Ironically – since it helped provide the reason to start this series – I didn’t watch the Great Debate. I did post more than my fair share of links to commentary elsewhere, but today we’ll limit ourselves to stories not directly related to it.
1. The Solar System: Uranus, Jason Lisle, Acts & Facts, 1 February
The orientation of Uranus’ magnetic field is quite unusual. Most planets have a magnetic field that is approximately aligned with their rotation axis. Not so with Uranus. The magnetic axis is offset from the rotation axis by an astonishing 60 degrees. Moreover, the magnetic axis does not pass through the center of the planet but is offset to one side by roughly one third the radius of the planet. From a secular perspective, it is mystifying that Uranus should have a magnetic field at all. Magnetic fields naturally decay with time and should be nonexistent in planets that are billions of years old.
On the other hand, the magnetic field of Uranus fits perfectly with biblical creation. In 1984, creation physicist Russ Humphreys predicted the magnetic field of Uranus based on the amount of magnetic decay that would have happened on the planet in the 6,000 years since its creation.11 Voyager 2 confirmed this prediction. Although the presence of a strong magnetic field on any planet is a confirmation of recent creation, this is especially the case for Uranus.
2. Counting Sheep Since Jacob’s Day, Brian Thomas, Acts & Facts, 1 February
Genesis presents the first written record of selective breeding when it describes Jacob inducing specific sheep to mate and then separating the “stronger livestock” from the “feeble.”1 There is every historical indication that this practice has continued unbroken from before Jacob’s time until today. How many years has this artificial selection been going on?
3. Early Man Findings Contradict Evolution, David Coppedge, Creation Evolution Headlines, 3 February
PhysOrg reported a fossil claimed to be an ape-like Paranthropus that was supposedly evolving into Homo erectus, but if there was gene flow between Homo erectus and Neanderthals—as is now believed—it creates a severe break between the first two links. Moreover, the feet of the specimen show that this ape spent most of its life in the trees. It went extinct, the article says, not evolving into a human line.
4. Genetics — Not a Friend of Evolution, Bob Sorensen, Evolutionary Truth by Piltdown Superman, 5 February
Evolution is an ancient pagan religion. After various attempts to make it appear scientific before and during the nineteenth century, Charles Darwin managed to popularize it in 1859 and 1871. People grabbed evolution as a means to reject God while appearing scientific and intellectual. Darwin taught that natural selection was the basis of changes in species. Creationists also believe in natural selection, as it eliminates organisms that are unfit for certain environments and is scientifically verified. However, traditional Darwinism had to abandon natural selection as a means of molecules-to-man evolution. (Surprisingly, some people are uninformed that they are holding to a belief system that has been left behind for decades; creationists often educate them. Or try to.)
5. Noah’s Journal, (Unknown), Answers in Genesis, 6 February
Without having to use our imagination and relying instead on God’s Word, we read the account in Genesis 7 of the breaking apart of the fountains of the deep. This breaking up would have almost certainly tossed the Ark about. But because of its stable design due to its seaworthy proportions, the Ark would have ridden out the angry waters with confidence. After all, it was the Creator—the designer and builder of the world and all its magnificent complexities—who specified to Noah how the Ark was to be built.