Table of Contents 1.     Badlands National Park 2.     Black Hills 3.     Bear Butte State Park 4.     Devils Tower, Wyoming 5.     Spearfish Canyon 6.     Black Hills Petrified Forest 7.     Museum of Geology 8.     Chapel in the Hills 9.     Gold “Black Hills or Bust” 10.  Caves 11.  Mt. Rushmore National Monument 12.  Custer State Park 13.  Black Hills Museum of Natural History, Hills City 14.  Mammoth Hot Springs, Hot Springs 15.  Buffalo 16.  Buffalo Gap 17.  Fossil Cycad National Monument in the Black Hills 18.  Ponderosa Pine 19.  Prairie Dogs 20.  Fossil 21.  Pronghorn Antelope 22.  Other Resources Badlands National Park The badlands national park is just off I-90 with a 32 mile loop through revealed layers of clay, sand, and volcanic ash laid down during the Flood of Noah’s day. The French explorers called this area, “bad lands to cross” and so it is! Starting at the East entrance East entrance to the Park and Big Badlands overlook This gives you a big view of the badlands. A quick look will show that the Badlands were deposited in layers. Notice the layers are horizontal. Follow one strata line and then follow another. There is no evidence of weathering or erosion on boundaries between layers, the contact between layers is “knife-edge” sharp. If this were laid down over slowly over millions of years there should be soil layers at each layer. Also if these layers were laid down slowly over millions of years, the creatures should have mixed the soil and it should appear homogenous. As it is these layers reveal they were laid down quickly in a flooding event. Scientific research shows that flowing water lays down sediments in layers. The Badlands testify to a worldwide Flood as mentioned in the Bible. Door and Window Parking area The Door trail is so named for a break in the wall. This marks the upper prairie from the lower prairie. This thick ridge is over 100 miles long and called “The Wall”. The city of Wall and Wall Drug take its name from this ridge. Ben Reifel Visitor Center A small visitor center to helps you understand the park better. Notice the eroded badlands around you. Pick a strata line and follow it from butte to pinnacle. Now read above Notice the horizontal bands of sediment. Horse evolution exhibit Creation scientists have examined 19 fossil horse species. Statistical analyses revealed they belong to the same “horse kind”. Horses range from the small miniature horses to the large Clydesdale. (Thumbelina is a miniature horse that is 17 inches tall.) Horses vary from having 17-19 ribs. Some are born with one toe and others with more. All are just a variety of the horse kind. The same can be said of the variety we find within the dogs, from poodle to Great Dane. Horses were created on Day 6 of creation week some 6,000 years ago. Noah took 2 horse kinds on the Ark, a male and female. The ones that we find in the fossil record are the ones that did not get on the Ark. After the Flood, the 2 horses left the Ark were fruitful and multiplied over the earth. (Museum Guide: a Bible-based Handbook to the Museum. 2006. Answers in Genesis. p. 83.) Fossil Exhibit Trail In the Badlands we find in the lower grayish-black sedimentary rock called the Pierre Shale, clams, crabs, snails and baculites (squid like creature with a long shell tightly coiled at one end). Notice the lower stratum has marine fossils. What are ocean creatures doing in South Dakota? They were caught in a world-wide flood. These fossilized creatures were caught in black mud which compressed and turned into rock (shale). This 2,000 foot thick band of rock is known as Pierre Shale. When asked of the ranger about the clams, “Do you find them mostly open or close”? Closed clams. Close clams mean they were buried alive and then died. When clams die naturally, their muscle relaxes opening the shell. Most the time on beaches you will find separate halves of the shells. With both halves still together means the clam must have been buried deeply and fast. Living clams can dig them themselves out of many feet of sand. Finding fossilized clams with closed shells testifies to rapid, deep, burial such as would be found in the Genesis Flood. In the next two layers, Eocene and Oligocene epochs fossilized mammals are found. Saber tooth cats, miniature camels, horses the size of a collie dog, deer the size of a house cat and gigantic rhinoceros like beasts called titanotheres. Tintanothere means Giant (Titan) creature (Theres). Pigs (oredonts), the size of a large dog, are the most common mammal fossil found in the park. No dinosaur fossils have been found in the park. An excellent display of fossils found in the Badlands is on display at the Museum of Geology School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City. White River Valley Overlook Notice the strata lines. no evidence of weathering or erosion on boundaries between layers sharp “knife-edge” contact between layers lack of bioturbation lack of soil layers Bigfoot Pass Overlook Notice the strata lines. See above Notice the horizontal bands of sediment Also, these layers of sediments are underneath the upper prairie. A lot of erosion had to happen to reveal what we see. Where are the eroded sediments? Washed clean away. Burns Basin overlook and Homestead Overlook : Notice the strata lines. Scientific experiments show that flowing water separates sediments into layers. Conata Basin Overlook:  Notice the strata lines. How does soft, loose sediment turn into solid rock? It’s the same way we make concrete, after all concrete is just artificial rock. The concrete company breaks up bigger rocks into smaller rocks and adds cement (limestone/clay) and water. Cement mineral crystals grow around the rock and we have concrete. The two most common cementing agents are calcium carbonate (the lime in limestone) and silica (silica rock cement in this form are like little packs of silica gel that get packed with electronics, they rapidly absorb water and form crystals.) During the Flood, the earth was one big cement mixer. ( The Fossil Book by Gary and Mary Parker, 2005, p. 7-8.) Yellow Mounds Overlook: the sign says these are the remains of 87 soils, some are red, yellow and purple. Pinnacles Overlook: Today we see layers of varied colors sweep across the landscape These layers were laid down by the Flood. Scientific experiments have found that flowing waters laid down sediments in varied layers. Then, massive amounts of water eroded the landscape revealing these strata layers which are evidence of a worldwide Flood. Here in the Badlands erosion has reveal the history of the Flood of Noah that is usually kept hidden. How did the Badlands form? During the year long Flood during Noah’s day, the earth experienced catastrophic restructuring. In Genesis the “fountains of the great deep” burst forth and poured water onto the earth’s surface for 150 days (5 months). At the same time, “the floodgates of heaven” opened and torrential global rains fell. These waters eventually covered “ all the high hills under the whole heaven.” So that all the air-breathing, land dwelling creatures died. Only Noah, his family and those creatures he took on the Ark were saved. This world wide catastrophe lasted over a year (370 days). As the Flood waters swept across the continents, it ripped up the earth depositing it in a different place. Add to these earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, and the moon’s gravitational pull on these waters and you have violent watery storm. The earth was truly being washed clean of its wickedness. Towards the end of the Flood, the waters rushed off the land masses and into the oceans. As “ mountains rose up and valleys when down” Psalm 104:8, water in sheets would erode the land, soon the waters would become channalized eroding the land more deeply. Noah, his family and animals left the ark to experience a new world. The rainbow in the sky was and is a promise to us that the world will never be destroyed by a world-wide flood again. What we see at the Badlands is the layers of strata that were laid down during this year long flood. Flood waters had swept across the continents laying down sand, clay, and volcanic ash. On every continent is the world is found extensive areas layers of sedimentary rock. Caught in these waters would have been the creatures not on the Ark Countless billions of fossils of plants and animals are found in extensive fossil graveyards world-wide. The geological column is a record of what got caught and died in the Flood not an order of green slime evolving into a human. Look out over the badlands notice the horizontal layers. These sharply defined layers. The Badlands give evidence of a worldwide flood. When viewing the Badlands notice the horizontal bands or layers of sediment. These sedimentary rock layers are made of tiny grains of sand, silt, mud, and clay that have been cemented together into sedimentary rocks. The worldwide Flood would have been a horrific year long event. As the “fountains of the great deep burst open”, tsunamis would have swept over the continents, bringing with them marine creatures. Add to this, “the floodgates of heaven opened”. This watery cataclysm would be accompanied with tremendous earthquakes and erupting volcanoes. This global watery cataclysm would result in the destruction of every animal and plant on the face of the earth, only those safely in the Ark survived. The earth was going through great upheavals. The land was being ground into sediments. Today 75% of the land surfaces are sedimentary rocks, rocks that had been ground up and laid down in violent global Flood. At the end of the Flood, the mountains rose up and valleys went low causing the waters to rush off the continents and into the oceans. These waters would have run off in sheets and caused erosion and in places like the Badlands we are privileged to see these laid down layers from the Flood revealed. Notice the horizontal bands of sediment , each band can be traced to the next butte, pinnacle or peak, showing one continuous band. The strata are in horizontal bands. We find no evidence between the strata (bands) of weathering or erosion. If each band had been laid down over millions of years, shouldn’t those years of weathering and erosion be revealed in the horizontal layers? What we find between the boundaries of sedimentary layers is a  flat, featureless, knife-edge boundary . These flat, featureless boundaries are hallmarks of continuous deposition or lying down of the year long Genesis Flood. Notice each layer of strata, the light and the dark, have totally different rock types lying one on top of the other, each layer has a very distinct “knife-edge” line between them. The existence of sharp “knife-edge” contact between the strata could not happen over millions of years otherwise we should see erosional features. These layers show evidence of being laid down quickly. How were these layers laid down during the Flood? Flowing waters separates sediments into layers. Take a jar and fill it with gravel, sand, and clay, now add water. Shake it up and watch the layers form in a short time. This is but a small experiment as compared to a global flood. Moving waters sort out particles thus forming layers. Layers show lack of bioturbation. Bioturbation refers to biological life mixing up the soils. Sediments that have been laid down in hurricanes quickly become mixed up by worms, clams, and plants, disturbing the layers. One study of Hurricane Carla in 1961 showed that it laid down a recognizable layer; within 20 years this layer could hardly be found, the critters and plants had mixed these sediments. If the sediments had been laid down in the badlands over millions of years, these layers would not be so pronounced; bioturbation would have mixed the layers to almost a homogenous layer. Each layer shows lack of a top soil. If the land had continuously supported life over hundreds of millions of year, the soil should be visible. Extent of Sedimentary Rocks The limestone outcrops in the Black Hills extends to the Redwall Limestone seen in the Grand Canyon to The Grand Teton Range where it is called the Madison Limestone. The limestone then extends into the Canadian Rockies. This limestone can be traced over large areas of the United States. We do not observe such extensive layers being laid down today. Today’s sedimentation is limited; for such a vast area to be covered required some catastrophic event of biblical proportions for it to be produced. Geological evidence for strata laid down in a Flood no evidence of weathering or erosion on boundaries between layers sharp “knife-edge” contact between layers lack of bioturbation lack of soil layers Fossils: The world wide flood would have produced, as Ken Ham says, “billions of dead things buried in rock layers laid down by water all over the world”. 95% of all know fossils are marine invertebrates. These creatures would have been the first to be caught in this epic flooding event. As the storms, tidal surges and tsunamis continued more and more of the land would become flooded burying plants and creatures. Those to be trapped and buried first were the marine creatures then those living closest to the shore (amphibians), and finally those farther in land, like the reptiles and finally the mammals. The surging flood waters covering these land creatures would have also brought in sea creatures. That is why in the Badlands of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, fossils finds are clams, snails, crocodiles, alligators, turtles and Champosaurus gigas  a 10 foot long crocodile-like creature. Volcanoes, the Flood and Bentonite Clay ..........The park layers are full of volcanic ash. Volcanic ash would have been spewing out from hundreds of volcanoes during the Flood and after the Flood as the earth began to settle down. Volcanic ash weathers and decomposes into bentonite clay. Bentonite clay is mined worldwide. In the northern high plains hundreds of bentonite beds exist. Because it absorbs water wonderfully it is used in such industries as drilling wells, lining landfills, and kitty litter. These clays when wet expand and become very sticky and slick. In the Badlands area great amounts of volcanic ash were deposited over an extensive area. Notice the thick whitish-gray layers of bentonite clay, which used to be volcanic ash! When exposed on the surface and dried out they appear crumbly. Black Hills Black hills are not hills but mountains. They are smaller than the Rockies but higher than the Appalachians. From a distance they look black, this is from the spruce and pine covered slopes. Why are they called black when it is thickly covered in evergreens? Very simply from a distance these pine covered slopes look black from a distance. The Black hills is in a vast sea of prairie grasses. The Black Hills area is approximately 120 miles long and 50 miles wide. There are eighteen peaks that rise to an elevation greater than 7,000 feet. How were the Black Hills formed? The Flood of Noah’s day (2348 B.C.) laid down sedimentary layers. Towards the end of the Flood, the mountains rose up and the valleys went low. With the Black Hills, magma below the earth pushed up like a fist. This exposed the granite basement rocks in the center of the black hills. A 7,000 foot dome of granite rock rose, forming the Black Hills. The layers of limestone, sandstone, and other sediments were tilted as a result. The green in the picture is limestone. The purple is the granite basement rocks now exposed. Bear Butte State Park Bear Butte State Park is designated as a National Natural Landmark sacred to the Native Americans. But did you know that during the 1990’s on the walls of this state park there was an account of “Noah” and the Flood? There are more than 360 Flood accounts from around the world. One is even remembered at Bear Butte State Park in South Dakota (near Sturgis). There used to be posted on the walls the Mandan Indian Flood legend. Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah (Noah) escaped a world- wide flood in a dug-out canoe. “Noah” and these animals were saved and landed on Bear Butte. A dove was sent out from the canoe, and it came back with a willow branch. Then, the animals left the dug out canoe two by two. Doesn’t this sound like Noah’s Flood from the Bible? How did this show up in South Dakota? The ancestors of the Mandan Indians brought this history with them when they spread out from the tower of Babel. Some people will say this story is from when the Christian missionaries visited the Mandan Indians. If this were true, would they not have told about Jesus Christ? There are some 360 flood accounts from around the world. This would be expected if an awful world catastrophe, as described in the Bible, had actually happened. These ancient people would tell their children and grandchildren. These Flood accounts were brought with them as they left the Tower of Babel some 106 years after the Flood. The story would become increasingly distorted with time but the essence of the true, actual, historical event would remain. As you ascend Bear Butte, some 1400 feet above the prairie, viewing four states, you can see the reason the Mandan Indians choose this sight for “Noah” landing and the animals coming off two by two. Inspired Evidence,  Julie Von Vett and Bruce Malone, June 7, 2011 Have you considered .............that there is evidence of a worldwide flood in the historical records of many people groups from around the world. For example, the Toltec Indians of ancient Mexico record that a few men escaped the great Flood that covered the highest mountains in a closed chest. This first world lasted 1,716 years (The Biblical account has the pre-flood world lasting 1,656 years). The Toltec histories recount that after the Flood, a great tower was built and then the languages were confused. (Tower of Babel: Genesis 11). The Toltec language was spoken by 7 friends and their wives. They crossed great waters, lived in caves, and wandered 104 years until they arrived in southern Mexico. This was 520 after the great Flood. This is just one of some 360 Flood stories from around the world. Dinosaurs by Design , Duane Gish, 1992, p.74. Devils Tower, Wyoming Just outside the Black hills in northeastern Wyoming stands a spectacular erosional remnant, Devils Tower. It is nearly a vertical igneous body some 900 feet tall towering over the grasslands. The circumference at the base is one mile. Devils Tower is possibly the remains of a volcanic neck or a plug of magma that never reached the surface. How was this formed? Magma was pushed upward through sedimentary layers and into place underground. At that time, the land surface would have been 3,000 feet higher, which would be 1,800 feet higher than the top of the tower! The thick magma had to have solidified before  the surrounding materials were eroded, otherwise the plug shape would not have been retained. Long columns grace the sides of the tower, most are five-sided. These columns are called columnar jointing. Columns are formed when the magma is cooled quickly causing it to contract, forming cracks. As it continually cooled, the cracks enlarged forming columns. Most columnar jointing is five or six-sided, however three to seven sides can be found. The lengths of these columns at Devils Tower show that it was one pool of magma, not a series of small flows on top of each other. Columns form perpendicular to the cooling surface, in this case, the cooling surface was horizontal, leading to vertical fractures. How was Devils Tower exposed? The land would have been cut flat to the level of the top of the tower and the surrounding high hills and then a wide valley was cut revealing Devils Tower. Now let’s put on our biblical glasses with the Genesis Flood in mind. Sedimentary layers were laid down in the Flood. Toward the end of the Flood, Devils Tower magma was pushed into place. Then other mountains rose up and valley went down (Psalms) and the waters rushed off the continents in sheets flowing to the oceans. These sheets of water thousands of miles wide would have cut wide flat landscapes; originally the land above the tower was 1,800 feet higher. The sheet flow would have cooled Devils Tower from the top, causing the cracks, producing the vertical columns. As the floodwater decreased, the water flow would have divided into large channels and continued to erode the landscape. One of these channels cut the wide valley around the tower. These sediments are not found down slope in some huge flood plain area; they have been swept clean. The tower did not erode because it is composed of hard volcanic rock. Devils Tower is a remnant of catastrophic erosion that took place at the end of the Flood. Why Devil’s Tower cannot be millions of years old..... The tower exists, if millions of years old, it would most likely have eroded completely away. Devils Tower could not be millions of years old, for it would have totally disappeared in a million years from the freeze-thaw cycle. Water from storms fill the cracks in the columns and then freeze during the cold months, enlarging the cracks causing the columns to crumble to the ground. Devil’s Tower should have been destroyed in less than 100,000 years because of the freeze-thaw weathering. Notice there is a modest amount of talus (fallen rock debris) at the base of the tower. Devils Tower is thousands of years old (The Flood took place about 4,300 years ago), not millions. The erosion had to be rapid for the tower is steep, if the water flow have been slow, the tower would have been much smaller at its base. As it is, Devils Tower is almost vertical. We can better understand the tall erosional remnants like Devil’s Tower, in the landforms we see today when we view then with biblical glasses. In the late stages of the flood, the water rushed off the continent in sheets. As the flood water subsided, they would have flowed in wide channels, eroding the landscape leaving remnants like Devil’s Tower. “Devils Tower can be Explained by Floodwaters Runoff”, Michael Oard, Journal of Creation August 2009, p. 124-127 “Devils Tower and Bible Glasses”, Tas Walker, Creation, June 2002, 20-23 http://creation.com/devils-tower-explained Drawing flood by design  p. 62 not http://www.unmuseum.org/devtowergeo.htm http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/wog/devils-tower -As you travel down the hill from the tower, look for a gravel road on your right that leads to the Joyner Ridge trailhead, this offers another incredible view especially an hour prior to sunset. Spearfish Canyon Hwy 14A This is a beautiful 20 mile drive through a gorge with Spearfish Creek at the bottom and 1,000 foot high white limestone cliffs on every side. During the Flood sediments were laid down, one of theses sediments was limestone. Towards the end of the Flood, the mountains rose up and in this case under the Black Hills, volcanic magma pushed up like the fist of your hand. It did not push all the way through to the surface; just enough to have the Black Hills look like an island in a sea of grasslands. Waters rushed off the surface, some carving out canyons, in this case carving through the limestone and creating Spearfish Canyon. This canyon is not millions of years old, just thousands (Flood 3458 BC or about 4,300 years ago). Evolutionary geologists will tell you this canyon was carved out by this little creek over 5 millions years. If this were so, why are the canyon cliffs so vertical? There are numerous gorgeous falls along this canyon. Bridal Falls is part of the igneous intrusion that occurred when the mountain rose up at the end of the Flood. As you drive through this canyon be amazed at the amount of limestone that was laid down during this year long Flood of Noah’s Day. In Spearfish Canyon at Roughlock Falls the rare American Dipper or Water ouzel can be seen. American Dipper A small bird that loves to dip when beside a fast-flowing river is called the little dipper or water ouzel. This little bird not only flies but swims. He even strolls on the bottom of the stream turning rocks over with his beak and feet to find his food. He does not have webbed feet so he uses his wings as oars to move through the water. He uses his air sacs to rise to the surface and compresses the air out of these sacs to submerge. The dipper’s eyes have a special lens curvature for underwater vision AND nasal flaps in his nostrils to close when diving, who wants water up his nose. Evolutionists will say this bird evolved, why would he have to evolve all this underwater equipment when he could just as easily gotten his food off the ground? Our heavenly Father just loves to show His creativeness! “All Your works shall praise You, O LORD,” ~ Psalm 145:10 Black Hills Petrified Forest Black Hills Petrified Forest Fee Piedmont SD (near Rapid City) Travel west on I-90 from Rapid City and take exit 46 east about one mile to a privately owned petrified forest. According to Arthur Manning book Petrified Wood in the USA , this is one of the top 10 petrified wood sites in the USA. Some of the logs are large, over 100 feet long. This is also the sight were they found the brontosaurus, today called an apatosaurus . This is a small mom and pop operation. . The self-guided tour begins with a short evolutionary movie on the formation of the Black Hills. Then you meander through the woods to view some 25 stations  of petrified wood. Petrified wood pieces lie where they were found. How did these pieces of wood petrify if sediment slowly covered it over millions of years, would not it have rotted away before it was completely covered? Tree today do not die and become petrified instead they rot away. It takes very special conditions for a piece of wood to petrify. Petrified wood Evolution would want you to believe that it takes millions of years for wood to petrify or turn to stone. It doesn’t take a long time for wood to petrify. It takes the right chemical conditions for wood to become petrified. For example, a farmer’s fence posts below the ground dating from the mid-1800’s, were found totally petrified! The top portion had rotted away while those in the ground had petrified! A piece of wood was dangled in Yellowstone’s silica hot springs for a year and was found to be substantially petrified! Petrified wood can be found at the chapel of Santa Maria de Salute in Venice, Italy. This massive stone block chapel was built in 1630 to celebrate the end of the Plague. The city of Venice is built on water saturated sand and clay, so the chapel’s foundation was reinforced with 180,000 wooden pilings. How have these wooden pilings remained firm for some 400 years? They are petrified! The once wooden pilings have turned to stone!3 It does not take a long time to petrify, just the right conditions. Petrified wood is not as rare as you may think. In fact it is an abundant fossil and found worldwide. To make petrified wood, wood needs to be buried in oxygen-poor sediment. Water then percolates through the ground bringing with it minerals. Cell by cell, the original wood is completely dissolved away and replaced. The ideal environment for wood to become petrified is burial by volcanic ash. This provides the needed minerals and hot water for the wood to petrify. The color of the petrified wood depends on the minerals in the water. Arizona’s petrified wood is famous for its yellows and reds (from the iron minerals) and green and blues (from the copper). The petrified wood of the Dakotas are usually very light brown or cream colored. The Flood of Noah’s day would have had the right conditions in order for wood to petrify; the trees had to be buried quickly before decomposing. Living trees that die and fall in the forest will decompose from fungus, bacteria and other creatures. Flood waters would have percolated down into the soil extracting minerals and depositing them in the wood. Petrified wood is abundant and worldwide, yet it rarely occurs today because of the special conditions required. What event in history would have worldwide deep burial of wood in a water saturated ground? The Flood of Noah’s time provides the answer. So the next time you pick up a piece of petrified wood, realize you are holding a piece of evidence for a worldwide flood, the Flood of Noah’s day. 1. Ham, Ken, ed. 2010. The New Answers Book 3 . Master Books: Green Forest, AR. p.96. 2. Morris, Dr. John. 2002. Geology. Master Books: Green Forest, AR. p.71. 3. Snelling, Dr. Andrew. September 1995. “Instant Petrified Wood”. Creation Magazine , p. 38-40. Museum of Geology 501 E. St. Joseph St, S.D. School of Mines Rapid City, 57701 Monday-Friday: 9am-5pm, Saturday: 9am-6pm, Sunday: 12pm-5pm This museum is open free to the public. Some of the best local fossils of dinosaurs, giant fish, and mammals are exhibited here. Also, there are meteorites, a fluorescent minerals room, and models of famous diamonds and gold nuggets. Have you considered ……….how a dinosaur fossil is made. A fossil is a rock. It takes very special conditions to make a rock or fossil. Think about this, what happens to a dead animal? Scavengers eat it; bugs and bacteria cause it to rot and decay, eventually leaving no remains behind. It takes very special conditions in order to make a fossil. Here is the general fossil recipe: Fast coverage  by sediment. So, scavengers and bacteria don’t eat it. Deep coverage  by sediment so no oxygen is present to start decay. Lots and lots of water  so the minerals can seep into the bone and turn it into stone. What event in history had fast, deep coverage with lots of water? The Flood of Noah’s time. Every time a dinosaur fossil is dug up, it is a reminder of this Flood. Fossils remind us of God’s judgment and God’s mercy. God’s judgment in that He destroyed the entire world with a worldwide flood because it was so wicked. When you look around this room at all these fossils realize that all these creatures were caught in the Flood and died. God’s mercy in that He saved Noah and his family on the Ark. Every time a dinosaur bone or fossil is dug up, it reminds us of God’s judgment and God’s mercy; fossilized dinosaur bones are really missionaries to the world. Have you considered ………..diamonds. Evolutionists have never bothered to check to see if diamonds had carbon 14; they assumed diamonds to be at least a billion years old. Some creation scientists were curious, so they took 12 diamonds and prepared them for carbon 14 analysis. To their amazement, every diamond was found to have carbon 14! Diamonds, according to evolutionist should not have any C-14. Carbon 14 has a half life of 5,730 years. Meaning that every 5,730 years only ½ the C-14 remains having decayed to nitrogen, so after 57,300 years or ten ½ lives there should hardly be any C-14 left. Anything over 250,000 years should contain absolutely no C-14. Diamonds still contain C-14 that means they are not billions of years old. Diamonds are young! So how do diamonds fit into the Flood model? During the Flood some 4,300 years ago, there were violent volcanic eruptions; this would have brought the diamond up in pipes from more than 100 miles down below. Diamonds are the hardest known substance, so C-14 leaching in would have been impossible. Yet, C-14 was found in diamonds. This means that C-14 had to be present in the diamonds when they were formed before they reached the surface. Diamonds are not billions of years old but young. Diamonds are a creationist best friend! ( Museum Guide: a Bible-base Handbook to Natural History Museums , 2007, p.199) Chapel in the Hills Free 3788 Chapel Lane, Rapid City Open 7 a.m. until dusk daily from May 1 through September 30. Vespers (worship) services begin at 8 p.m. each evening from mid-June through late Aug. What do churches and dragons have in common? Both are true. This little stave chapel built in 1969 is a replica of the Borgund Church in Norway which was built about 1200 AD. While the rest of Europe was building towering cathedrals out of stone during the medieval times, Norwegians were building churches out of wood. Stave churches had mighty wooden corner posts (staves) and the walls were made of planks placed vertically. The stave churches were then ornately decorated with carvings, many times with dragon motifs. When visiting this church look to the roof and see the carved dragons. Dragons on a church, sounds fanciful? Do you know that the Bible mentions dragons? The translators did not call them dragons, they could not figure out what kind of creature was being mentioned, so they just transliterated the Hebrew word. Here is a partial description of Leviathan in Job 41: “his strong scales are his pride” (v.15), “His sneezes flash forth light” (v.18), “Out of his mouth go burning touches; sparks of fire leap forth. Out of his nostrils smoke goes forth as from a boiling pot and burning rushes. His breath kindles coals and a flame goes forth from his mouth”. (v.18-21), “when he raises himself up, the mighty fear” (v.25). Sounds like a fire breathing dragon doesn’t it? Dragon legends are numerous around the world. The Chinese are famous for their dragon stories and have always displayed dragons prominently on their pottery, carvings, and embroidery. Some old books record that the Chinese kings used “dragons” for pulling royal chariots on special occasions. One family even kept “dragons” and raised the offspring. European accounts speak of knights fighting dragons like England’s story of St. George who slew a dragon and saved a village from further harm. The Vikings built ships with carved dragon heads on the prows. The emblem on the Flag of Wales (Great Britain) is a dragon. Dragons were real creatures; only today we would call them dinosaurs. The word dinosaur was invented in 1841. Are dinosaurs mentioned in the Bible? YES, not the exact word but the description. In Job 40: 15-19 it speaks of a Behemoth, “Look at the behemoth, which I made along with you and which feeds on grass like an ox. What strength he has in his loins, what power in the muscle of his belly! His tail sways like a cedar; the sinews of his thigh are close-knit. His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like rods of iron. He ranks first among the works of God.” This awesome creature was huge a gigantic beast! Even the behemoth’s tail was huge and strong; God compared the tail to the ancient world’s largest and most spectacular trees - the gigantic cedars. Yes, dinosaurs are mentioned in the Bible, but with different words. Where did dragons/dinosaurs come from? God created all the land animals including the dinosaurs on day number six of creation week (Genesis 1:20-25). The swimming creatures were made on day number five, which would have included the swimming reptiles like the plesiosaurs. What happened to most the dinosaurs? They were killed in the worldwide Flood of Noah’s day. We dig them up as fossils today. Did any of the dinosaurs go on the Ark? Yes, Noah took animals that had the breatheof life in its nostrils. Creation scientists calculate that Noah had about 50 kinds of dinosaurs or about 100 dinosaurs on the Ark. Did they get off the Ark? Yes. We find accounts of dinosaurs in dragon legends from around the world What has happened to the dinosaurs that got off the Ark? Most have gone extinct through environmental changes, for the world after the Flood was quite different, also people began killing them. What do churches and dragons/dinosaurs have in common?  Both are true . So as you look at the church’s roof notice the dragon/dinosaur heads, know that people and dinosaurs did live at the same time. These Norwegian’s personally saw or knew of these living dragons/dinosaurs. (Taylor, Paul S. The Great Dinosaur Mystery and the Bible. 1987. Chariot Books, David C. Cook Publishing Co: Elgin, IL. Ham, Ken.1998. The Great Dinosaur Mystery Solved! Master Books: Green Forest, AR) Gold “Black Hills or Bust” Word leaked out that “ther’ were gold in them ther’ hills”. The year 1876 proved to be a full blown gold rush to the Black Hills. At first gold was panned for in the streams, as that played out, mines were opened. One of the most famous mines was Homestake mine. This mine produced gold decade after decade. Homestake Mine: the complexity of the gold ore was not fully understood until it was mapped out. The gold ore lay sandwiched between two very thick rock units. As Roadside Geology of South Dakota  states, “All the rocks are of sedimentary origin, deposited in an ancient, shallow sea (p.226)....”Repeated folding and shearing of the entire sequence left the outcrop of the thin Homestake formation (the gold ore is here) resembling a piece of old-fashioned ribbon candy. Folding left the rocks tightly wrinkled...(228)” How do you fold rock? Would it not break and fracture? It only can be folded when still pliable. The layers were laid down during the Flood and folded. The miners referred to these sharply folded areas of the crests and valleys as ledges. They went on to number these ledges, the valleys with odd numbers and the crests with even numbers. Gold can be formed in an instant... Scientists have discovered that gold veins can be produced in an instant (a few tenths of a second) and not over deep time. Veins of gold are produced when hot fluids flowing through cracks deep in the earth’s crust depressurize rapidly causing the minerals and metals to fall out of the hot fluid solution. The “flash deposition” of gold is a result of earthquakes opening up cracks. Gold can be found in these fault jogs - the sideways zigzag cracks that are connected to main fault lines in rocks. Earthquakes can make gold veins in an instant as the pressure changes causing the precious metals to be flash deposited. Gold does not take millions of years. During the Flood of Noah’s day there would have been intense earthquake activity, which would have produced gold in an flash. The world desires gold, yet gold pales in comparison to God’s Word which is “more precious than gold, than much pure gold” (Psalm 19:10). (“Gold Veins produced “in an instant”. 2013. Creation Magazine. 35(3)7.) Surface Tour of a gold mine Homestake Mine in Lead: Surface tours of a gold mine that yielded more gold than any other mine in America, about 250,000 ounces of pure gold annually. Gold Mine tours 1. Big Thunder Gold Mine, Keystone 2. Broken Boot Gold Mine, Deadwood Pan for Gold You can learn to pan for gold today. Find gold panning lesson at Black Hills Mining Museum in Lead, Broken Boot Gold Mine in Deadwood, Big Thunder Gold Mine in Keystone or Custer State Park . A summer afternoon is the perfect time to pan for gold! Museum of Geology at the South Dakota school of mines and technology: replicas of famous of gold nuggets. Devotional: In Malachi 3:2b-3, it states, “For he will be like a refiner’s fire... He will sit as a refiner.. and refine them like gold and silver.” The Bible says that God will refine us like a goldsmith. Very few pieces of gold come out of the ground in a pure state; they have impurities running through and around it. In the past, refiners would refine gold with a very hot fire; this caused the gold to melt. Once melted, the impurities would rise to the top and the refiner would skim them off. The refiner continually monitored the heat for if the heat is just the slightest degree exceeded, the gold is injured. How would the refiner know when the gold was pure? He would see his face reflected in the molten gold. We are that piece of impure gold that needs to be refined under the refiner’s watchful eye. The heat from the fire is not too great yet it needs to be hot enough for the impurities to separate. “But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.” Job 23:10 Old time hymn: “How firm a foundation”- one verse "When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, My grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy supply. The flames shall not hurt thee; I only design Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine. When going through trials, remember you are the gold being refined to remove impurities. Caves Beautiful Rushmore Cave, Keystone Beautiful Wonderland Cave, Nemo Back Hills Caverns, Rapid City Crystal Cave Park, Rapid City Jewel Cave National Monument, Custer- pay for tour only, no need for a national park pass Wind Cave National Park, Hot Springs- pay for tour only, no need for a national park pass Notice the list of commercial caves able to be visited. Circling the Black hills is a belt of limestone caves. Great tectonic forces caused magma to be pushed up, revealing the granite basement rocks. The limestone that encircles this granite is gently tipped. Jewel Cave National Monument with 142 miles of mapped passages is known for its calcite crystal formations of dogtooth spar and nailhead spar. Wind Cave National Park has 128 miles of passages with the rare crystal formations of boxwork. The other Black Hills caves offer other cave formations such as stalagmites, columns, flowstone, frostwork, and cave popcorn. Caves How are caves formed? Erosion does not happen only on the surface; it can happen underground too. Groundwater can erode rock, especially limestone resulting in caves. Once the cave is formed the decorating begins, dripping water from the ceiling may leave a deposit forming an icicle-like structure hanging down (stalactite). This water may drip down to the floor leaving a deposit and forming a stalagmite. When groundwater dissolves limestone, it must eventually redeposit it. Since cave formations are formed drop by drop, it is often assumed that it took million of years for these formations to form. However, in the basement of the Lincoln Memorial and other places there are both stalactites and stalagmites; these did not take millions of years to develop, just the right conditions. Biblical view: Have you considered the origin of caves? Most caves are limestone caves. They are usually found in nearly pure limestone layers hundreds of feet thick. There are two stages of cave formation: 1. the cave itself, 2. the decorating of the caves (stalactites, stalagmites...). The Flood of Noah’s day would have laid down these nearly pure layers of limestone. At the end of the Flood, “the mountains rose, the valleys sank (tectonic activities)” ~Psalm 104:8. These tectonic activities would have caused many cracks in the limestone which would have allowed waters to drain through them. These were no ordinary waters but waters rich in acid, acids from volcanic activity, decaying dead animals and vegetation from the Flood, which would have quickly eaten away limestone forming the cave tunnels. Now stage two: decorating the caves, these decorations were formed by waters loaded with limestone. Just after the Flood, the ground would have been much wetter, due to the Flood waters and the post-Flood Ice Age. Limestone rich waters dripped from the cave ceilings and evaporated, leaving behind a variety of cave decorations. Since that time, the water supplies have decreased, and the growth of cave decorations has slowed. When we put on our Biblical glasses, we can see where caves formation and decoration fit in. Limestone cave formations began with the Flood of Noah’s day some 4,300 years ago. Oard, Michael J., Tara Wolfe & Chris Turbuck. Exploring Geology with Mr. Hibb . Creation Book Publishers: Powder Springs, Georgia. p.61-63. Jewel Cave: Jewel Cave does not have the “normal” cave formations of stalactites and stalagmites but an abundant of sparkling jewels of calcite crystals. When visiting this cave you may feel like you are walking around in a geode. These calcite crystals are known as cave spar. Cave spar is any relatively clear cave mineral with large crystal faces. At Jewel cave this mineral is calcite, the stuff of limestone. The growth of spar rather than other cave formations such as stalactites and stalagmites requires a barely saturated solution left in a quiet stable environment over some time. This allows the crystals to grow. Some calcite crystals can be large; a cave in Romania has crystals that are 30 inches in length. The Chicly Bowl Cave in Arkansas has a calcite spar crystal about 5 feet long. Calcite crystals are the most common spar crystals found in caves, another spar mineral that is common is gypsum. Gypsum is found in sheet rock. Gypsum spar crystals have been found in the caves near Naica, Mexico. These spar crystals made of gypsum are 50 feet long. Investigation of this pocket of crystals has been hampered by 150 degree F temperatures and 100% relative humidity. The Rock Rustlers News 2008 Minnesota Mineral Club, Inc.  newsletter, February 2008, “Cave Spar”, Dr. Bill Cordua, p.10. Wind Cave  has few stalactites and stalagmites but has the unusual formation called boxwork. Boxwork is thin honeycomb-shaped structures made of calcite (a mineral from limestone). Boxwork resulted from veined limestone. Mt. Rushmore National Monument Four 60 foot granite faces were carved by Gutzon Borglum. Carving began in 1927 and ended in 1941; it took 14 years and 400 men to complete. With the use of pneumatic drills and dynamite these four massive heads were carved out of a granite mountaintop. Highly skilled workers used dynamite to remove 90% of the 450,000 tons of granite. These highly skilled workers could blast to within inches of the finished surface. Then drillers used air powered tools to drill holes closely spaced together and removed the remaining rock between the holes with using hammers and chisels. Finally pneumatic drills were used to smooth out the surface, leaving the four colossal heads we see today. To go from the sculptor’s models to the large scale granite rock took complicated mathematics. Also, to prevent loss of life, Borglum developed special harness for the workers. Four presidents were chosen: George Washington was the “father of our country” and our first president. Thomas Jefferson was the author of the Declaration of Independence. Theodore Roosevelt built the Panama Canal. Abraham Lincoln was president during the Civil War and was able to hold the Union together while abolishing slavery. When you look at these four faces in the mountain, you can tell immediately that they were made by an intelligent designer. No one would believe that the four presidents’ heads were the result of millions of years of erosion. We know it was designed and when we see a design, we know there must be a designer and in this case it was Gutzon Borglum. In the same way, consider the eye…. The eye is irreducibly complex, all the pieces needed to be present or the eye would not be able to see. From the very beginning you would need the cornea, lens, retina, correct fluid pressure within the eye, optic nerve and the brain to interpret it. This is just a small list of the pieces that are needed in order to see. Evolution says that the eye evolved over millions of years, with each piece evolving as the eye needed it. How could blind chance create a seeing eye? It can not! The eye is irreducibly complex. All the pieces needed to be present at the beginning or the eye would not be able to work. The eye is very much like a camera. In fact, the camera was patterned after the eye. Camera makers proudly put their name on their product. If we say there is a camera maker, does it not stand to reason that the more complex human camera, the eye, must also has a Maker? The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made them both. Proverbs 20:12 So as you gaze upon Mt. Rushmore with your eyes , realize that both Mt. Rushmore and your eyes were designed and created by a designer; the former by Gutzon Borglum the later by God. Custer State Park This is a huge state park! It has three scenic roadways. The Wildlife loop , 18 miles of road in which you will probably see bison and burros (you may feed the burros, so bring some carrots/apples...). This park is home to some 1,300 bison. Each fall they host the Buffalo Roundup, where you can see buffalo thunder across the grasslands as park staff and local cowboys round up the herd in order to sort, vaccinate and sell. Other wildlife seen on this loop is pronghorn antelope and prairie dogs. Iron Mountain road  takes you through wonderful scenery and tunnels that frame Mount Rushmore. Be sure to start at the south end so you are able to see Mr. Rushmore framed beautifully in the tunnel! Worth the drive! Needles highway  (14 miles) takes you to towering granite spires and Needle’s eye. Wonderful drive! Custer Park also offers gold panning. See Gold Black Hills Museum of Natural History, Hills City Hill City, 117 Main Street This museum is a fantastic museum of real dinosaur skeletons. These are the folks that dug up the famous t-rex called Sue that is seen in the Field Museum in Chicago. You can’t see Sue but you can view Stan another t-rex. This museum is treasure trove of fossils, well worth the stop! Have you considered .......... how a dinosaur fossil is made. A fossil is a rock. It takes very special conditions to make a rock or fossil. Think about this, what happens to a dead animal? Scavengers eat it; bugs and bacteria cause it to rot and decay, eventually leaving no remains behind. It takes very special conditions in order to make a fossil. Here is the general fossil recipe: Fast coverage  by sediment. So, scavengers and bacteria don’t eat it. Deep coverage  by sediment so no oxygen is present to start decay. Lots and lots of water  so the minerals can seep into the bone and turn it into stone. What event in history had fast, deep coverage with lots of water? The Flood of Noah’s time. Every time a dinosaur fossil is dug up, it is a reminder of the Genesis Flood. Fossils remind us of God’s judgment and God’s mercy. God’s judgment in that He destroyed the entire world with a worldwide flood because it was so wicked. God’s mercy in that He saved Noah and his family on the Ark. Every time a dinosaur bone is dug up, it reminds us of God’s judgment and God’s mercy; fossilized dinosaur bones are really missionaries to the world. Did you know dinosaurs are mentioned in the Bible? They were not called dinosaurs but dragons. As you stand in front of an Apatosaurus (long neck dinosaur) read from Job 40:6-24. See Stave Church reading. Mammoth Hot Springs, Hot Springs www.mammothsite.com   This indoor air-conditioned active excavation site features over 60 mammoths displayed where they were found and Ice Age exhibit hall displaying a walk-in mammoth bone shelter, giant short-faced bear, an American lion and Lyuba the baby mammoth. Mammoth bones were accidentally found in 1974 as a bulldozer operator was preparing the site for a new housing project. Since then more than 50 Columbian and woolly mammoths have been found, many were left in the ground just as they were found so that you can see a working dig site in action. Usually when we think of mammoths we think of the Ice Age. So, how do mammoths and the Ice Age fit into the Biblical framework? Two factors result in an ice age: 1. Increased snowfall and 2. Cooler summers. With more snowfall and less of it melting during the summer due to cooler temperatures, snow would build up and compress into ice. But what conditions would create increased snowfall and cooler summers? The Flood of Noah’s day. When “the fountains of the deep burst open” and flooded the earth, this would have warmed the ocean waters greatly, couple this with much volcanic activity. The volcanic dust would have filled the sky and blocked out the sun’s warming rays causing the land mass to be cool enough so the snow would not melt. The warmer oceans would cause lots of evaporation and winds would carry the moisture onto the cold continents. The cold continents would cause the moist air to condense and fall as snow. Snow on the ground would not melt during the summer. Each year the snow would build up. Just after the Flood, ice sheets would have formed quickly around the world in the higher latitudes such as Greenland and North America. At its height, the ice sheets would have only covered 1/3 of earth’s landmass. The southern edge of one of the ice sheets would have been in South Dakota. As the earth settled down and the volcanoes stopped erupting, the volcanic dust would dissipate out of the air, eventually the sun would shine on those ice sheets and the snow would melt. Creation scientists have calculated the Ice Age to last for 700 years, 500 years to build up and 200 years to melt down. What causes an ice age? Very special conditions. An ice age needs lots and lots of warm water and cooler continents . What event in history would have these two ingredients? The Flood of Noah’s time. What are mammoths? Mammoths are essentially hairy elephants with a large shoulder hump, a sloping back, small ears, short tail and possessing curved tusks up to 11 feet long. Mammoths are of the elephant kind. Noah took 2 of each kind on board the ark. After the elephant kind left the ark, they repopulated the earth. As their numbers increased, some moved into Africa and became the African elephants, some into India and became the Indian elephants. The four basic elephants are African, Indian, mammoth, mastodon. Mammoths can be broken down further into woolly mammoth, steppe mammoth, Imperial mammoth, and Columbian mammoth. Just as we have a variety of dogs from Great Dane to poodle, we have variety within the elephant kind. Many of the mammoths into Siberia crossed the land bridge (today the Bering Strait) and traveled south into the United States. Many have wondered what froze the woolly mammoths in Siberia and Alaska. Their frozen remains are estimated to be in the millions. After the flood of Noah’s day, the far north would have been much warmer. The Arctic Ocean would have been very warm due to the fountains of the deep bursting forth and the multitude of volcanic eruptions. This warmth brought abundant rains and vegetation to the mammoths’ region and a subsequent mammoth population explosion. In the later stages of the Ice Age, the climate started to change, vegetation decreased, causing the mammoths to starve. In Siberia in 1977, a frozen baby mammoth was dug up showing severe signs of starvation. Many of the mammoths starved to death and died, leaving behind millions upon millions of bones. As the earth warmed, glacial ice melted. In Siberia, great rivers flowed northward causing erosion and deposition. Many woolly mammoth remains were buried in muck and gravel. Then the northern regions gradually became frozen and have remained so ever since. Other bones and emaciated mammoths were covered by gigantic dust storms that were result of the climate drying out and temperature changes. Many of the mammoths and other animals are found buried in wind-blown silt (loess). Oard, Michael. 2004. Frozen in Time: The Woolly Mammoth, the Ice Age and the Bible.  Master Books: Green Forest, AR. DeYoung, Donald. 1992. Weather and the Bible. Baker Book House: Grand Rapids, MI. p.118-119. In the United States, south of the great ice sheet, animals thrived, for this was a well watered place with much vegetation. That is why we find remains of camels, llamas, giant short-faced bear, and mammoths. At the end of the one and only Ice Age (about 3,500 years ago), large animals went extinct, such as giant sloths and saber-toothed tigers. In fact, worldwide, 70% of all large mammals over 100 pounds disappeared. Many large carrion birds also disappeared. Why? When we put on our Biblical glasses, we find that as the oceans cooled to today’s temperature, evaporation, and precipitation onto the continents would have been less. Also, at the end of the Ice Age, the volcanic dust would have dissipated out of the skies and some of the land masses would have become warmer and some like Siberia would have become colder. The climate was changing. The earth was drying out. Many of the once well-watered parts of the earth were drying out (like Australia, Sahara, Southwestern USA), reducing the food supply for large mammals. Without enough food, mass death resulted. Once the large plant eating mammals died, the large carrion eating birds would also be reduced in number. The end of the Ice Age resulted in the mass extinction of many animals. What was the Great Plains like during the Ice Age like? Take a look at what we find at Mammoth Hot Springs. Mammoth Hot Springs is like a time capsule of that period. Paleontologists have uncovered the bones of camels, llamas, giant short-face bear, wolves, coyotes, Columbian mammoths and woolly mammoths plus more creatures. At the end of the Ice Age, the Great Plains was drying out. Here at Mammoth Hot Springs, thirsty Ice Age animals would have gathered at the watering hole. This watering hole proved to be a death trap as these animals could not get a footing on the steep-sided pond as they tried to get out. As you look upon these mammoths, an Ice Age animal, think of how the Flood (2348 B.C.) caused the one and only Ice Age. Recommend books: Life in the Great Ice Age by Michael Oard. Uncovering the Mysterious Woolly Mammoth: Life at the End of the Great Ice Age,  by Michael and Beverly Oard. More technical book Frozen in Time: The Woolly Mammoth, Ice Age, and the Bible  by Michael Oard. Buffalo Annual Buffalo Roundup and Arts Festival, www.custerstatepark.info Custer State Park, Custer Has one of the largest herds of buffalo anywhere, nearly 1,600. The Wildlife Loop road is prime buffalo range. Bison roundup. This two day even is held the first Monday after the last weekend in September. The herd thunders over hills, charging through ravines to a huge holding area. This event is called “Feel the Thunder”. The bison are herded into chutes, branded, vaccinated and culled out. After the roundup, the 950 that are culled are returned to roam the park. Have you considered ............. the buffalo (bison) survive the heat of summer and the deep freeze of winters. Why aren’t there white bison? White reflects the sun’s summer heat which would make it a good summer color for bison. During the winter, the white would cause the bison to blend with the snow and not be easily hunted by wolves. But white bison are rare. White bison do not multiple but dwindle and disappear. Bison have dark coats. During the winter, it absorbs the sunlight, giving it heat. Bison are just like elk and deer, during the winter they loose their appetite, producing less heat. Food is scarcer in the winter. Experiments have found they eat 30 % less food in February and March than in April and May, even when abundant food was provided. The bison need to stay warm in winter so they have dark coats. Their hair provides wonderful insulation. When an infrared device was used for a winter census, the elk and moose were clearly seen, but the bison hardly showed up. The bison appeared as crescents. The crescents were the bellies of the bison. The bison’s skin side was its body temperature while just fractions of an inch away the outer layer was below freezing. Humans loved the buffalo robe, it was highly prized; it kept them warm even in the most frigid of winter days. Every square inch of a bison’s skin is covered with ten times more hair than that of a cow. Summers brought extreme heat, so bison would shed their winter coats. The constant winds on the prairies would blow away some of the heat. But still the sun is hot and the dark coat absorbs heat. Bison don’t sweat. However, they breathe. They lose their heat by evaporating water in their lungs. For evaporative cooling to work well, lots of water is needed. The bison was designed to survive on the prairie with its extremes of hot and cold. Lott, Dale F. 2002. American Bison.  p.53-56. Bison and the Indians Bison were designed by God to provide the Indians the ability to survive on the vast plains of North America. These animals supplied thousands of Indians with food, clothing, and shelter. Every part of the bison was put to use. Meat: used fresh or dried. In the autumn the meat has the best flavor. Indian would hunt and kill many bison in the autumn in order to cut and dry it into strips; this dried meant was call pemmican (jerky). Hides: For durable clothing and tepees. Stomachs, bladder content for holding nuts, berries and pemmican Tallow: used for waterproofing Hooves used to making glue Dried dung: fuel for fires Tail: for quiver for arrows. Literally from tongue to the tip of the tail, virtually every part was designed to be used by the plain Indians. God provides us with what we need; God provided the plains Indians with a unique animal called the bison. Once abundant beyond comprehension on the Great Plains, they nearly went extinct. In the early 1800’s, an estimated 40 million bison roamed the plains of North America. One hundred years later, only a few hundred bison remained having been slaughtered by the tens of hundreds. These animals were slaughtered for their hides with the carcasses left to rot. The West was covered with the decaying bones of thousands upon thousands of slaughtered buffalo. Yet of all the millions that were slaughtered do we find any of their bones left? No, they have decomposed over the years. It takes very special conditions for a bone to turn into a fossil. Those special conditions would have been present at the time of the Flood of Noah’s time. During the 1800’s it was estimated that 40 million buffalo or American bison once roamed the vast plains of North America, within 100 years there were fewer than 1,000 left. Bison have a sharp sense of smell and excellent hearing, with their eyesight being poor. They can run at top speeds of 35 mph for an hour and can also swim. These giant beasts chew the cud by grazing as they migrate. Wolves and coyotes are there only two enemies, except for man which slaughtered them during the 1800’s for their hides only. The early settlers left the caresses to rot. The West was literally covered with the decaying bones of thousands upon thousands of slaughtered bison. Yet of the millions that were slaughtered do we find any of the bones left? NO, they have decomposed over the years. Evolutionists would like us to believe that a fossil that is hard as rock is made by an animal dieing and then slowly being covered with sediment. If this were true we should have lots of bison bones fossilized. In reality, it takes very special conditions for a bone to turn into a fossil. It needs fast, quick coverage of sediment so no air would be present (no decomposition) and lots of water. The water brings the minerals from the sediment to the bones and chances it into stone. What event in history would have lots of water and critters being covered with vast amounts of sediment? The Flood of Noah’s day. Fortunately today the bison are making a comeback and are flourishing on the plains of North America again. https://answersingenesis.org/kids/mammals/american-bison/ Buffalo Gap SD 79 Water and wind gaps are common and have been found worldwide, yet they are a mystery to many scientists to how they were formed. A wind or water gap is a shallow notch in the upper part of a mountain ridge. The notch is an erosional notch and not one caused from faulting. We find such a gap at Buffalo Gap on SD 79 near the Hot Spring’s mammoth site. This dry gap was a favorite access route to the Black Hills. It is just a notch between ridges/hills/mountains. Many places around the Black Hills have water gaps. Geology of SD, mentions near Fort Meade at Sturgis, “The road wanders through the foothills, cuts through the next water gap to the south and joins I-90...” p.163. OR p.220, “The few main streams that cross the Red Valley, which leave the Back Hills through gaps in the Cretaceous hogback.” How do gaps fit in with the Flood? As the Genesis Flood water rushed off the continent they were like a sheet which we called sheet erosion. Then as the waters became less, they began to channelize. These energetic waters would have cut gaps directly into the stationary or rising ridges. Once an initial notch was formed, the waters sped through the notch creating the gap we see today. Today, if a river runs through the gap it is called a water gap; if only wind blows through the gap it is called a wind gap. All over the world we find water and wind gaps, but of course we would the Flood was a powerful event! Oard, Mike. 2008. Flood by Design. Master Books: Green Forest, AR. p.95, 98-100. Fossil Cycad National Monument in the Black Hills One of the world’s largest concentrations of fossil cycads was found here. Literally hundreds of fossil cycads, a small palm looking like plant was found here! That’s why it was made a monument. However so many collectors removed the fossil cycads that it is not longer a place to visit and the National Monument was decommissioned. Lesson to be learned: Do not remove stuff from national parks and monuments; leave them for future generations to appreciate. Location: on Hwy 18 between Hot Springs and Edmonton on the north side between country road 185 and 18S. (Manning, Arthur. 2002. Petrified Wood in the USA . p.74-75) Ponderosa Pine Have you considered the ponderosa pine? It is the dominate tree throughout the Black Hills towering some 180 feet high. It is able to survive a forest fire in a unique way. You can recognize a mature ponderosa pine by its bark; its thick yellow to orange plate-like bark looks like puzzle pieces. When the bark is on fire during a forest fire, these plates pop off. The tree actually sheds the fire! How did this pine know how to do this? The Ponderosa pine did not get together with other ponderosa pines and talk about the threat of forest fires and what to do about it. Pine trees can not think. God in His wisdom designed these pines to survive a fire in this manner. When we see design we know there must be a designer and that designer is God. -Wind Cave National Park has a self guide trial that help you explore the ponderosa pine forest. Trail booklets are available at the visitor center or trailhead. Prairie Dogs When visiting Wind cave, Custer state park, the Badlands, or Devil’s Tower be sure to visit the prairie dog town. Chances are you will hear the chirping, whistling, and barking. Prairie dogs are social animals and communicate with each other using calls and body language. If you wait long enough you might see them standing erect and whistling. These prairie dogs are warning the other that their home may be under attack by coyote, hawk, snake, or ferret. Surveillance is increased for the prairie dog by reducing the grass height around the burrows to about 6 inches. Prairie dogs are not dogs but are rodents in the squirrel family. They live underground in tunnels and chambers. They come out during the day to forage on grasses, seeds, and roots. They live in towns, many with hundreds of prairie dogs. Most the time these towns cover less than half a square mile however, some towns have been enormous. One town in Texas extended 100 miles in one direction 250 miles in the other; 400 million prairie dogs were estimated to live in this one town. Living in these burrows, one would think that the air would become stall. However upon closer observation, we see that the burrow shape creates ventilation. Prairie dogs build their mounds in such a way that air moves. Typically there are two openings. When a breeze crosses the mounds, air enters the burrow through the lower mound and leaves through the higher mound. God has created prairie dogs with the instinct to build one mound higher than the other mound. This creates a draft or chimney effect which draws fresh air into the tunnel and allows it to circulate throughout. So during the summer, the tunnels have “air conditioning”. When the temperatures exceed 100 F. on the outside with the soil surface temperature reaching about 113 degrees F. the burrow temperature one foot below was a comfortable 74 degrees. During the winter, the snow covers the “chimney”, not allowing the cold air to enter the tunnels. Fossil Have you considered ..........how a dinosaur fossil is made. A fossil is a rock. It takes very special conditions to make a rock or fossil. Think about this, what happens to a dead animal? Scavengers eat it; bugs and bacteria cause it to rot and decay, eventually leaving no remains behind. It takes very special conditions in order to make a fossil. Here is the general fossil recipe: Fast coverage  by sediment. So, scavengers and bacteria don’t eat it. Deep coverage  by sediment so no oxygen is present to start decay. Lots and lots of water  so the minerals can seep into the bone and turn it into stone. What event in history had fast, deep coverage with lots of water? The Flood of Noah’s time. Every time a dinosaur fossil is dug up, it is a reminder of this Flood. Fossils remind us of God’s judgment and God’s mercy. God’s judgment in that He destroyed the entire world with a worldwide flood because it was so wicked. God’s mercy in that He saved Noah and his family on the Ark. Every time a dinosaur bone is dug up, it reminds us of God’s judgment and God’s mercy; fossilized dinosaur bones are really missionaries to the world. Pronghorn Antelope Pronghorn Antelope is North American fastest mammal; from a stand still it can explosively accelerate to a speed of 60 mph and then cruise at 45 mph for many miles. This dual design of speed and endurance is unusual in the mammal kingdom. For example, cheetahs are great sprinters but only for a quarter of a mile and then they are exhausted. Or think about the Olympic runner, those that run the100 or 200 meter dash, these athletes are usually heavily muscled in their torsos and thighs. The long distances runners- 400, 800 meters….- however, are longer limbed and scrawnier. Notice the body types for sprinters and distant runners, there is an optimal body type. Notice the pronghorn it is both a speedster and distance runner fit in one body. With this much running…muscles heat up. Antelope run hard for long distances causing heat to build up which can be dangerous to the brain. So how does a pronghorn antelope not overheat its brain? A Pronghorn is able to keep cool because it possesses two heat exchangers in its head. As the muscles create heat, the heated hot blood moves its way through the major artery to the brain. Suddenly, the major artery branches out into smaller channels forming a network. Meanwhile, the cool venous blood, which has picked up its coolness from the ears and nose, forms a network around and near the arterial network. Now the venous blood picks up the hotness and cools the arterial network. The newly cooled blood is sent to the brain and an antelope is able to keep a cool head in the heat of the run. Did these heat exchangers happen by accident and chance? How many antelopes died from boiling their brains out before evolution accidentally evolved these heat exchangers? When you see a heat exchanger you know there must be a heat exchanger maker and that heat exchanger maker is God. From the very beginning God created the pronghorn antelope to run and to run fast and long. He needed to protect them from overheating and so created and placed within them this heat exchanger. ( Built for Speed: A year in the life of pronghorn, John A. Byers , 2003, p. 4-5, 14-15.) Other Resources   Mammoths : Video: Awesome Science Explore Mammoth Hot Springs with Noah Justice    Badlands National Park Badlands National Park: Flood Features and Fossils https://www.icr.org/article/badlands-national-park-flood   Hot Springs & Badlands  – Folded Rock, Fossil Graveyard, and a Global Flood? | The Creation Podcast: Episode 91 https://www.icr.org/article/creation-podcast-episode-91   The Black Hills of South Dakota https://answersingenesis.org/creation-vacations/black-hills-south-dakota/   Theodore Roosevelt National Park : Testimony to the Receding Flood https://www.icr.org/article/theodore-roosevelt-national-park-testimony

Julie’s Creation Vacation places Grand Canyon now has creation tours on the rim and rafting: http://www.canyonministries.org/rim-information/ Mt. St. Helens has creation tours: Mt. St. Helens Creat ion Center: http://www.mshcreationcenter.org/7ws1/visit/excursions/ Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, Co. has creation to urs: Glen Eyrie “Rock tour” http://www.gleneyrie.org/Visit-the-Castle/Rock-Tour Creation Encounters have tours. I just went on the Big Horn Basin tour, all I can say is fantastic! : http://www.creationencounter.com/tours/ Books and DVD’s I recommend: Grand Canyon the Puzzle of the Plateau excellent DVD Creation Explorers: Tracking the flood (in reference to the Missoula flood. If you are touring the Columbia Gorge this is a must see!)-a DVD. True North Series: your guide to the Grand Canyon True North Series: your guide to the Yellowstone True North Series: your guide to the Zion and Bryce by Vail, Oard, Bokovoy, Hergenrather Awesome Science 30 minute DVDs: Explore national parks with Noah Justice. These are the parks they have DVD’s on: Grand Canyon, Mt. St. Helens, Arches & Natural Bridges, Yellowstone, Mesa Verde & Chaco Ruins, Yosemite & Zion, Gla cier, Dinosaur National Monument, Rocky Mt. National Park, Meteor Crater & Petrified Forest, Mammoth Site in S.D..

The Painted Desert: Fossils in Flooded Mud Flats https://www.icr.org/article/the-painted-desert-fossils-in-flooded-mud-flats Grand Canyon National Park: Video: Awesome Science Explore Grand Canyon with Noah Justice Petrified Forest National Park & Meteor Crater (Arizona) Video: Awesome Science Petrified Forest National Park & Meteor Crater with Noah Justice

Hunt for diamonds at Crater of Diamonds State Park https://www.icr.org/article/crater-of-diamonds-state-park-origin-diamonds Hot Springs National Park: Hydrothermal Springs Formed By The Flood https://www.icr.org/article/hot-national-park-hydrothermal-springs/

Wycliffe Scholastic, Auckland New Zealand October 9, 2020 Section 1 A True Text, Section 2 A True Message 339 pages including bibliography, general index and Scripture index $12.50 paperback, $9.95 Kindle “In July 2013 two distinguished biblical scholars separately visited Auckland New Zealand and spoke on Genesis One” (p. 3). They were Professor John Walton of Wheaton College and Professor John “Jack” Collins from Covenant Theological Seminary.    Michael Drake, the author of The Misted World of Genesis One , is founding principal of a grade 1 – 13 Christian School in Auckland, New Zealand.  His publications include books and papers on biblical theology, Christian education and practical Christianity.  He found his belief challenged that Genesis One describes six 24-hour days.  He listened to their lectures, read their written works and viewed and listened to their recordings, which are representative of respected contemporary evangelical Old Testament scholarship, characterized by an awareness of Ancient Near Eastern literature and culture, genre and other language conventions. Here is his conclusion, “The result was a clarity I have never before known as to the meaning, message and significance of Genesis One.”  Translation: Genesis means exactly what it says! Having reviewed other contemporary evangelical Old Testament scholarship, Drake found a spectrum of views from conservative to liberal, but “the plenary inspiration of an infallible Bible that expresses timeless propositional truth in the plain words used is no longer one of them.” Yet those theologians want to be known as evangelical and use an evangelical vocabulary for ideas that are not part of historical evangelicalism but are instead heavily influenced by current philosophical trends like post modernism, scientism, commitment to evolution, and “sentimental Christian existentialism that displaces doctrine in favor of relationships” (p. 4). “The fraternal of scholars redefining evangelicalism find in the expanding knowledge of ancient cultures, languages and literature, tools for understanding God’s Word as God’s Word.”  Aside from believing in God’s Word, they sound just like the old liberals.  “Virtually nothing is untouched: The Bible’s plenary inspiration, its verbal inspiration, its epistemological priority, its transcendence and its conveying of the truth” (p. 4). Apparently if you have expanding knowledge, you have to apply it. Why is Genesis One being targeted as incomprehensible without obtaining special knowledge of cultural and linguistic studies?  Why not the virgin birth or the resurrection of Jesus?  There is something special about the claims of Genesis. If you say, “I believe God created the heavens and the earth in six days, several thousand years ago,” you are instantly looked on as certifiably weird.  Believing in miracles can be excused as part of the mind game of religion, but don’t mess with things confirmed by science, like evolution and millions of years. But can they be confirmed?  After Whitcomb and Morris’, The Genesis Flood  was published, a flood of peer reviewed creationist literature began.  Design in life was supported quickly and easily communicated to open minded people by comparison with human design.  Support for the Biblical timetable was slower in coming, but to those of us who came out of some form of belief in long ages, it took answers to a number of questions before we felt confident of supporting the idea to a potentially skeptical audience.  To a non-scientist, who accepts “the executive summary of evolution,” it all fits together so neatly that any one of a number of “problems for the creationist” is considered fatal to that position.  That would be the fossil record, the presence of missing links, the evolution of whales or horses and distant starlight.  The answers to these, while not as straightforward as comparing life to design in a watch, are eminently answerable.  A non-scientific person, however, will likely be uninterested in what they consider a long or complicated explanation.  A scientific person, in an academic environment may risk his livelihood by even showing interest. Intellectuals, whether or not they identify as Christians, find that simple answers are not particularly valued.  It is a point of pride to be able to tolerate ambiguity.  But inextricably, tolerance can turn into a downright affinity.  Thus “deep” arguments are admired.  And in cases where the argument is not supported by data or argument, ambiguity is essential.   John Walton has produced a deep theology in which death before sin is covered by the idea that God was most concerned with assigning functions to whatever was somehow mysteriously happening in the background. “God does not give details of how things have been formed” (p.77). A plain reading of the text surely indicates that God made them! Walton, however, insists that the truth is hidden from all except the enlightened elite, contrary to the principle of the Reformation that the Word of God, in the hands of the believer, illuminated by the Holy Spirit, can arrive at the truth that God wants us to have. What he misses is that Genesis One is not an example of Ancient Near Eastern culture’s creation myths, where gods fight for supremacy in a pre-existing cosmos and man is created from fragments of a slain god laced with spit (p. 95).  Genesis is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth!  God existed before anything else and created it all.  Man, male and female, in the image of God, were made of the created material.  Their function was assigned with their creation, to be fruitful and multiply and to rule over the creatures.  And it was very good!   It is ironic that present day scholars, under the influence of present-day culture and language conventions, have managed to lose their way through Genesis One and never get to Genesis Three, where the arch-typical temptation, which parallels their own, is first exposed:  question God’s Word, tell a lie, then question God’s motivation.  Spin the result. Ross S. Olson MD ross@rossolson.org Published by permission of Creation Research Society Quarterly

Sequoia National Park: “Giant Trees Exhibit Expert Engineering”. https://www.icr.org/article/sequoia-national-park-giant-trees-exhibit La Brea Tar Pits at Hancock Park: Post-Flood Catastrophes. Location: Los Angeles https://www.icr.org/article/14828 Yosemite National Park, Part 1: Tiny Clues of a Grand Picture https://www.icr.org/article/15313/ Yosemite & Zion National Park (California) Video: Awesome Science Explore Yosemite & Zion with Noah Justice

Summary: In the last half of the 19ᵗʰ century many scientists believed that the universe would turn out to be electromagnetic in origin. Maxwell had just succeeded in uniting the electric force and the magnetic force in electrodynamics which became the foundation for the theory of light and optics. The form of Newton’s universal gravitation force proportional to 1/R² was identical to the form of the electrostatic force implying a common origin as proved by Poincare using meta-theory or the theory of theories. The purpose of this paper is to derive a universal electrodynamic force law by means of a more perfect union of the axiomatic method used in Euclidean geometry for deriving theorems from postulates and Newton’s empirical scientific method. Maxwell’s work in developing his wave equations for electrodynamics consisted of using 4 of the 6 known empirical equations of electrodynamics as axioms to develop electrodynamics, i.e. Faraday’s Law, Ampere’s Law, and Gauss’s magnetostatic and electrostatic laws. From the symmetry of the wave equation Maxwell realized that something was missing and added the displacement current to Ampere’s Law. In order to simplify the mathematics Maxwell made the point particle approximation to avoid considering finite size effects and charge particle deformation. As a result he could also assume linear interactions. The equations that he used for his axioms did not conserve magnetic energy nor satisfy Newton’s 3ʳᵈ Law. Only Lenz’s Law did that, but it was not included as an axiom for Maxwell’s equations. Maxwell only considered the case of constant forces, so his equations cannot handle radiative energy loss and radiation reaction. Finally Maxwell assumed a non-local force, not a contact force, and ignored the need to satisfy Mach’s Principle. In this work a more perfect union of the axiomatic and empirical methods is made by using a complete set of the empirical laws of electrodynamics which includes Lenz’s Law and Lorentz’s Force Law, instead of a partial set. Also the point particle approximation is not made allowing finite-size effects, particle deformation, and non-linear effects to be taken into account. This also allowed conservation of magnetic energy and Newton’s 3ʳᵈ Law to be satisfied. Although the initial derivation is for constant velocity and constant force, conservation of energy and charge allows higher order time derivatives to be obtained from the continuity equation assuming that all finite-size charged particles consist of closed charge loops. Maxwell’s followers also use the Continuity Equation, but they do not realize that it is not legal if a point particle approximation is used, magnetic energy is not conserved, nonlinear effects are ignored, and forces are not local. This work satisfies Mach’s Principle by assuming that the electric and magnetic fields of a moving charge remain attached to all distances based on the experiments of Hooper showing that the fields of the electron remain attached as it moves. The basic procedure for the derivation is to solve the equations simultaneously using the Galilean transformation to handle time. There are 7 equations and 6 unknowns, i.e. the static and induced electric fields, the static and induced magnetic fields, the proportionality constant for Lenz’s Law, and time t’ in the inertial frame of reference. The solution is straight forward. The extra axiom that is not used or needed is the Lorentz Force Law. It is derived as a consequence of the Galilean transformation and the other empirical laws. Thus it is a duplicate of them and not a fundamental empirical law to be considered as an axiom. The resulting electrodynamic fields and force law is Note that the β²sin²θ term in the denominators above are written as the triple vector product r x (r x v/c) instead of r x v/c for consistency with the triple vector product of the Lorentz Force Law. The results above are identical to the covariant relativistic electrodynamic force, except that the relativistic effects are due to taking into account Lenz’s Law, finite-size particle effects, and Galilean invariance. The electromagnetic potential U corresponding to the Lorentz force above is From the Continuity Equation expressing conservation of energy one has the general relationship for the electromagnetic potential U(r,v) where v is the relative velocity between the moving charges and r is the relative separation. Assuming that the electromagnetic potential is a regular function and well-behaved, one can obtain the acceleration terms of the force by allowing the velocity to be a function of time. This gives the more general electrodynamic force law which is capable of describing the force of inertia, gravity, radiation, etc directly. This approach appears to succeed in completing the goal of 19ᵗʰ century science. In addition the derivation of the quantized force of gravity as an electrodynamic force between vibrating neutral electric dipoles is presented. Also the derivation of the force of inertia as an electrodynamic force between a charge e and a vibrating neutral electric dipoles is presented. The derived electrodynamic forces of gravity and inertia have a second term not found in previous theories. The second term for allows gravity to be quantized and to satisfy the modern version of Bode’s Law. The second term for allows an explanation of so me puzzling gyroscope experiments of Eric Laithwaite that appear to defy Newton’s 2ⁿᵈ Law. Also these forces are undergoing decay, because in electrodynamics vibrating neutral electric dipoles are required to radiate continuously. The decay of gravity allows an explanation of the earth’s expansion for which there is abundant data. The decay of the force of inertia combined with conservation of energy allows an explanation of the higher than expected speeds of the material in the outer arms of spiral galaxies for which dark matter and dark energy were invented to explain in the past. Thus the newly derived universal electrodynamic force law has a legitimate claim to replace previous force laws based on simplicity (one universal force law), superior axioms (based on empirical laws, conservation of energy, Newton’s 3ʳᵈ Law, nonlinear interactions, local contact forces), superior logic (no point particle approximation and notions not based on forces), and agreement with more experimental phenomenon (Bode’s Law for quantization of gravity, Eric Laithwaite’s gyroscope experiments, expansion of the earth and other astronomical bodies, and the high speed of matter in the outer arms of spiral galaxies). The identification of the electrodynamic force as the universal force is very significant for creation science, because the Bible indicates that God exerts his divine force via electromagnetic means (Habakkuk 3:4) and electromagnetic light is intimately involved as part of the nature or essence of God. This is seen in the shekinah glory indicating God’s presence above the Ark of the Covenant in the Tabernacle and the Temple. In the New Testament it is seen in the cloven tongues of fire on the Day of Pentecost when Christians received the Holy Spirit, when the Samaritans received the Holy Spirit and when the Gentiles in the house of Cornelius the Centurion received the Holy Spirit. Thus the derivation and proof that the universal force is electromagnetic has the potential to bring the Bible and science into complete harmony with God in full control via the electromagnetic force of the universe that He created.

Denver, Colorado Visit Dinosaur Ridge www.dinoridge.org , Morrison, Co., 335 dinosaur footprints    Colorado Springs, Co.  Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument . See huge, fossilized tree stumps and fossilized bees and other insects. -The Florissant redwood trees deposited from a Flood log mat https://creation.com/florissant-redwood-trees   Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs , Co.  Creation tours: Glen Eyrie “Rock tour” http://www.gleneyrie.org/Visit-the-Castle/Rock-Tour   Garden of the Gods: A Product of the Flood https://www.icr.org/content/garden-gods-product-flood   Rocky Mountain National Park Video:  Awesome Science Explore Rocky Mountain National Park with Noah Justice Rocky Mountain National Park https://answersingenesis.org/creation-vacations/rocky-mountain-national-park/   Mesa Verde National Monument Video: Awesome Science Explore Mesa Verde and Chaco Ruins with Noah Justice     Black Canyon of Gunnison National Park :  Gunnison's Black Canyon: The Flood Solves Mysterious Missing Time https://www.icr.org/article/gunnison-black-canyon-flood-solves-mysterious-time/   Colorado National Monument , Grand Junction When exploring Colorado National Monument, don’t forget to download an app to help you better understand this beautiful national monument!  Get creation-based responses to mainstream geology’s explanations. The app is keyed to GPS and features a hands-free voice mode. $1 plus a donation of any amount. https://www.discovercreation.org/camps-tours/cnm-app/   Great Sand Dunes National Park  and Preserve: Colossal Ice Age Remnants https://www.icr.org/article/great-sand-dunes-national-park-preserve/   Sand Dunes National  Monument, Colorado: Tallest sand dunes in North America, some 700 feet high (will take you an hour to climb). How were they created? Grand Tetons and Great Sand Dunes – Remnants of a Global Flood | The Creation Podcast: Episode 92   Second ½ of podcast https://www.icr.org/article/creation-podcast-episode-92/     Rocky Mountain National Park  Video Awesome Science Explore Rocky Mountain National Park with Noah Justice

A DISCUSSION BETWEEN AN EVOLUTIONIST AND MYSELF (ROSS OLSON) EVOLUTIONIST: As far as I recall, there was only one question you asked that I didn't get around to answer. On 17 Sept 98 you remarked that "all observed processes go down hill." The next day I reminded you of "negative entropy, of which there are examples too numerous to mention here." Later that day you asked me "to review those 'too numerous to mention' evidences of uphill processes that prove" my point. At the time I was addressing other issues that seemed more important, but I made a mental note to return to your question.  The following classes of negative entropy come to mind; there may be others. In each class, of course, there are innumerable examples: * The net increase of energy the Earth receives daily from the Sun. * The increase in the mass of the Earth from bombardment of meteorites, some bearing complex carbon molecules. * The formation of the six-sided crystalline symmetry of a snowflake from randomly moving molecules of water vapor. * The formation of salts with precise planes of crystalline symmetry when water evaporates from a solution. * The growth of a seed into a flowering plant. * The growth of an egg into an adult animal. Regardless of whether you think any or all of these are the result of supernatural intelligent design, you did say that "ALL observed processes go downhill," and the examples above are "observed processes" that do NOT "go downhill." ROSS: As to your examples of "negative entropy," I wonder when you will turn your skeptical eye on the pronouncements of mainstream science. Just because you can make up a name for something does not mean it is real. (Like the group of lawyers from New York who got their psychiatrists to certify that they had pathological aversion to filling out tax forms.)  The examples you give are all faulty. The increase of heat of the earth (as the sun uses up its energy) is trivial. There is no increase in complexity or information. In fact, raw energy breaks down structures that exist.  The increase in mass by meteorite bombardment is no great accomplishment and the "complex" compounds are nothing like what is needed for life. If you are not convinced of that you may mistake a brick for the Taj Mahal. In time, anyway, they deteriorate if they are not part of a complete living system that can protect them. A dead fish in the sun does not turn into something better. Crystals are innate in the structure of the molecule. By their shape, they will tend to hook up into shapes that are predictable and stable. It is unlike the structures needed for life. Alphabet soup does not naturally organize itself into the Encyclopedia Brittanica. Seeds and zygotes (you made a mistake -- you wrote "egg" instead of zygote -- does this mean that I may now disregard anything you say?) develop into the corresponding plant or animal because they contain the information for that specific task. They are complex beyond our comprehension in their level of organization. Just because they are common does not mean they are simple. A grain of sand, shaped to look like a seed, will not turn into a grass, nor will a piece of gelatin grow into a frog. Just because these examples are accepted by PhDs does not mean they are correct. Some of the most messed up people I know are PhDs. But if you persist in believing these myths, I have little hope that you can evaluate any other evidence impartially. EVOLUTIONIST: Back to negative entropy: ROSS: "The increase of heat of the earth (as the sun uses up its energy) is trivial."  ME: What I actually said was, "net increase of energy," not just heat. In any case, the abundant energy the Sun showers on Earth is hardly trivial. Without it this planet would be a cold barren hunk of rock. The fact that the Sun is losing energy does not invalidate my claims for the existence of negative entropy on Earth. Part of the Sun's energy is light, without which there would be no photosynthesis, a highly complex process (negative entropy again) that began between 3.5 to 2.8 billion years ago in blue-green algae. These algae released oxygen molecules into the atmosphere and steadily worked to strengthen the ozone layer and change the Earth's chemically reducing atmosphere into a chemically oxidizing one--and where would we be without oxygen and the ozone layer?  ROSS: "Just because you can make up a name for something does not mean it is real." ME: Creationists use "entropy" and "negative entropy" regularly. I assume these words mean something to them, as I know they do to scientists. It is perplexing, however, that young-Earth creationists go to such lengths to find scientific evidence for intelligent design, especially when they only use such evidence when it supports Genesis and reject it when it does not. Why isn't it sufficient for them simply to accept that the design of living things is "supernatural" and let it go at that? As Walt Brown said, "Fish were created swimming and birds were created flying," making it clear that the creation process was a sudden one. Presumably God just said "Let there be fish" or "Let there be birds" and they simply swooshed into existence. From the creationist's point of view, what need is there for elaborate scientific theories for creation?  ROSS: "The examples you give are all faulty." ME: Originally you stated that "all observed processes go down hill [move toward greater entropy]." Therefore, all I did was give examples of processes that DO move in the other direction (negative entropy), regardless of whether or not they indicate evolution or intelligent design.  ROSS: "... you made a mistake-you wrote 'egg' instead of zygote- does this mean that I may now disregard anything you say? ..."  ME: In lay articles on science, I've seen "egg" used in the sense I did. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate dictionary gives one meaning as "an animal reproductive body consisting of an ovum together with its nutritive and protective envelopes and having the capacity to develop into a new individual capable of independent existence." May you now disregard anything I say? Haven't you typically done so?  ROSS: I will not get dragged into a land war in Asia when there is first class foolishness right out in the open here at home. So, rather than letting you think that nobody takes you on because you are unanswerable, let me repeat the fallacies of your arguments.  You surely know that when I say that "increase in the heat of the earth from the sun is trivial" I am not saying that the sun is not important. If you really don't understand, then we get back to the "are you a nit-picker" question. What I obviously meant is that your point is trivial to the real question of how to produce ever-increasing order to produce and perfect life. I said it in my letter. You ignored it and built a straw man to tear down -- that I think the sun is unimportant. Equivocation is a real problem for evolutionists, such as point to changes in the colors of moths, calling it evolution, and then saying, "see, molecules to man DOES occur!" Photosynthesis is the result of raw energy being transformed by a very elaborate, highly designed, irreducibly complex mechanism in the chloroplast. It does not help your case. You need to get raw energy to build the factory, not just run it. But raw energy breaks down dead leaves after they have lost the protective power of the intact organism.  Your second point is gobbledegoop, about creationists not needing scientific theories. I as a creationist am very interested in how God's creation works and in evidences that bear on how and when it was created. There are such evidences and they provide fascinating study. You are obligated to reject a priori any that point to the supernatural or to recent creation because of your presuppositions. A creationist can look at evidence of natural or supernatural causes of any event as well as old or young age of the universe. I have looked at both and have concluded that young is best supported by the evidence. You could NEVER conclude that because your evolution needs long ages if it is ever going to work -- and even then it needs a prayer and you will never give it that. You do not respond to my refutation of zygote to animal or seed to plant transformation as examples that help your cause. Perhaps this is because you have seen the light on those arguments. I only wish Stephen Jay Gould did. Again, the problem for evolution is that the design is already there in micro-minature form in the DNA and that it is expressed in a very tightly choreographed manner organized not only in space but over time to produce the physical expression of the stored information. What happens to that information over many generation, even though it is well protected and regularly corrected by the built in mechanism, is that it does deteriorate slowly, loses or garbles information and produces mutants that are not better but less adapted.  EVOLUTIONIST: Now about entropy. You tell me that you won't consider other matters, such as my Biblical questions, until we have settled the argument about entropy (by the way, we have discussed only 2 or 3 of these questions, and then only briefly; moreover, your answers came up short as I shall point out when we get to them again). Now, what is it exactly that you want me to say about entropy (I thought the matter was already settled). What you really want to discuss, it appears, is not entropy, but whether life was designed by a supreme intelligence, and you know that this is what we have been arguing about all along for the past few years, so you can't now expect an immediate resolution of our differences.  Nevertheless, back to entropy for the moment. You know, I assume, that the second law of thermodynamics says, "No process is possible in which the sole result is the transfer of energy from a cooler to a hotter body." An equivalent phrasing of the law is, "The entropy of a closed system cannot decrease." As for the universe, I don't think astrophysicists have decided whether it is open or closed. It seems to me they are still trying to determine that fact by hunting for more dark matter, and such. Are you agreeable to limiting our discussion of intelligent design to life here on Earth? Earth definitely is an open system; it receives energy from outside, chiefly the Sun. Therefore, one cannot say that entropy here on Earth can NOT decrease. The Sun provides more than enough energy to drive living things, weather, etc. Examples of progression decreasing entropy (negative entropy) are (in addition to the already mentioned formation of snowflakes, salt formation, and the growth of living things) sand dunes, tornadoes, stalactites, graded river beds, and lightening--all temporary "pockets," one might say, of decreasing entropy. The small changes that occur in living things between generations do not violate any physical laws--certainly not the 2nd law of thermodynamics. Now, whether or not they were designed by an intelligent being--that is quite another question. You have tried to explain away the negative entropy of crystal formation by saying that it is "innate in the structure of the molecule." On the other hand, you say that in the seed or zygote the "design is already there in micro-miniature form in the DNA." Well, then why can't I claim that the design of the crystal is already there in micro-miniature form in the molecule? What is the difference? Because the seed or zygote are" irreducibly complex?" This could be simply a matter of degree. About my claim that creationists don't need scientific theories: When you tell me that you are very interested in HOW God's creation WORKS and in evidences that bear on HOW and WHEN it was created, you are no longer talking about the SUPERNATURAL. HOW, WHEN, and WORKS are in the NATURAL world. To know the natural causes that produced a supernatural phenomenon is a redundancy. When you know all the natural causes of a particular phenomenon, you have excluded the need for the supernatural. Can it be that you want to know all the natural workings of each phenomenon EXCEPT some smidgen of the supernatural--just enough of the supernatural to let God feel useful? Explain. Creationists ignore 100,000 facts to support an old Earth in order to claim that 10 facts support a young Earth. ROSS: I am done replying. I will only make occasional comments.  You have not dealt with entropy but only defined it so narrowly as to be meaningless for your needs. Increasing heat on earth does not help the cause of evolution and all the talk of open systems is just a parroting of what the big boys of evolution glibly talk about without the skepticism you would show if a creationist said it. Actually the earth -- indeed the whole universe -- is an open system. It is open to God.

A few thoughts on this book. My first impression of Bill Monsma was unique. In 1980 my wife and I had completed 8 years in Hong Kong as missionaries. Over the previous couple of years I had evolved from a “fully competent creation” evolutionist into a young earth creationist. (I finished medical school in 1967 having been convinced that God threw out the first matter, having designed it to self-organize and that He could later give man a soul. I nearly lost my faith completely but settled on “God used  evolution.”   While in Hong Kong, my brother, a science teacher, sent me a couple of books by A. E. Wilder-Smith including “Man’s Origin, Man’s Destiny” and “Creation of Life.” I set them aside for a year because they seemed so far from the scientific mainstream. But when I read the powerful logic, I was astonished. I had never been given any reason to doubt evolution, but Wilder-Smith argued that a code can only come about by the agency of intelligence and the information carried on the code likewise. Long ages of time do not help because they degrade information. I was energized and radicalized. Design was an evangelistic tool! This is what Romans 1 was talking about!   I needed to finish pediatric training and after arriving back at the University of Minnesota I looked up the advisor for the Christian Medical Society Student Chapter whom I had known during medical school, Dr. V. Elving Anderson. I laid out what I had learned with a bit of calculation showing the hopeless improbability of the simplest protein putting itself together even if all the components were there in the primordial soup. He answered that he was not impressed by that argument. I asked now he answered it and he repeated that it did not impress him. He then said there were many who believed as he did and gave me an application to the American Scientific Affiliation. I was puzzled at the unscientific answer to  my question.  During a lecture on hypertension, the nephrology professor made a comment about evolution, stating that the kidney evolved in an environment of low salt and under high sodium levels puts out hormonal signals to raise the blood pressure. I went up after class and asked if it didn’t seem strange that the incredible mechanism of the kidney which keeps so many things in balance can’t make a minor adjustment. He said that it was the time frame. (I had the mental picture of creatures dying for millions of years of the complications of hypertension before they got it right.) I said, “Well, there is other evidence against evolution, are you interested?” He said "No." When I offered him books and articles, he became angry. "I know where you are headed," he shouted. "You are going to talk about God and Jesus and I have no place for them in my life!” And, turning to walk away, he called out over his shoulder, “I don't think you can talk about this on a public university campus!"  I was flabbergasted, but he was indeed correct that if evolution is not true, the only other possibility is creation, which means there is a God. And if there is a God Who created us, then we are answerable to Him and ought to find out all we can about what He expects of us. I later discovered that failure to affirm evolution was a career ending move for many academics.  In 1981, after it was clear that we were not going to return to the field, I joined the medical staff of Group Health, its name later changed to HealthPartners. I made friends with another pediatrician who attended Hope Presbyterian. We had several conversations about creation/evolution and he invited me to give a series of talks to his adult Sunday School Class. I had given only one, or maybe two talks when my friend told me that the class had been cancelled, apparently by Bill Monsma.  I’m sure Bill did all the wonderful things you write about and Elving Anderson was a warm hearted believer, but I am convinced that both missed something important. Perhaps it will involve some of the tears that will have to be wiped away.  The section on Islam gives some interesting insights into the intellectual problems of Muslims. But I did not catch anything useful in evangelism. I had Muslim patients, one who experienced a remarkable turn-around of a disturbing situation. The mother came alone to see me and told how she had heard noise in the basement in the middle of the night and found her teen aged daughter naked, with an adult man, drug paraphernalia scattered around the room. She took her daughter by the shoulders, asked her what was going on and slapped her in the face. The girl left with the man and shortly after, the mother received word that a judge had declare the girl emancipated because she was physically abused by her mother. I told the mother that I would write a letter to the judge and asked if I could pray for them. If I had known what I learned later, I would have prayed in Jesus name because Muslims do believe they can do that and that Jesus is a healer. The mother knew that I was a Christian, however. I prayed that the judge would change the order and the daughter would stop the destructive behavior and reconcile with the family. A few weeks later the mother and daughter came back together and it had all happened!  A friend of mine during our growing up years joined Campus Crusade staff and was involved in the Jesus Film administration since the beginning. He has shared many amazing stories. An Egyptian man had been telling his friends that his life seemed empty. They encouraged him to go on the Haj. He went on a bus tour and on the way home told the bus driver that he still felt empty. The bus driver suggested that he get off at the next stop and pray in the name of Jesus. He did, out-loud apparently, and struck up a conversation with a man on a park bench who had a Christian name. He asked the man if he were a Christian and the stranger answered, “No, but I have a movie about Jesus that I have never watched.” They went home and watched it together. When the adult Jesus appeared on the screen for the first time, the Egyptian jumped up and shouted, “That was the bus driver!” They both believed. Muslim background believers report they became Jesus followers because of the kindness of Christians and  miracles, visions and dreams.  I think Bill wanted to evangelize. And he truly believed that creationism, especially young earth, would drive intellectuals away before they get to the gospel. Maybe so and intelligent design followed by identifying the designer as Jesus is reasonable. But eventually the skeptic will object to virgin birth and resurrection. Regardless, I am suspicious that even Bill would be unhappy with last year’s event, co-sponsored by MacLaurin and BioLogos, going to an Evangelical Free Church to convince the Christians to become evolutionists and discard the notion of a literal Adam and Eve. All this in the year when Francis Collins admitted that his statement claiming that the genome proved evolution because of all the junk DNA was hubris. There is no junk, rather layers of regulatory complexity that we never dreamed of before. But Collins did not call off the attack dogs. And they don’t even go to the lost! The try to convert evangelicals. And MacLauren/Anselm House joined their yoke!  I have little comment on the second chapter. The portrait of the national heroes of Israel with all their warts was indeed one of the reasons Vishal Mangalwadi considered the Scripture divinely inspired. And indeed, God allows humans to create culture and structures that have flaws. And supposedly God-fearing kings do indeed fight each other because we are all fallen. David had a tender heart but still paid the price for his sin. And, indeed, we need to be ready to suffer for the name of Christ as the culture becomes more hostile. Might that not include being considered a fool for believing a part of the Scriptural record that is considered academically unacceptable, although you find it to be based on solid  evidence and firm logic?  Chapter 3, mentions Bill’s desire to synthesize. I think his ability to do so was deformed by his long association with Calvin College with their emphasis on deep time and evolution. Davis Young, as far as I know, maintained his faith but Howard Van Till became a freethinker. John Calvin would be appalled. (Of course, Martin Luther and John Wesley would likewise disown many of their theological descendants.)  The relationship of wild and domestic is a good way to frame the mandate to appropriately use the earth which we have been given. My parents gave me a good appreciation of wilderness. We went tent camping and explored, not just learning the names for things but even more looking for wonders. I remember the first time finding the little green insect hiding in a small dap of foam. I watched the caterpillars and their different modes of locomotion, the fish in a stream or lake. The beauty and mystery of the hills, cliffs and caves. In different parts of the country, I saw how different species occupied the various habitats. I learned an appreciation for what God had made but I also saw my mother’s flower garden and the even more amazing garden of a neighbor as a sub-creator. I marveled at God’s creativity and variation on themes.  Chapter 4 gives a nice analysis of Job, despite the fact that Jed is a young man ☺. He also points out the ability to do science grows out of the reality of creation, a reasonable Creator and a creature capable of acquiring knowledge.  Chapter 5 needs some demolition. Yes, there is a need to reach the homosexual individual for Christ and that does not require them to be “cleaned up” first. God loves us just the way we are but He also loves us too much to leave us that way. Joe Hallett led Outpost for over 10 years and miraculously did so with full blown AIDS when an average lifespan was very short. He was saved through the witness of a Christian woman and continued in the gay lifestyle until the Lord convicted him of it. He continued to be tempted but lived a victorious life and brought many to Christ by his honest witness. What we see today is the Gay Christian Movement, saying, “I’m gay, I’m Christian and it’s OK.” Maybe even, “God made me this way.”  The implosion of Exodus was evidenced by Alan Chambers’ meeting with representatives of the Gay Christian Movement. Fortified by the writings of his pastor and board chair, Clark Whitten, author of “Pure Grace,” that godly living is legalism, he told the group, “I will see you all in heaven. God is not in the business of changing behavior and nobody changes anyway.” He endorsed gay marriage although he stayed heterosexually married. I suggested at an Outpost board meeting that Exodus should change its name to “Take us back to Egypt.” They no longer had a message of hope or change, and although they never removed their original statement of faith from the website, they mercifully dissolved.  What do we do about I Corinthians 6:9-11 “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” Note the key? “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you  were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”  David was an adulterer and also a man after God’s heart? Why? It seems that we all sin but some are forgiven. 1 John 1:7-9 “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”   So the one who claims the right to a behavior and is unwilling to surrender it to God is putting it ahead of God. In finding God’s will, we often have to come to the point where we say, “Lord, even if you want me to go to the cannibals or the lepers, I am willing.” Often that is NOT God’s will, but we need to be willing in order to get past it. But in the case of clearly defined sin, I tremble to think of the consequences of defying God.  And on a human level, the dark side of homosexuality is not given a public airing, all because of political correctness. The social cost is great and the personal consequences are significant. Yes, even when sexuality is misused, it retains some of its intended beauty. My neighbor, a physician, left his wife and two young children to live with his office nurse. He told me he felt like he was 18 again. We all know the cost to his family, but also to him. Sexual abuse of children is a significant problem and still generally  agreed by society to be wrong. The pedophiles, however, are waiting in the wings with all the same arguments as for the mainstream of homosexuality. But childhood sexual abuse is prominent in the etiology and the expression of same sex attraction. In multiple studies, even by gay researchers, adult homosexual men admit that they, over the age of 21, have had sex with boys under 16. In a study by Dr. Paul Cameron of Family Research institute, two-thirds of the boys whose first sexual experience was homosexual, whether defined as consensual, seduced or forced, engaged in homosexual behavior as adults; 95% of those whose first experience was heterosexual were heterosexual in their adult behavior.  Our culture has taken the stance that feelings that come from within are not only good but irresistible. It is true that a person is not responsible for his temptations and we are all tempted. The erotic impulses can be deformed by things out of the individual’s control, but the actions taken as a result of those temptations have consequences. Homosexual males have increased health problems and shorter lifespan. It is not just AIDS but all the disease of stress. Even “committed relationships” tend to be open and many gay apologists frankly admit that monogamy is not their ideal. The statement, “I have always been this way,” can mean that the critical factors occurred before the time that memories are retained. That is true of the age of gender identity which happens at 1½ to 2½ years of age.  Would God tolerate “gay marriage” as He tolerates divorce? Will there be homosexuals in heaven? I assume that there will be some who are washed in the blood, “that is what some of you were.” But one who makes an idol of his sexuality, whatever the orientation, ought to fear that he is not under grace.  Chapter 6 is interesting. I am convinced that the loss of trust in the Bible is directly due to the lack of willingness by so many Christians, especially Christian intellectuals, to defend Genesis. And ironically, while everybody was busy protecting the gospel from potential falsification by science, they have missed the fact that science has crept up behind them and strengthened not only intelligent design but even a young earth! The geologic column is not really explained by the usual uniformitarian assumptions and even radiometric dating has been given a jolt by the ICR/CRS “RATE Project.” Too much helium from alpha decay for it to have taken place in the remote past – indicating a recent catastrophe involving more than just a flood. Then there is measurable Carbon 14 in coal, oil, fossils and diamonds in which it should be totally absent. And there is the soft tissue in dinosaur bones – which has brought on the most contorted explanations. And, ironically, they are based on FAITH! “This is an experiment of nature that proves soft tissue can last 65 million years because we KNOW that the fossil is that old.” Is that self-correcting science in action?   But in supporting Deep Time, you end up with death before sin, a God who uses death to create and is also a poor communicator. He could have described evolution or vast ages of time. The excuse that the people were primitive assumes evolution! Actually there is every indication that Adam and Eve were geniuses. And back to communication, is it really “very good” that Adam and Eve stood on thousands of feet of fossilized competition, predation, disease and death? All this from a God who tells us to care for the weak and the insignificant, doing it as unto Him. And why is death treated as an intruder? Why did Jesus need to conquer it by the Cross and the resurrection? Why is it to be thrown into the lake of fire in the end? Is that the way to treat the primary creative process? And, by the way, if Adam was chosen from among the soulless hominids, when he went to name the animals and find a helpmate, being a man he might have said, “Hey, God, she looks good to me. A soul is optional.”  Can I encourage the “Galilean Fellows” to cast their nets on the other side of the boat? Maybe even step out and walk on the water?

What Happened During The Filming Of "From A Frog To A Prince"? To View That Clip From The Film (358 KB), Click HERE Or view https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClleN8ysimg minute 22:15 – minute 23:36 Professor Richard Dawkins of Oxford University is a man of letters, and a man of words. He is rarely at a loss for words, especially when defending his favorite topic -- evolution -- or lambasting his traditional opponents -- creationists. Therefore, it is indeed noteworthy if such an eloquent wit should appear to be speechless when asked a question right up his alley, that is: "Professor Dawkins, can you give an example of a genetic mutation or an evolutionary process which can be seen to increase the information in the genome?" Yet he appears, on the videotape "From a Frog To A Prince," to be struggling for words after being asked that very question. As he himself wrote when responding to the tape, it is inconceivable that he could not answer it and the phenomenon requires another explanation. All agree that there was indeed something else going on. The only question is what. Initially, Barry Williams of the Australian Skeptics hinted at dark plots involving sophisticated digital alteration of the tape. He focused on the change of interviewer's voice and the physical setting from the time of taping to the final tape. Later, he admitted that the question was indeed asked and that the response was indeed to that question. Professor Dawkins himself admitted that the question was asked, just not by the person who appeared on the tape, and that the pause indeed followed. But he states that he was upset because it suddenly became obvious to him that the question was being asked by a creationist and he had been under the impression that he was being interviewed by impartial interrogators. His flustered appearance was a result of the internal conflict he felt between British hospitality and the intense desire to "throw the bums out." Yes, it is the kind of question that only a creationist would ask. Evolutionists will try very hard to avoid asking it and would rather speak in glowing generalities. But does that mean that it is not important? On the contrary, it proves that it is a question that must be answered by evolutionists. And Dawkins agrees. He later wrote a treatise explaining that mutations actually decrease information while natural selection increases it. Since this is not an intuitively obvious concept, it may have been that he did not think the company assembled for the interview were capable of following such esoteric cerebration (or perhaps he was not sure he could keep a straight face while saying it on camera.) The way it works is this. Information can be defined as whatever decreases choices. For example, you hear that a friend has had a baby, but do not know the gender. When you hear, "It's a girl," you no longer have two choices to consider and thus have received information. Mutations, by offering more choices, decrease information. There is the old gene and the new gene, two choices. But when the one is selected, we are back down to one choice -- therefore information has been added. Aside from the fact that, in this example, we only get back to the same amount of "information" we started with (one gene), there seems to be something wrong with the definition. It is not capable of producing the kind of information needed to go from no genes in the pre-biotic soup, through the supposedly few genes of the simplest living thing, to the billions of genes in the present biosphere. It also seems that something devious has been done to the definition of information. It is similar to the statement that ABCABCABCABCABC has less information than CAABABCCBABCBAC, because it takes more information to describe it. In the former, it can be stated as "ABC x5" but in the latter, each position must be described. This is true, but not helpful for evolution, because that rather random sequence of letters, unless it is code, is not useful information. In other words, you don't write the Encyclopedia Britannica that way. After viewing the video and reading interactions about the controversy, I wrote Dr. Dawkins and was astounded to get a rapid reply. But because the reply did not answer the most important question, I wrote again, after which there has been a more than two year pause. Thus it appears that there will be no more responses. Perhaps the long interval between the events and Dr. Dawkins' attempted recollection of them has something to do with the discrepancies. Regardless, the original question still remains unanswered, for nowhere does he give a sensible answer to the question, "Professor Dawkins, can you give an example of a genetic mutation or an evolutionary process which can be seen to increase the information in the genome?" To View That Clip From The Film (358 KB), Click HERE Or view https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClleN8ysimg minute 22:15 – minute 23:36 Then read the responses by the Barry Williams of the Australian Skeptics by clicking HERE. Read Dr. Dawkins explanation of information by HERE Read Answers in Genesis response by clicking HERE. For the videographers' response to the charges, click HERE See my e-mail exchange with Dr. Dawkins see below From: Ross Olson To: Richard Dawkins Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2001 Subject: A Question Dear Dr. Dawkins, I am a pediatrician, a former evolutionist, now a creationist and recently webmaster for a creationist organization (www.tccsa.tc). I know that you do not like surprises and wanted to get the frank introduction out of the way in the beginning. You have stated that you do not normally give interviews to creationists but I hope that you do not automatically rule out correspondence. I have viewed the tape "From a Frog to a Prince" and read the rebuttal by Australian Skeptic Barry Williams as well as your explanation and the response from Answers in Genesis. Although Williams hinted at technical deception in the making of the tape, you have not denied that the question was asked, "Professor Dawkins, can you give an example of a genetic mutation or an evolutionary process which can be seen to increase the information in the genome?" You have also confirmed that the 11 second pause on the tape did indeed follow that question, although you claim that it was due to the rush of emotions you were experiencing as you realized that the interviewers were creationists. I do not believe you have specifically denied that your comments which follow on the tape -- which answer another question -- did indeed follow the pause. You have stated instead that the basic question being asked would under no circumstances stump you. In your article concerning this matter you write in your usual compelling style about many things including information theory, gene duplication and frame shift mutations. You toss off problems you feel creationists need to solve but gloss over the ones that fall in your court. For example, bacteria with circular DNA that codes for multiple genes, depending on where one starts on the ring, represent an incredibly intricate sort of organization. It is like a writing two technical papers simultaneously that use the same letters but give different messages by starting in a different position. This ought to boggle even your fertile imagination. But then, instead of giving an example of information being added to an organism, you do a thought experiment. With a deft touch you take us through a definition of information to the conclusion that while mutation decreases information, natural selection, by decreasing the number of choices, increases information. Unless your reader takes a few deep breaths and six steps backwards, he or she will not realize that something does not add up. Decreasing the number of choices is not referring to the sort of information that is needed to add a new structure or function to an organism. Random mutations of Windows 2000 can be selected and thus decrease the number of choices one needs to make, but unless one of them is better than the original, it would not be advisable to install it. This brings up a question related to your computer evolution example in which random letters, by gradual approximations, evolve into "methinks it is like a weasel." In an on line debate with Edward Max, I pointed out that the program does not correlate with evolution because the successive approximations are not meaningful sentences. In evolution, each selected mutation must have some advantage over the others. It cannot be simply "planning ahead" for some distant goal. Dr. Max has admitted that the example does not support evolution but claims that it still shows how probabilities can be improved by using successive approximations. Yet he has no answer for the need to have each step make sense. In a similar way, you have here created a scenario that sounds plausible, and one which you believe in all sincerity, but which does not really fit the need. Random variations of the Encyclopedia Britannica will not produce the next edition no matter how much selection, natural or artificial, is done on the results! It is true that a series ABCABCABCABCABCABCABC contains less information than CCABBCBAABCBBABACACCA because it is not as predictable. But it is still not giving any useful information, and few people, aside from mathematical kooks, would buy a book made up of that sort of text. Most important in all of your essay is the fact that you have still not given a concrete example of information being added to a genome, whether you believe it was natural selection or mutation or some other natural process. Therefore, now that there is no pressure of time and need not be any cascade of conflicting emotions about whether to dispense with traditional hospitality and kick the unwelcome visitor off the premises, I ask you again to give an real example. Even plausible mechanisms will not do -- although it would be an improvement on your implausible mechanism. I will give you plenty of time, knowing there are many demands on you. You can do whatever is necessary to get over the emotional reaction to having this uninvited invasion of your e-mail box. You surely must get plenty of questions, hostile or otherwise from Oxford scholars. But I do expect an answer, hopefully succinct and to the point. If I hear nothing within a month, I will consider it to be equivalent to an 11 second pause. And we do plan to post the controversy on our debate page, with your response or notation of your lack of response. I hope you can forgive my boldness. I used to be shy and retiring but realized that very bright and highly placed people do not always think their positions through to find out if they touch ground. And I also realize that this is a very important question, because our origin and destiny are intimately related. Sincerely, Ross S. Olson MD Re: A Question From: Richard Dawkins [ richard.dawkins@university-museum.oxford.ac.uk ] Sent: Friday, November 02, 2001 To: Ross Olson Subject: Re: A Question Dear Mr Olson "I do not believe you have specifically denied that your next comments on the tape -- which answer another question -- did indeed follow the pause." I most emphatically do deny that it followed the pause. That particular edit, at the end of the pause (the cut is obvious) was the single most ineptly deceptive act of fraud in the production of this disreputable film. Incidentally, the man whom you see allegedly putting the question to me on the film was not even PRESENT, and I have never met him! -- he was filmed later, presumably in Australia. This disagreeable episode, when I was fraudulently stitched up by a fat, stupid and dishonest Australian woman who weaseled her way into my home under false pretences and then deliberately faked the appearance of my replies, is the main reason why I decline to answer questions from creationists, whether on tape or through an e-mail such as yours. It is only fair to add that I do know of ONE honest and knowledgeable creationist. See my article, 'Sadly, an Honest Creationist', in the current issue of Free Inquiry, which is also at http://www.secularhumanism.org/library/fi/dawkins_21_4.html Yours sincerely Richard Dawkins From: Ross Olson Sent: Monday, November 05, 2001 To: richard.dawkins@university-museum.oxford.ac.uk Subject: Response Dr. Dawkins, I am honored and frankly surprised to receive a prompt and direct reply from such a famous person as yourself. I sent the message by several means, expecting that palace guards, moats and drawbridges would intercept most of them. And then, I was half certain that if there were a response, it would come from a secretary or even a machine. You have denied that the answer on the tape did indeed follow the 11 second pause. Thank you for clarifying your position. But you still did not answer the real question -- the request for an actual example of a scientifically observable increase in information by the mechanisms you propose. It sounded from your response that (similar to what happened at the time of the taping) you are having bit of a problem with anger. Therefore I will patiently wait for your considered reply. Your comments on Kurt Wise bring up some very interesting questions, such as the fact that for a long time archeology denied the existence of Jericho as an inhabited city at the time of Joshua. Those who believed the Biblical record to be true were considered intellectually incompetent, but when the data were all in and the proper dates assigned, those people turned out to be absolutely right. But that is also a side issue and we ask for your answer to what has been called an easy question, namely providing a concrete example of increased information. Ross S. Olson MD 5 November 2001 Dear Dr. Olson/Dear Ross I note this reply with great interest. Of course, it is a common practice in documentaries to splice a narrator in later, and we have never denied doing so. Such people with pleasant voices and photogenic appearance, etc come at a high hourly rate, and with our budgetary constraints, we could not fly a person around the world when it is commonplace to get the footage first, and quite ethically acceptable, PROVIDED THAT the question is substantially the same - in fact, this was EXACTLY the same question. And provided that a different answer is not substituted. This was the case here, too, and I do not just state this on the basis of Gillian Brown's say-so, but also because an M.Sc geologist of my acquaintance, Phil Hohnen (who features briefly on our video 'Raging Waters') was present with Gillian as well and a long time ago told me of what happened, which makes for an interesting comparison with Dawkin's account. So of course the cut is obvious - it was in fact intended to be obvious, so as not to give a misleading impression. It is also obvious because Dawkins asked for the camera to be switched off to give him time to think. Since this latest 'flareup', I have written to Phil to ask him to provide a statutory declaration of his recollection of what happened. Phil is a Christian, a creationist, but has no real affiliation with either Gillian or ourselves apart from that, i.e. he is his 'own man', a successful businessman, and has nothing to gain from putting forward anything other than the unalloyed truth. Notice Dawkins' cleverness. Knowing that you are citing his answers on your site, he uses it to lash out at the messenger, as it were, and also to publicize his article on Kurt Wise, designed to make creationists pause. But he evades your request for an answer/example re the information thing, instead saying things which give someone inclined to be sympathetic to his cause a reason to feel that he is justified in not 'answering creationists'. Carl Dr Carl Wieland AiG Australia. Perhaps the long interval between the events and Dr. Dawkins' attempted recollection of them has something to do with the discrepancies. Regardless, the original question still remains unanswered, for nowhere does he give a sensible answer to the question, "Professor Dawkins, can you give an example of a genetic mutation or an evolutionary process which can be seen to increase the information in the genome?"

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore on Lake Superior https://www.icr.org/article/Pictured-Rocks-Nat-Lakeshore-blanketsand-noahflood/ Mackinac Island State Park: Flood, Ice Age, and…digestion? https://www.icr.org/content/mackinac-island-state-park-flood-ice-age-anddigestion