Seven essays — filling 150 pages of highly interesting and factual research on the so-called scientific evidence for evolution, and demonstrating how weak and unsubstantial the evidence really is — is what this book offers. The essays cover quite diverse subjects; all are absorbing. To me, one of the most interesting was on the “Stratigraphic Evidence of the Flood” by Stuart Nevins. Stratigraphy is the study of surface-accumulated (stratified) rocks. How did these rocks come into being?
Science postulates great ages of time. This concept began in the middle of the 19th century, through the efforts of Charles Lyall, a British lawyer. According to the principle of Uniformity, presently observed geologic processes and natural laws can explain past geologic events. The present, it is supposed, is the key to the past. It was upon this principle that Charles Darwin built his theory of evolution; the steady process of millions of years of time. For instance, it is calculated that the composite thickness of the sedimentary rocks covering the earth is 259,000 feet. The span of the rock record is estimated by geologists, who accept the principle, as covering 600 million years; on this estimate, one foot of sedimentary rock was formed every 2,000 years. This was a steady slow process in which the gradual changes postulated by the evolutionist could take place. But does it fit the observable facts? The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate that it does not.
The author’s first basis of proof is to look at the nature of the fossil record. An example is given of the coal deposits in Nova Scotia, where “the stumps and trunks of many trees are preserved standing upright as they grew, clearly having been buried before they had time to fall or rot away”. In other formations “articulated skeletons of large animals are preserved; the sediment must have covered them within a few days at the most”.
On the banks of a river in Texas, the author observed stratum three feet thick, composed mainly of closed fossil clams numbering in the millions. He observed, “The stratum is peculiar for two reasons. First, clams do not live solidly packed together in a layer three feet thick. Second, clam shells are rarely found in whole, closed condition, but broken apart at the hinge. The reason is that the hinging ligament is on the outside of the shell and tends to open the two valves. Only the muscles of the clam can keep the valves closed. When the clam dies the muscles relax and the clam opens.”
How did the clams get there in that condition in the three foot stratum? Since most scientists reject the idea of a world-wide flood, they have only the vaguest notions to put forward.
There are other finds that pose further questions. In the clam layer a few small clods of adobe were found. These contained a remarkable number of fossilized worms. One five-inch clod on one face had about 24 three-inch worms. The detail of each worm fossil was remarkably clear. Worms have no hard body parts and are not common as fossils.
The preservation of soft parts not only requires rapid burial, but also rapid changing into rock to keep the worm structure from decaying. Below the layer of fossil clams and clods with worms was silty limestone, which contained large numbers of dinosaur footprints.
Also found with the dinosaur tracks were footprints which appeared to be human. These footprints apparently were barefoot, showing toes, ball of the foot, arch and heel. The difference in shape of left and right foot was obvious. One set of footprints was 12″ long and had a stride of nearly five feet. The evidence that man and dinosaur lived together refutes the popular idea that dinosaurs lived and became extinct millions of years before nits evolved.
It is exciting to find that there is mounting evidence to put the propagators of evolutionary doctrine on the defensive. There are an enormous number of facts which do not fit the basic evolutionary concept. This is why there are may divergent ideas among evolutionists themselves, each trying to fit his ideas to accommodate awkward facts. The author of this essay proceeds to draw arguments from fish fossils, the way rocks have been formed with coarse grain indicating rapid formation, the problem of dolostone which is nowhere known to be forming today, the same problem with chert; and the immense problem of conglomerate rock formation in which “pebbles of vari-coloured quartz and quartzite, limestone, chert, and petrified wood and with sandstone and shale in lenses” are cemented together.
How could all these various things get mixed into one conglomerate mass? Only the raging of a mighty flood could explain it. In the U.S.A., geologists have marked out an area of conglomerate formations called “Shinarump” and its area exceeds 125,000 square miles! It is usually less than 50 feet thick, but may locally reach 300 feet. It has the geologists baffled. The quartz and quartzite pebbles have, in particular, no adjacent source. “Apparently these pebbles were transported great distances to their present location.”
How did his vast layer of composite rock get there? The flood is the only answer, suggests the writer.
Other essays deal with the supposed, evolution of the horse, and the complex nature of the cell. Over 100 years ago, the evolutionist was glibly talking of life beginning with a simple single cell. But, in recent years, the optical microscope, and just recently, the electron microscope, have revealed the fact that “the cell is amazingly complex and highly organised, this being essential to enable it to perform so many vital processes”. In the simplest animals there are no less than seven different cells; and in the mammal, at least 30. So much for the simple cell.
Another essay gives the inside story to the famous Scopes Trial, and another looks at the evolutionists’ attempts to explain the origin of birds. Finally, there is an essay dealing with the fossil remains of man; and another on the origins of the mind, the intellect and an attempt to parallel this with the Scripture record.
Review of “The Early Earth” by John Whitcomb (1972)