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in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and
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Copyright © 2000 by the Creation Research Society. All rights reserved.
Volume
36, Number 3
December, 1999
Abstracts
Precambrian Plant Fossils and the Hakatai Shale Controversy
Carl R. Froede, Jr.
Within the global uniformitarian stratigraphic timescale, plant fossils have been found in Precambrian strata dated to approximately 3.5 billion years in age. Evolutionists have not successfully explained when or how life formed to produce these ancient and wide-spread plant fossils. Young-earth creationists have also investigated Precambrian plant fossils, focusing primarily on Precambrian rocks found in the Grand Canyon. Controversy has developed around the plant fossil content of the 1.25 billion year old Hakatai Shale. Several studies suggest that modern and ancient fossilized plant material might be present within the shale. Other Precambrian stratigraphic units in the Grand Canyon contain plant fossils. Precambrian strata of much greater age than the Hakatai Shale are known to contain plant fossils. However, some young-earth creationists have rejected the presence of plant fossils in the Hakatai Shale, or in abundance in any other Precambrian strata. This position is not! required by either uniformitarian or creationist frameworks and it ignores documented evidence of Precambrian plant material. The author proposes that Precambrian plant fossils exist, and reflect the effects of the global Flood on Antediluvian sediment and plant material. However, only the additional study of plant fossils within the various Precambrian outcrops at each locale can determine their specific position within the young-earth Flood model stratigraphic column.
Full Article
Craniodental variability in the domestic dog (Canis familiaris) and its Implications for the Variability in Primates
Celedonio Garcia-Pozuelo-Ramos
The domestic dog (Canis familiaris) constitutes a species that has attained considerable variability in historic times. The crania and dentition of a sample of the domestic dog Canis familiaris have been statistically analyzed with methods that have been employed to determine variability in other species. The results point to a degree of variation in the dog crania and dentition that may be a useful tool for creationists in determining the boundaries of the holobaramins (created kinds). The results obtained from dog crania do not support the division of Homo erectus into two, or more, different species, but are compatible with the hypothesis that they are all part of one species. Variability in the cranium and dentition of this living monobaramin (Canis familiaris) suggest that H. erectus, archaic H. sapiens fossils of diverse origin, and H. sapiens sapiens should be lumped into one kind (holobaramin1). The degree of morphological variability in domestic dogs is an important tool for assessing the variability of extinct kinds, and the limits of morphological variability within living beings.
Information Theory, Consequence Operators, and the Origin of Life
Robert A. Herrmann
In this article, the Gitt (1997) concept of information as it is represented by a mental-like sequence of activities is compared with the mental activity represented by consequence operators. It is shown how consequence operators model mathematically these Gitt notions and how a specific ultralogic and four ultrawords yield an identical foundation for Gitt's information theory scenario for the origin of life. Consequence operator theory, as a model for Gitt information theory, is used to establish that, relative to this model and without external modification to the processes, it is not possible, using fixed pragmatic information, to increase or decrease the complexity of a biological entity by selecting from two distinct independently produced biological entities as these entities are characterized at the apobetic level. This signi-fies that if random mutations are random alterations in the characteristics of a biological entity that are, necessarily, not dependent upon the original biological characteristics, then this model would tend to disallow random mutations as a viable source for biological alterations. On the other hand, for fixed pragmatic information, an increase or decrease in complexity by selecting from two distinct apobetic level biological entities is possible if a very special dependency exists between their characteristics. Further, complexity can also be increased by applying the semantic level consequence operator to an increased portion of the information contained within the genetic code in the DNA, information that exists originally.
How Gradual Evolution Is Disproved In the Textbooks
Randall Hedtke
Jevons' Rule states that a single absolute conflict between fact and a hypothesis is fatal to that hypothesis. Darwin's theory of gradual evolution cannot logically be sustained because it is a theory which is in direct conflict with paleontological facts and is thus falsified by Jevons' Rule. This conflict between Darwin's theory and paleontology was known from the time Darwin's book was published, but reliable investigative procedures were not allowed to stand in the way of the materialists' determination to establish an explanation for the origin of life. Thus began a policy of suppression, calculated ignorance, and deliberate closed-mindedness regarding unfavorable evidence on the part of macroevolutionists in science education. Today the teaching of evolution is doctrinal rather than genuinely theoretical; it is a curriculum deliberately tailored to indoctrinate rather than educate and a curriculum whose palpable intellectual duplicity must be exposed. When the gradualists' theory of macroevolution is analyzed in the context of paleontological facts, it is disproved by the obvious lack of intermediate fossil forms. Darwin foresaw this problem as did the theistic evolutionist, St. George Mivart, whose ideas are explored here. Mivart formulated an early version of the punctuated equilibrium model, a version predicated on Divine miracles.
The Piltdown Hoax's Influence on Evolution's Acceptance
Jerry Bergman
The Piltdown hoax history and its importance in convincing the world of evolution is reviewed. Compelling evidence existed from the beginning that the find was a hoax or, at the very least, did not provide support for human evolution. Yet, the Piltdown was touted for decades as one of the most important evidences of human evolution by textbooks, articles and major first class museums such as the American Museum of Natural History in New York.The hoax is an excellent illustration of the difficulties inherent in drawing conclusions about evolution from the fossil record. It was concluded that the hoax served to convince many people of the validity of Darwinism and its final definitive exposure probably did little to alter the views of most Darwinists.
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