the hope of stimulating such interest. Many of these displays have been designed by Steven, who, as explained above, has for the past 9 years been pioneering and developing a ‘recolonisation’ interpretation of the fossil record.

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Web design in collaboration with Adam Beaumont.