Evolution Impossible (29 page)

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Authors: Dr John Ashton

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In 1999, the United States National Academy of Sciences published a statement called
Science and Creationism: A View from the National Academy of Sciences Second Edition
.
28
On page 28, the statement claims that the scientific consensus around evolution is overwhelming and that no prominent scientists reject evolution. We can see of course that there are prominent scientists such as those listed above who reject evolution. However, most scientists would not be aware of the writings outlined above because they are not usually discussed in the science classroom, nor are they promoted in the popular media. In other words, most scientists who work in a very narrow specialist field, and teachers and lecturers who rely on the standard biology and evolution textbooks, would not be aware just how much scientific evidence refuting evolution is now available.

Often, scientists espousing evolution are not aware of (or have been blinded to) the growing evidence refuting the concept of random mutations and natural selection producing new forms of life. For example, in 2009, Oxford University professor Dr. Richard Dawkins authored the 470-page book
The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution,
which has received wide promotion in bookshops and many reviews.
29
However, most scientists and teachers probably would not be aware that in 2010, PhD chemist and logician Dr. Jonathan Sarfati published a powerful and comprehensively referenced rebuttal to most of Dawkins’ claims of evidence for evolution.
30

As King’s College, London-educated molecular biologist Dr. Michael Denton pointed out 25 years ago, evolution is a theory in crisis.
31

1
. J.F. Ashton, editor,
In Six Days: Why 50 Scientists Choose to Believe in Creation
(Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2001). The full text is also available by clicking on the name of the scientist at
http://creation.com/in-six-days-preface
and
http://www.creation.com/isd
. Click on the name list on the left to open each chapter.

2
. Ibid., p. 266–267.

3
. Ibid., p. 47.

4
. Ibid., p. 48–49.

5
. Ibid., p. 128–132.

6
. Ibid., p. 207–210.

7
. Ibid., p. 223–226.

8
. Ibid., p. 227–230.

9
. Ibid., p. 216.

10
. Ibid., p. 216–217.

11
.
http://users.datarealm.com/herrmann/main.html
.

12
. J.C. Sanford,
Genetic Entropy & the Mystery of the Genome
(Waterloo, NY: FMS Publications, 2008).

13
. W.J. Veith,
The Genesis Conflict: Putting the Pieces Together
(Delta, BC, Canada: Amazing Discoveries, 2002).

14
. D.T. Gish,
Evolution: The Fossils Say No!
(San Diego, CA: Creation-Life Publishers, 1976); and D.T. Gish,
Evolution: The Challenge of the Fossil Record
(El Cajon, CA: Creation-Life Publishers, 1986).

15
. G. Javor,
Evidences for Creation: Natural Mysteries Evolution Cannot Explain
(Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 2005).

16
. Colin W. Mitchell,
The Case for Creationism
(Alma Park, Grantham, England: Autumn House, 1994).

17
. Lee M. Spetner,
Not By Chance: Shattering the Modern Theory of Evolution
(New York: Judaica Press, 1997).

18
. A.A. Snelling,
Earth’s Catastrophic Past: Geology, Creation & the Flood,
Volumes 1 & 2 (Dallas, TX: Institute for Creation Research, 2009).

19
. A.A. Roth,
Origins: Linking Science and Scripture
(Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1998).

20
. Werner Gitt,
In the Beginning Was Information
(Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2006).

21
. A. McIntosh,
Genesis for Today: Showing the Relevance of the Creation/Evolution Debate to Today’s Society
(Epsom, Surrey, England: Day One Publications, 1997).

22
. A.C. McIntosh, “Information and Entropy — Top-Down or Bottom-Up Development in Living Systems?”
International Journal of Design & Nature and Ecodynamics,
vol. 4, no. 4 (2009): p. 351–385.

23
. J. Hartnett,
Starlight, Time, and the New Physics
(Eight Mile Plains, Queensland: Creation Book Publishers, 2007).

24
. A. Williams and J. Hartnett,
Dismantling the Big Bang
(Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2005).

25
. D.R. Faulkner,
Universe by Design
(Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2004).

26
. “Scholarship Convocation Speaker Challenges Scholars to Serve the Greater Good,” 2004, at
www.tuskagee.edu
.

27
. See
http://creation.com
for more details and interviews with many other scientists.

28
. Steering Committee on Science and Creationism,
Science and Creationism: A View from the National Academy of Sciences,
second edition (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1999). See:
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/6024.html
.

29
. Richard Dawkins,
The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution
(London: Bantam Press, 2009).

30
. J. Sarfati,
The Greatest Hoax on Earth? Refuting Dawkins on Evolution
(Atlanta, GA: Creation Book Publishers, 2010).

31
. M. Denton,
Evolution: A Theory in Crisis
(Bethesda, MD: Adler & Adler, 1986).

Chapter 13

Evidence for the Existence of an Intervening God

In an earlier chapter, I referred to British astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle’s views that the evidence from physics, chemistry, and biology overwhelmingly suggests that a super-intellect has intervened in nature.
1
The eminent British historian Herbert Butterfield, who served as professor of modern history at the University of Cambridge in the 1950s, made a similar observation, suggesting that one could think of history as though an intelligence was moving over the story.
2

In this chapter I decided to present a snapshot overview of the evidence of a supernatural intelligence intervening and interacting with humankind. Now some readers may be thinking,
Why is this material in a book about scientific evidence against evolution?
The reason is that many science academies and other science education boards wish to keep the notion of God out of the science classroom. I am not referring to “religion,” which prescribes the ways we are supposed to relate to God. Rather I am referring to the fact that there is consistent evidence for the existence of a real supernatural super-intelligence. This provides further collaborative support for the view that life on earth is the result of a deliberate planned creation by this Intelligence, and not the result of random mechanical forces. That is, we live in a theistic universe, not an atheistic one.

Perhaps the most striking example of this is the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, a king who founded the ancient Babylonian empire. He is credited with building the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the “seven wonders of the ancient world,” for the enjoyment of his wife, Amytis.
3

In 605 b.c., Nebuchadnezzar defeated Egyptian forces at the battle of Carchemish, and Jerusalem passed from Egyptian control to Babylonian control. At this time, a number of Hebrews were taken captive to Babylon. One of these captives was a particularly gifted young man named Daniel, who later became an advisor to Nebuchadnezzar and a senior official in the king’s court. Some years later, Daniel recorded the king’s dream and certain other events, including the fall of Babylon, in a book named after him (Daniel, chapters 2 and 5), which became part of the Hebrew Bible and later the Old Testament of the Christian Bible.

Daniel describes how Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that troubled him but he could not recall it. Daniel and the king’s other advisers were put under a death sentence unless they could reveal the dream. Daniel writes how he prayed to the God who created the heavens and the earth for the dream to be revealed to him, and he received a vision during the night. He reported the dream to the king, who confirmed that it was the same dream he had experienced, and the lives of the king’s counselors were spared. The dream is truly amazing. Daniel recorded that he saw an image with a head of gold, chest of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and feet of iron and clay mixed together. Then a stone came and struck the statue on its feet and crushed them. The rest of the statue was demolished and the stone became a mountain filling the whole earth.

Daniel went on to tell the king that the God who had revealed the dream had also shown Daniel that the dream was a picture of the future of the king’s kingdom. The head of gold represented Nebuchadnezzar and his kingdom, which would be followed by an inferior kingdom represented by the chest of silver. This would be followed by another kingdom represented by the bronze, and then a very strong kingdom represented by the iron, which would eventually be divided up into a number of strong and weak kingdoms. These kingdoms would try to unite through marriage but never succeed. Then God would return and destroy all the earthly kingdoms, replacing them with His kingdom.

The dream is recorded as taking place in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar’s rule, which was about 603
B.C.
, yet it accurately predicted the series of events that followed down to the present time, more than two and a half thousand years later. We know from history that Babylon fell to the Medo-Persians when the general Gobryas took the city on October 12, 539
B.C.
, after diverting the river Euphrates that had run through the city.
4
Thus the Medo-Persian empire would correspond to the silver kingdom. This empire was followed by the Greek empire when Alexander the Great defeated the Persian king Darius III at a battle near Arbela on October 1 in 331
B.C.
The Greek empire, which would be represented by the bronze kingdom, was followed by the Roman Empire, as the Roman armies conquered various sections between 168 and 30
B.C.
, when Egypt finally came under its power. Thus the Roman Empire corresponds to the kingdom represented by the legs of iron.

History tells us that the Roman Empire gradually succumbed to successive waves of barbarian invaders. In
A.D.
476, the Heruli deposed the last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustus, and over the next century and a half the barbarian attacks continued until the process of inundation was complete. Today, after nearly a millennium and a half, the grand empire that was Rome remains divided exactly as foretold in the dream.

Daniel also was shown that the rulers of these lesser kingdoms would “mix with one another in marriage” in an endeavor to achieve unity, but still would be unable to hold together. Down through the centuries, repeated attempts have been made to unify the nations of Europe both through intermarriage and by military might, but never with more than temporary success. Charlemagne set out to try about
A.D.
800, Charles V of Spain about 1520, and Napoleon Bonaparte about 1800. Kaiser Wilhelm II’s pursuit of a similar ambition led to World War I and that of Adolf Hitler to World War II. In each case, their successes were relatively short lived. Thus, the Babylonian king’s dream accurately revealed the future of the West to the present time.

In my view, this is an impressive example of an accurate vision of the future up to the present time. To write around 600
B.C.
that there would only ever be another three then-known “world” empires, and from then on only individual kingdoms that would never completely unite — and be correct over two and a half thousand years — is, in my view, a pretty good record.

Daniel also recorded some details of events on the night of the fall of Babylon. He stated that the king in Babylon at that time was Belshazzar and that he was putting on a feast for a thousand of his nobles. Daniel also records that during the debauched revelry, supernatural handwriting had appeared on the wall of the banquet hall. Daniel was called by the king to interpret the writing. Daniel explained that this was a warning from the God of heaven that Belshazzar’s kingdom would end that night. It is from this account that we get the saying “the writing is on the wall,” meaning there is no escape from the outcome. Daniel goes on to record that Belshazzar was slain that night.

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