The Cenozoic
The term Cenozoic (or Cainozoic) means “recent life,” implying that the fossils encountered in these layers are more similar to modern species.
The term Cenozoic (or Cainozoic) means “recent life,” implying that the fossils encountered in these layers are more similar to modern species.
Few things in science evoke more interest in children than dinosaurs. Books, films, toys, etc. continue to fuel kids’ interest in the very alien world of our past, yet few Christians know how to respond to their children’s curiosity in a way that is both biblically sound and scientifically accurate. Although a full discussion of the fossils in Mesozoic rocks would require several volumes, a brief synopsis is presented here along with some creationist reflections for those who are interested – parents or otherwise.
The rocks of the Earth are like pages of a history book containing information about the past. Geologists who enjoy reading this “book” have found that it consists of two “volumes:” the first, named Precambrian, is mostly devoid of macroscopic fossils. The second, named Phanerozoic, contains layers and sediments providing a rich archive of past forms of animal and vegetal life. The Phanerozoic “volume”…
This third part of a series on the Precambrian provides two perspectives suggested by creationists on how to interpret this portion of the rock record.
This second part of a series on the Precambrian describes Precambrian rock exposures, as well as the atmosphere, climate, and Precambrian life. Many illustrative pictures are included, and design examples and creationist ideas are interspersed throughout.
This first section of a 3 parts series on the Precambrian summarizes the standard model for formation of the Universe, Solar System and Earth, Moon, oceans, continents, and plate tectonics. Brief references to the Universe, Sun, and Moon are included because what happens beyond Earth sets the stage for what happens on Earth during the Precambrian and in the Genesis 1 account.
This article provides an introduction to mineralogy and outline the different mineral categories, discusses some interesting features about minerals, describes the formation of minerals in different environments, and mentions some minerals referenced in the Bible.
The aim of this article is to use the example of Homo naledi to illustrate the distinction between data and interpretations, and to discuss some of the questions a biblical creationist might have in relation to this new discovery.
A general note of caution is necessary in the discussion of patterns in the fossil record. As with many other aspects of the natural world, the complexity that we find in this field of study tends to transcend our idealized categorizations.
Fossils are remains of organisms or traces of their activity preserved in the rock record. The scientific significance of fossils is truly remarkable, because they represent the only available archive of past forms of life. Through fossils, not only can we reconstruct the morphology of extinct creatures but also infer aspects of their ecology and environment. Fossils are also very relevant in discussions…
Texbooks describe the fossil record as the ‘best evidence’ for evolution. They claim that the fossil record proves evolution because there seems to be a succession from simpler to more complex life forms, and a succession from marine to terrestrial forms. Charles Darwin suggested that all life has a common ancestor. “All the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth may be descended from some…
Science is not a straight pathway to total reality and truth, but involves numerous tentative conclusions, reversals of opinion, and inherent uncertainty. Its utility is not that it is always true, but that it is useful and leads to further discovery.
There are only three known groups of volant vertebrates. Two are extant: birds and bats. The third group is completely extinct and known only from fossils: pterosaurs. Often referred to colloquially as “pterodactyls”, pterosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles totally foreign to our modern minds, yet in some ways they are incredibly familiar, resembling the dragons of folklore.
Lazarus species raise questions about how the geologic column formed. They are one good reason that we should be thinking about mechanisms other than deep time to account for the order we observe in the fossil record.
The first book of the Bible states that following a recent creation by God, there was an astonishing worldwide Flood. In that context, the Flood would have been responsible for most of the great fossil bearing layers of the earth. However, current scientific interpretations propose that these layers slowly accumulated over billions of years thus allocating more time for the slow gradual evolution of…
Creationists and evolutionists have disagreed over intermediate fossils for decades. An intermediate fossil is one that seems to be an evolutionary transition between two groups of organisms. If all life was the result of evolution, there must have been innumerable intermediates that existed, and many of these should still exist as fossils.
Among those who reject the Biblical record of God’s action in creating everything, including all living things, the process of chemical evolution from atoms to the first cell is usually explained something like this: elements reacted with each other spontaneously forming simple molecules. These simple molecules continued to react forming larger and more complex molecules such as the nucleotide building…
The rocks found on the surface of the Earth did not form all at the same time. Geologists schematize this different order of formation using a column, of which the lower layers represent older rocks and top layers represent younger rocks. Archean rocks are the ones at the very bottom of this geologic column, and are therefore interpreted as the oldest rocks. They are often heavily deformed and altered…
To model the motion of Earth's plates, Baumgardner uses a Fortran program he developed called TERRA that must be run on a supercomputer. It is one of four models in the world capable of modeling Earth in a global manner.
If one accepts the evidence of the Cambrian Explosion at face value, the Darwinian theory of evolution is falsified. Unsurprisingly, evolutionists have tried to explain the Cambrian Explosion as an artifact, due to the incompleteness of the fossil record. However, there is an explanation for the Cambrian Explosion that is consistent with the data. An intelligent being could generate the genetic information needed for a diversity of body types in a short time.