Report by Paul Garner

In October I was in Poland again for a series of creation meetings in the cities of Gdańsk, Toruń and Poznań. In each place, the topic under discussion was ‘The Ice Age and the Genesis Flood’. My talk addressed the evidence for recent glaciation, the challenge of explaining the initiation of widespread ice sheets, and the role played by the Genesis Flood in a creationist understanding of the ice age.

The first meeting was in Gdańsk where I spoke to about 60-80 people in a packed student club. There was a good spirited question time afterwards, with a number of people probably being exposed to creationism for the first time.

In Toruń the organisers had booked a room in the university, only for the room to be withdrawn when local atheists protested. Fortunately another venue was found at short notice and people were redirected there. In the event, ours was the first public meeting to take place in a brand new lecture theatre in the city’s Hebrew Institute, and it proved to be an excellent venue. We were warmly welcomed by the institute’s director and I also had the opportunity to speak to a reporter from a local radio station.

In Poznań I spoke at a public meeting in one of the city’s university lecture halls. Many students attended as well as local Christians. One group of young sceptics asked many questions, leading into a discussion about radiometric dating. Afterwards, one of them came to ask for my email address so we could continue our dialogue. A Christian student thanked me for being willing to engage publicly with sceptics in this way.

Dr Geoff Barnard was also in Poland at the same time, speaking in a number of cities including Zielona Góra. Our itineraries were coordinated so that we could cover a lot of ground in a short time, although unfortunately we didn’t have an opportunity to meet up during the tour.

Once again we are grateful to our translators and hosts for making these meetings possible. Those of us that have taken part in these tours over the last few years have come to love the country of Poland and its people and we pray for lasting fruit and spiritual blessing to follow.

Photos: Preparing to speak in the student club in Gdańsk (top right) and answering questions after the lecture in Poznań (bottom left). Left click on images for larger versions.

On 30 September, Paul Garner led members of the Mumbles Creation Society on a field trip to the Vale of Glamorgan coast. In the morning, the party visited the famous unconformity between the Carboniferous Limestone and the overlying Jurassic rocks at Ogmore-by-Sea. The Sutton Stone member at the base of the Jurassic sequence has generally been regarded as a shoreline-beach deposit laid down over a period of several million years. However, it was controversially reinterpreted by the late Derek Ager (University College, Swansea) as a mass-flow unit deposited rapidly during a single, major storm. The party examined the evidence supporting this catastrophic hypothesis and noted that much could be said in its favour.

After lunch the group examined the Triassic breccias seen filling fissures in the Carboniferous Limestone a little further west along the shore. Again, evidences of rapid erosion and deposition were noted. In the evening, Paul spoke to a public meeting organised by the Mumbles Creation Society at Castleton Chapel. His talk described recent research which challenges the idea that the Coconino Sandstone of central and northern Arizona is a windblown desert deposit. Instead, Paul argued that the Coconino Sandstone was deposited by rapidly migrating sand waves during the global Flood.

The photographs show (top) the Jurassic cliffs at Ogmore-by-Sea and (bottom) the Triassic breccias containing angular clasts of Carboniferous Limestone. Left click on the images for larger versions.