Answering Five Common Arguments Against Biblical Creationism

by Dennis E. Wert, Chairman, Creation Science Fellowship The following piece represents an edited version of a two-part article appearing in the January and February 1998 issues of Origins Insights, a monthly publication of the Creation Science Fellowship (CSF). In that article Mr. Wert responds to 12 common arguments that he has encountered in various internet chat rooms. For further information on CSF, or for the original unabridged article, you may contact CSF at: PO Box 99303 Pittsburgh PA USA 15233 Telephone (412) 341-4908. Our special thanks to CSF and Dennis Wert for permission, by special arrangement, to edit and reprint this article. Argument #1. If Biblical creationism is true, why are the majority of scientists in favor of evolution? Is science strictly a majority-based opinion of what is true? Have the majority of the scientists been wrong about something at one time or another? Examples: germ theory of disease, spontaneous generation, composition of rings of Saturn, origin of the universe, uniformity as the only explanation in geologic processes. Argument #2. The Bible can't be correct because scientists know how the universe began and it was all by natural forces. Scientists don't know exactly how it began and do nothing but argue about the type of the initial state and the mechanisms that brought about the universe. Hubble Space Telescope has caused further consternation for these theories due to the strange appearance of objects at great distances that are younger than they should be, or the distribution of matter makes it difficult to understand the uniformity of the background radiation with the resultant dispersion. On page 68 of his book The Universe and Life, G. Siegfried Kutter, ©1987 Jones and Bartlet Publishers, says, "...such extrapolation is daring, to say the least. It may even be grossly misleading. Physicists have learned from hard experience that extrapolating beyond solid observational and experimental evidence has generally led them astray. However, at present there are no observational or experimental data of the first instant of creation and, possibly, there never will be. Extrapolation is the only means of such an investigation. Besides, to do so is an exciting intellectual adventure." Argument #3. It is a dog-eat-dog world and those that are weak will die and those that are strong will survive, and that is how evolution worked to improve and change species! Survival and natural selection certainly do act to keep the weak and genetically different from moving further from the wild type of the species, and thus becoming dominant. It is for that very reason that megaevolution cannot occur. Ninety-nine percent (of mutations) are harmful or neutral. The chance that one would occur in the right gene at the right time that it would be beneficial to the whole organism is very unlikely. In sexually reproducing organisms it must occur in the gametes to be carried on to the next generation. Megamutation would create an even more hopeless situation of dead ends with nonfunctional organs, etc. Argument #4. Cave men, like Neanderthal Man, show the clear evolution of human culture, society, in a straightforward evolutionary process. Neanderthal was first thought of as a brutish kind of subhuman. Now we know that he had a vitamin deficiency disease which was the cause of his physical appearance. But he still was a fairly intelligent human who had art and formal burial practices. In fact, what has arisen in recent years is an understanding of how knowledge has been lost due to the degeneration of a cultural (collective) base when...catastrophe struck. Argument #5. What real evidence is there for that "fable" of the worldwide flood of Noah? 1) Worldwide appearance of sedimentary layers in which fossils are found. 2) Polystrate fossils. 3) Fossil graveyards are major sites over the whole world. 4) Index fossils are marine in nature from ocean to top of mountains. 5) Extinction and loss of organisms and genetic information due to a catastrophe. 90% of all species are extinct. Sudden appearance in fossil record; sudden disappearance. 6) Fossilization is a rapid, not a slow, process. 7) Mt. St. Helens' postcatastrophe findings. 8) Worldwide cultural stories of a flood catastrophe. 9) Too few human remains in the fossil record.