Creation

1. Creation Facts and Fossils The majority of this presentation comes from Ken Ham, Answers in Genesis. www.answersingenesis.org

2. Facts and Fossils Let’s talk about Creationists and Evolutionists The universe created itself over billions of years Death has always been around Disease has been around almost as long as death No purpose – random chance God Created in six days Death entered the world through sin No disease before sin Plan and purpose

3. Facts and Fossils Let’s talk about Creationists and Evolutionists Do we have the same Earth? Do we have the same animals? Do we have the same fossils? Do we have the same dinosaurs? Do we have the same FACTS? Yes Yes Yes Yes

4. Facts and Fossils Yes! The facts are all the same! The science is all the same!

5. Facts and Fossils We don’t disagree on the facts, or the science! We disagree on the history.

6. Facts and Fossils Questions about the present and the past: Do you exist in the present or the past? Do fossils exist in the present or the past? When you dig up fossils, are you digging up the present, or the past? The present The present The present!

7. Facts and Fossils Fossils don’t come with date tags on them saying, “Hi! I’m 65 million years old!” When we dig up a fossil, we make up a story about the fossil and how it got there. The story you make up will be based on, and consistent with, what you already believe about the past. I’m 65 Million Years Old

8. Facts and Fossils Here is a fact!What is missing? Maybe a smiley face someone ripped the middle out of? Perhaps an apple core shape? Two semi-circles? Was it a circle?

9. Facts and Fossils How many people think it was a circle? What is missing? Nothing! I drew it that way!

10. Facts and Fossils We started with a fact, and I gave you a presupposition: “What is missing?” So your mind says, “Something is missing! I’ve got to fill it in!” The interpretation that it was a circle is totally logical and consistent with the presupposition that something is missing, but it is totally wrong because the presupposition was wrong.

11. Facts and Fossils You’ve heard the phrase, “The facts speak for themselves!”? Nonsense! The facts NEVER speak for themselves.

12. Facts and Fossils All facts must be interpreted. Facts without interpretations are meaningless. When teachers teach in school, they’re not teaching facts, they’re teaching interpretations of facts. When you watch the news, you’re not watching the facts of world history, you’re watching an interpretation of the facts of world history.

13. Facts and Fossils We’ve been told Scientists look at the evidence and derive theories from the evidence, right? WRONG! Scientists already have beliefs and suppositions they take to the evidence.

14. Facts and Fossils Regarding the issue of Christianity, Humanism, Creation, and Evolution, we all have the same facts! We live in the same world! The difference is how you interpret the facts, and how you interpret the facts depends on the glasses you have on, and the glasses you have on depend upon the beliefs you have concerning the past.

15. Facts and Fossils The present is all the same. The facts in the present are all the same. The difference is the belief you use to tie it all together into an overall big picture. That depends on the history you start with. It’s a matter of what history you believe.

16. Facts and Fossils “What about the millions of years?” “Haven’t they proven millions of years with scientific dating methods?” All dating methods are based on assumptions.

17. ASSUMPTIONS Are assumptions ever wrong?

18. ASSUMPTIONS Assumptions are guesses: “If this is true, then…” Assumptions are fallible. Therefore… ALL dating methods are fallible.

19. ASSUMPTIONS Radiometric Dating Methods Minimum of three assumptions: • Known initial quantities • Constant decay rate • No contamination None of these three assumptions is provable. We have no reason to believe any of these assumptions is more correct than any other assumption anyone might make!

20. ASSUMPTIONS If you were going to believe something, which account do you think would be more reliable? An account based on guesses? An account from someone who was there? Well, who was there… …In the beginning?

21. Historical Account Do we have an account from someone who was there? YES! The world says millions of years and the Bible says six thousand years. If you believe in God, whose statement should you believe?

22. Historical Account So, if God, who knows everything about everything, invented language, and then gave us HIS revelation in language, and that revelation gave us a historical account of the creation of the world, I should be able to take that historical account and make sense of the world I see today.

23. Historical Account When you apply God’s history to what we see today, it is indeed true and reliable. Let’s try an example…

24. Historical Account Noah’s Flood “I believe it was a local flood…”

25. Historical Account Noah’s Flood If it were a local flood… Why did Noah have to build an Ark? He could have walked to the other side of the mountainsand missed it! He had a hundred years notice! Why did God send animals on the Ark so they would escape death? There would have been other animals to reproduce that kind if the animals that had gone on the ark had died instead. Why was the Ark big enough to hold each kind of air-breathing land animal that ever existed? If only Mesopotamian animals were on board, the Ark could have been much smaller. Why would birds have been sent on board? They could have simply winged across to a nearby mountain range.

26. Historical Account Noah’s Flood If it were a local flood… How could waters rise to 15 cubits (22.5 feet) above the mountains (Genesis 7:20)? Water seeks out its own level. It couldn’t have risen to cover the local mountains while leaving the rest of the world untouched. God has broken his promise never to send such a flood again. People who were not living in the vicinity would not have been affected. They would have escaped God’s judgment on sin. Christ compared the coming judgment to the one in the days of Noah. (Matthew 24:37-39) A partial judgment in Noah’s day means a partial judgment to come.

27. Historical Account There is world-wide evidence of a global flood: • Billions of dead things buried in rock layers laid down by water all over the earth! • massive death, rapid burial —The Fossil Record • It’s everywhere. The earth is one big graveyard!

28. Historical Account Let’s look at another example: Dinosaurs! • Dinosaur bones – many un-fossilized, some with red blood cells and soft tissue! Which fits better with that: Millions of years or thousands of years? • Thousands of years, of course. • Millions of years would have obliterated all soft tissue.

29. Historical Account Dinosaurs: • Cave drawings of dinosaurs • Cultural accounts of dinosaurs and a global flood • Biblical references to dinosaurs —That’s a topic for another lesson All of these are evidence that dinosaurs have been around during the time of man.

30. Historical Account How do dinosaurs fit with the Bible? • When did God create dinosaurs? • God made everything in six days • He made land animals on day six • Therefore, dinosaurs were made on day six • How did they become fossils? • Massive burial in the global flood

31. Historical Account Why do they only find dinosaurs as fossils? • They find MANY different kinds of animals as fossils. • Only the extinct animals are “interesting” so you never hear much about the rest.

32. Historical Account Don’t fossils take millions of years to form? • Fossilization is a process that can take anything from a few hours to many years. It depends on the conditions of mineral content and ground water. • There was a LOT of ground water in Noah’s flood.

33. Summary • Facts are meaningless without interpretation. • The history a person believes will influence his interpretation of the facts. • Assumptions are fallible. If you weren’t there and you don’t know everything, you either have to make fallibleassumptions, or accept the word of someone who was there.

34. Summary Have you put your faith in the infallible God? Do you accept all of His Word for your life?