Other in-depth discussions
Summaries of the contents of this section
Trying to reconcile the appearance of great age in the rock record to a ‘reality’ of a few thousands years, the 19th-century creationist Philip Gosse suggested that God created the world so that it looked as if it had a prior history, and modern creationists have taken a similar view. Charles Darwin’s problem, by contrast, was the appearance of design in the living world. He sought to reconcile this appearance to the ‘reality’ that life was not created by arguing that the continual improvements of natural variation had produced a world that merely looked as if it had been designed. But a theory that is false to appearance is likely itself to be false. This article proposes that (a) a Creator would bring into existence only that which, in the nature of the universe he created, could not have come into existence of itself, and (b) the universe no longer exists in its original form.
The Earth appears to be, on the one hand, much less than 4.55 billion years old, on the other, much more than 6,000 years old. But can we be more precise? Recent stratigraphic studies suggest we can. Sedimentological evidence shows that the rhythmic alternation of chalk and marl in some Cretaceous sequences are not astronomical cycles, but annual cycles. While this evidence is not sufficient to enable dating of the whole Cretaceous period, the length of time attributed to the chalk sequences may be inflated by a factor of around 20,000.
If science is to be true to itself, it needs to consider other possibilities than evolution by accident in one corner and the creation of immutable species in the other. Biological studies do not support the idea that significant evolution (which has certainly occurred) is undirected. This article looks at what a mutation is, and at evidence that the biggest changes in the history of life have been the result of genetic sub-programs being switched on or off by regulatory systems. Some changes may even be the result of sub-programs having, in a controlled and fore-ordained way, reconfigured themselves.
Tiktaalik roseae – a missing link?
This recently described Devonian fish has been hailed as one of the most important fossils ever found, plugging a major gap in the story of how aquatic life invaded the land. Is the fanfare justified, or is an ecological transition being confused with an ecological one?
A critique of The Genesis Flood: did animals escape to higher ground?
The idea that the order in which terrestrial animals were fossilised reflects the order in which they succumbed to rising Flood waters was first proposed by John Whitcomb and Henry Morris in The Genesis Flood, a book that made a huge impact amongst American evangelicals and is regarded by most creationists as their founding document. This article tests the validity of the proposal against the predictions made by the authors themselves.
Hades is part of the Earth and came into existence after the cataclysm at the end of a geological period known, coincidentally, as the Hadean. It also exists in a spiritual dimension, since its occupants have no bodies. It will cease to exist when it is thrown into what the Apocalypse calls ‘the lake of fire’. Tartarus, the ‘abyss’, also came into existence in the Hadean cataclysm. Geologically it is known as the aesthenosphere, the uppermost mantle beneath the present crust. The lake of fire has not yet come into existence. Its physical location is Gehenna, i.e. the Valley of Hinnom outside the walls of Jerusalem. It will connect with Hades and with the magma beneath the Earth’s crust. Eventually, it too will cease to exist.