According to modern geology, our world is over four and a half billion years old, and its geological features have been sculpted over vast eons of time. Everyone knows that planet earth is unimaginably ancient. It’s common knowledge that geological forces have acted slowly over millions of years to form the rocks beneath our feet. But what if what everyone ‘knows’ is wrong?

This remarkable programme takes the viewer on a visual odyssey of discovery like no other. Shot on location across Britain, it takes in some of the most spectacular countryside, beautiful coastlines and awe inspiring landscapes these islands have to offer. From the stormy shores of South Wales to the dramatic Giant’s Causeway in County Antrim, from the granite tors of Dartmoor to the windswept uplands of the Peak District, we visit an array of sites that have inspired generations of geologists and helped us to unravel the mysteries of the earth’s past.

Most significantly, we pay a visit to Siccar Point in Scotland, made famous by the pioneering naturalist James Hutton, whose observations here sparked an earthquake in the science of geology that still reverberates to this day. Along the way, we will pose some intriguing questions. Were the rocks around us formed slowly and gradually – or suddenly during catastrophic events? Did the history of the world unfold over vast eras of time or much shorter periods? And what do the rocks really tell us about the geological history of our world?

The DVD comes with a fully referenced transcript with over 150 citations from the scientific literature. Copies will shortly be available from the Truth in Science webshop for £12.95 each plus £1.75 for postage and packing. For advance orders, please contact Truth in Science.

In August I had an enjoyable time leading a group of home schoolers on a fossil hunt in a disused clay pit near Peterborough. The sedimentary rocks from which we collected belong to the lower part of the Middle Jurassic Oxford Clay Formation. The trip gave us the opportunity to think about the formation of mudstones, sedimentary rocks dominated by silt- and clay-sized particles. Mudstones are usually thought to have been deposited by the very slow settling of fine dispersed grains in quiet water conditions. But new research is causing geologists to reconsider the conditions under which fine-grained sediments are deposited. In fact, flume experiments and field observations show that muds can be deposited at current velocities that are sufficient to transport and deposit sand.

Certainly the extraordinary abundance of the fossils in the Oxford Clay seems to be consistent with rapid rates of sedimentation. Everyone on the trip was able to take home a fine collection of ammonites, belemnites, Gryphaea oysters and the occasional brachiopod! It was very gratifying to see the enthusiasm of the families that took part and to receive some lovely ‘thank you’ cards from the youngsters afterwards. I’m always happy to consider similar opportunities, so do let me know if you think your group – homeschoolers or otherwise – would be interested in an educational trip of this kind.

Well, another Creation Biology Society/Creation Geology Society conference is over. This year’s meeting marked the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Whitcomb and Morris’ The Genesis Flood, and so it was designed to be a special event with a geology field trip and some public talks in addition to the technical sessions.

Our field excursion to the Black Hills of South Dakota was led by Marcus Ross. It included a visit to the Homestake gold mine, the Great Unconformity between the Precambrian Ellison Formation and the Cambrian Deadwood Formation, and the Niobrara Chalk. We also had an opportunity to see Mount Rushmore and its famous carvings of former US Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln. The photo to the left shows Steve Austin addressing the group at the Great Unconformity.

The next two days were devoted to the technical sessions. You can read the abstracts online (in the latest editions of JCTS Series B and JCTS Series C), but here are a few highlights:

• Georgia Purdom explained the work she is doing to identify biogenic stromatolites in the rock record and evaluate their occurrence in pre-Flood and Flood sediments.

• Roger Sanders offered a creationist interpretation of fossil pollen assemblages across the Cretaceous-Palaeogene boundary.

• Todd Wood presented a new analysis showing that the chimpanzee genome is not much bigger than the human genome and nearly identical to it.

• Tim Clarey discussed the phenomenon of overthrusts and proposed that they developed as catastrophic gravity slides late in the Flood or early in the post-Flood period.

• Marcus Ross examined the fossil record of mammals in North America and argued that it was incompatible with a Flood/post-Flood boundary in the Plio-Pleistocene.

• John Whitmore reported new observations of bedding styles in the Permian Coconino Sandstone of Arizona which pointed to subaqueous deposition.

There were also three presentations on dinosaur baraminology. One was a baraminic distance study which showed Archaeopteryx clustering with dromaeosaurs and separated from modern birds by morphological discontinuity. This is intriguing in light of last week’s Nature paper about Xiaotingia zhengi, a new Archaeopteryx-like fossil from China. Many creationists will probably reject the idea that Archaeopteryx is a feathered dinosaur, although I’m not quite sure why. I can’t think of a single biblical or theological reason why the idea of a feathered dinosaur should be considered problematic for creationists.

Finally, there were the public talks. Art Chadwick gave a tremendous presentation about his ground-breaking work at the Hanson dinosaur dig in Wyoming and John Morris offered us some personal recollections of events associated with the writing of The Genesis Flood. Other talks covered the frontiers of creation biology (Todd Wood), the eruption of Mount St Helens (Steve Austin), the wonders of human reproduction (Randy Guliuzza), a creationist approach to microbial life (Joe Francis) and scriptural and scientific insights into the pre-Flood world (Kurt Wise). The conference closed with a panel discussion on educational issues that raised controversial questions about how (or even whether) evolution should be taught in Christian colleges.

If you missed the conference, you missed a real treat. Don’t make the same mistake next year!

Last week I was engaged in field work with John Whitmore on the Permian sandstones of Scotland for our ongoing Coconino research. Things went well and we had an enjoyable time. Despite the unpromising forecasts, the weather was reasonably good. The only day it poured with rain we were in the car travelling and so it didn’t really matter much.

I collected John and his wife from Glasgow airport on Saturday 18 June and we immediately drove to Ardrossan to catch the ferry to the Isle of Arran. On Arran, we examined the cross-bedded “windblown” sandstones exposed along the shoreline near Corrie. We also had the opportunity to walk along the northern coastline to Hutton’s unconformity, where Dalradian metasediments are unconformably overlain by the Carboniferous Kinnesswood Formation. There were also good exposures of the Permian breccias which interdigitate with the Corrie Sandstone.

On Tuesday morning we caught the ferry from Brodick back to the mainland and made the long but very scenic drive to Drumnadrochit. Our journey took us past the tourist hotspot of Loch Lomond, through the brooding valley of Glen Coe and then along the Great Glen, a dramatic SW-NE-trending faultline that cuts right across the Scottish Highlands. We spent the next day sight-seeing around Loch Ness.

On Thursday we headed out to Hopeman on the southern shores of the Moray Firth. East of the harbour there are magnificent exposures of the Hopeman Sandstone, another “windblown” Permian unit. These outcrops were very reminiscent of the Coconino Sandstone of central and northern Arizona, but, if anything, displayed even larger-scale cross-bedding. We also drove a little further east along the coast to Covesea and dropped down onto the beach from the coastal path to view the sandstones in the cliffs.

On Friday morning we made further progress to Dumfries. There we were able to visit quarry exposures of the Locharbriggs Sandstone. We saw further outcrops in Castledykes Park, where the relationship between the Locharbriggs Sandstone and the Doweel Breccia was nicely displayed.

Finally, on Saturday I dropped John and his wife back at Glasgow airport for their flight home, before making the seven-hour journey south. I arrived home late that evening, weary but pleased that another round of field work had gone successfully. We made some field observations that we think are significant for understanding the depositional environment of these sandstones and also collected several samples for petrographic examination. We’re looking forward to seeing how they’ll compare with the Coconino.

The filming took place the week before Easter. About 30 minutes of filming were edited down to the 90 seconds that were broadcast. What is refreshing about the program is that contributors are given the space (albeit briefly) to express their viewpoint fairly.

All the 4thoughts can be viewed here and comments can be left on the site too.

British author Paul Garner holds an environmental sciences degree with emphases in geology and biology. He speaks and writes for the Biblical Creation Society (biblicalcreation.org.uk). This book includes a forward [sic] by Andrew Snelling, full references, and an index. Paul has a very clear writing style as he outlines the details of creation science. This includes brief summaries of the anthropic principle, baraminology, catastrophic plate tectonics, Genesis Flood details, the Ice Age, the RATE research project, and time dilation theory. When explaining evolutionary assumptions, Paul is gracious but uncompromising.

Isochrons are used by geologists to determine initial radioisotope products in rocks, and this description is made very clear (p. 95). In contrast, quantized redshifts are described as evidence for the Milky Way’s location at the center of the universe without reservation (p.29), even though such data is strongly challenged by astronomers. One of many crisp figures is the classic ichthyosaur fossil, which is interpreted as being overcome by flood sediment at the moment of giving birth (p. 205). One could mention the alternate explanation that the ichthyosaur baby was expelled spontaneously after the mother perished. With either interpretation, this famous “fish lizard” fossil formation was catastrophic.

This paperback book includes many positive comments from readers. It presents a clear case for Creation and will prove helpful to many readers worldwide.

One of the major research areas in creation biology concerns “natural evil” or the origin of such things as predators, parasites and pathogens. This was the theme of Dr Gordon Wilson’s lecture to The Genesis Agendum held at Lower Ford Street Baptist Church in Coventry on Saturday 12 March. Dr Wilson is Senior Fellow of Natural History at New Saint Andrews College in Moscow, Idaho, and an active member of the Creation Biology Society. His lecture was subtitled “A creationist’s perspective on biological bad guys” and offered an insightful introduction to this area of creationist research.

The lecture began by setting out some biblical boundaries to guide our thinking: the goodness of the original creation, the absence of human and animal death before the Fall of Genesis 3, and the completion of the creation after the sixth day. With this framework in mind, how can creationists explain the origin of natural evil?

Dr Wilson presented some striking examples of what needs to be explained. He began with predators. Cnidarians such as jellyfish have ingeniously constructed stinging cells (nematocysts) in order to inject prey organisms with toxins, the gastropod Conus has an extendible proboscis that thrusts venom-bearing, dart-like teeth into its prey, and the pit viper has a remarkable skull designed to deliver a potent cocktail of haemotoxins when it strikes. Then there are parasites, illustrated by the nematode worm Myrmecoma neotropicum, which transforms the abdomen of its host, the gliding ant Cephalotes atratus, into a bright red “berry”. This tricks birds into eating the infected ants, thus allowing the parasite to be spread in the bird faeces. Finally, the talk considered pathogens, represented by the bubonic plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis, which has been responsible for three recorded pandemics and more than 200 million deaths. Every one of these examples involves extraordinary design features that are not easily explained by simple degeneration or co-option of otherwise benign structures.

Dr Wilson then set out a number of possible scenarios for the origin of natural evil, discussed the advantages and disadvantages of each one, and sought to rank them in terms of personal preference. His favourite explanation involves the “genetic frontloading” of organisms at the time of creation. According to this scenario, organisms were equipped with a set of genes for benign structures, functions and behaviours and a set of genes for malign structures, functions and behaviours. Originally, only the benign genes were expressed, and the malignant set was “switched on” at the time of the Fall or subsequent to it. Such a scenario is potentially verifiable and could be supported by the discovery of latent genes that, if repaired and expressed, would restore benign structures, functions and behaviours.

The evening concluded with a time of open discussion and questions from the floor. These ranged widely over a variety of related theological and scientific issues. Those attending expressed their appreciation for such a fascinating talk and we hope that it won’t be too long before Dr Wilson is able to lecture in the UK again.

Predators, Parasites, and Pathogens
A creationist’s perspective on biological bad guys

The Genesis Agendum Spring Lecture
6.30 pm (Light Refreshments from 6.00 pm)
12 March 2011
Lower Ford Street Baptist Church, Coventry CV1 5QJ
(Opposite Brandish’s Garage and across car park from bus and coach station)
Admission free

When studying the diversity of life it is obvious that a vast number of species spanning most kingdoms and phyla have features that are designed to deal out disease and/or death. Many pathogens, parasites, and predators have sophisticated genetic, morphological, and behavioural arsenals (natural evil) which clearly testify to God’s eternal power and divine nature (Romans 1:20).

Were deadly designs created in their present form or are they degenerations (via mutation and natural selection) of benign designs? Examples range from the bacterial type III secretion systems, the cnidarian nematocysts (jellyfish/anemone stingers), the harpoon-like radula and injection system of cone snails, and the solenoglyphous skull, pit organs, and venom apparatus of pit vipers.

Scripture states that every green plant was given for food (Genesis 1:30), death and disease are a consequence of sin (Genesis 2:17), creation was completed on the sixth day and God considered it ‘very good’ (Genesis 2:1; 1:31).

Several scenarios will be discussed that attempt to account for the presence of natural evil in the biological world from a young earth creationist framework with an assessment of them in the light of these biblical truths.

DR GORDON WILSON is Senior Fellow of Natural History at New Saint Andrews College in Moscow, Idaho, USA. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Education (Secondary Education-Biology) and a Master of Science in Entomology from the University of Idaho. He received his PhD from George Mason University in Environmental Science and Public Policy in 2003.

Dr Wilson was a Scientific Aide in molecular biology (under Dr Scott Minnich) at the University of Idaho before taking a faculty position in the Department of Biology at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. He has been on faculty at New Saint Andrews College in Moscow , Idaho since 2003.

Dr Wilson’s dissertation research focused on the reproductive ecology of the eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina). He has published his research in Southeastern Naturalist and Herpetological Bulletin. He is a frequent contributor to Answers magazine. Recent articles published in the magazine include Lightning Bugs: The Beetle Beacons (March 2009), Divinely Designed Defenses (May 2009), and Fungus Firearms (April 2010). In Answers in Depth he published Classic Multidimensional Scaling isn’t the Sine Qua Non of Baraminology (September 2010).