Further to our recent announcement about Dr Todd Wood’s visit to the UK in March 2010, we can now share some further details of the talks he’ll be offering.

The first is entitled Science and the Supernatural and will address the question of what it means to be both a scientist and a creationist. Modern scientists commonly claim that true science cannot consider supernatural causes, since they are outside the realm of observation. Dr Wood will review the reasons for this and propose a way to allow the supernatural realm to inform and enrich scientific research. This talk is suitable for all audiences.

The second is entitled The Challenge of Darwin and is a somewhat more technical presentation. Throughout Origin of Species, Charles Darwin makes the case that a wide variety of biological data is “inexplicable” on the view of creation. Twentieth century evolutionary biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky went further with his claim that “nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.” But is this true? Dr Wood will review and evaluate an emerging model of biological origins that explicitly denies the ancestry of all living things.

We can also announce that Dr Wood will be speaking on the second of these topics, ‘The Challenge of Darwin’, at a meeting organized by the Genesis Agendum on Saturday 13 March 2010 (6.30 pm). The venue will be Lower Ford Street Baptist Church, Coventry CV1 5QJ. All are welcome.

If you are interested in having Dr Wood speak at your church or other meeting, please contact Stephen and Joan Bazlinton by telephone (01371 856495) or email (s.j.bazlinton@googlemail.com) to make further enquiries.

Paul Garner’s book The New Creationism has been reviewed in the latest edition of the Creation Research Society Quarterly (Volume 46, Number 2, p.118). The reviewer is Don Ensign, who concludes that it is “a good introduction to current creation thinking” and written in “a very clear style that nonprofessional readers will appreciate.”

Dr Kevin Anderson, CRSQ Editor, has kindly given permission for the entire book review to be reproduced on Paul’s blog. Visitors to the Creation Research Society website can order the book for $16.00 ($14.00 for CRS members) plus postage.

The Good Book Stall has also reviewed The New Creationism. They describe it as “controversial” and “an eloquent and compact summary with some interesting ideas on time-dilation and catastrophic plate tectonics.” You can read their review here.

Finally, the Metropolitan Tabernacle Bookshop in London now stocks The New Creationism on its website, so UK readers wondering where to purchase a copy have another option.

This week marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. On Tuesday morning, the day of the anniversary itself, Dr Steve Lloyd took part in a short debate about evolution on BBC Radio Kent. His opponent was Richard Norman, Chair of the East Kent Humanists and an Emeritus Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Kent.

In the few minutes available, Steve was able to make some good points about the nature of creationism and the evidence supporting the intelligent design of living systems. For a limited period the debate can be heard on BBC iPlayer by clicking here. The programme was ‘Breakfast with John Warnett and Julia George’ and the segment starts at 2:01:55 (about two hours in).

As of October 2009, Paul Garner has been working full time for Biblical Creation Ministries for seven years. In view of his heavy schedule of speaking, writing and research, the trustees of BCM have decided to give him a short sabbatical in the first half of 2010, during which he will not be taking on his usual speaking engagements.

Between January and March he will be working from home on a special project, and then having a complete break from his ministry responsibilities between April and June. We believe that this will benefit the ministry in the longer term, by allowing Paul to ‘recharge his batteries’ and come back to the work with renewed vigour. Normal service will be resumed in the second half of 2010 and Paul is taking bookings for that period now (see the Diary page for details).

During Paul’s sabbatical, Dr John Peet and Sylvia Baker have kindly agreed to help us by taking on a limited number of speaking engagements on BCM’s behalf. John and Sylvia will be familiar to most of our supporters as well known speakers and authors. They will be managing their own diaries and anyone interested in setting up a meeting is invited to contact them directly by email: jhjohnpeet@ntlworld.com and sbaker4453@aol.com.

Dr Steve Lloyd will be taking on engagements as usual throughout 2010 and, as announced elsewhere, Dr Todd Wood will also be undertaking a short speaking tour for us during Paul’s sabbatical.

Conference report by David Fielding, pastor of Castlefields Church, Derby

The weekend of 13 to 15 November was an exciting time for the members of Castlefields Church in Derby. Seizing the opportunity of the 2009 Darwin anniversaries, the church hired the prestigious ‘Darwin Suite’ in the city centre as a venue to host their Creation Outreach weekend. The room is actually dedicated to Erasmus, the grandfather of Charles Darwin and provided an interesting talking point in getting people coming to the meetings. The title of the weekend, ‘Derby, Darwin and Dinosaurs’ was chosen to attract further interest in the city of Derby and as a link to the subject of the talks being presented.

Nearly 200 people attended the event, with many being non-Christian friends of church members and visitors from other churches in the area. The main speakers were Paul Garner and Dr Steve Lloyd of Biblical Creation Ministries. A varied programme of talks on creation subjects was presented including a very searching analysis of the spiritual lessons that can be drawn from the life of Charles Darwin. Paul Garner showed how God was, ‘pursuing’ Darwin all through his life by placing Christians in his path and bringing scripture to bear upon his thinking. A serious challenge was posed to those listening not to turn away from God’s free grace, as Darwin did but to seek Him and to find Him as Saviour. In addition, Steve Lloyd gave a fascinating and wide-ranging talk entitled ‘New answers to old questions’, in which he explained the work that creationists are doing to build rigorous scientific models in biology and geology.

It was encouraging to see free evangelistic literature being taken away and many books and DVDs being purchased. The church is looking to the Lord to bring lasting fruit from the event and to bless this endeavour for Him.

We are delighted to announce that leading creationist researcher Dr Todd Wood will be visiting the UK again next year. He will be arriving on or around 10 March and staying until 17 or 18 March. We hope that a number of our friends and supporters will be willing to set up meetings at which he can speak during his visit.

His itinerary will be coordinated on BCM’s behalf by Stephen and Joan Bazlinton. We are grateful to Stephen and Joan for their help in this regard. If you would like to invite Dr Wood to speak at your church or other meeting, please contact Stephen and Joan by telephone (01371 856495) or email (s.j.bazlinton@googlemail.com).

Dr Wood will be offering a couple of talks. One will consider the nature of science and what it means to be both a creationist and a scientist. The other will provide an informative overview of modern creationist biology.

Details of Dr Wood’s itinerary will be posted on our website as it takes shape. Further information will also be available from Stephen and Joan Bazlinton.

DR TODD CHARLES WOOD is the current director of the Center for Origins Research at Bryan College in Dayton, Tennessee. He has a PhD from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at the University of Virginia and has published 30 peer-reviewed papers and three book chapters on the topics of systematics, genomics and evolutionary biochemistry. He is also the author of a textbook on creation biology and a monograph on the Galápagos Islands. He is a leading creationist researcher in the USA and one of the founding members of the Creation Biology Study Group.

Steve Lloyd’s jointly-authored book, Debating Darwin, has been reviewed in the July 2009 edition of Themelios, the international journal for students of theological and religious studies (Vol. 34, No. 2, p.269). The reviewer is Hans Madueme of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. You can read the review here.

The September 2009 edition of the British newspaper, Evangelical Times (p.21), has published the following review of Paul Garner’s book, The New Creationism. The reviewer is Nathan Pomeroy of Nottingham.

This title doesn’t just expose the errors of evolutionary theory, but describes attempts to build creationist scientific theories to replace evolutionary explanations. Paul Garner writes, ‘my main aim is to summarise the work of modern-day scholars who are seeking to restore the biblical foundations of the scientific enterprise and build positive creationist theories in the field of origins.’

The author’s fundamental assumption is that ‘Genesis is a book of history — and that it provides a satisfying framework for scientific study relating to origins’.

His book is organised into four parts. The first deals mainly with astronomy. I found his summary of Humphreys new creationist cosmology stimulating, and especially its description of ‘gravitational time dilation’. ‘During the early history of the universe, “billions of years” of processes were able to take place in outer space while only a few days passed as measured by “Earth standard time”‘.

The second part examines geology, and reports the results of RATE, ‘one of the most ambitious creationist research initiatives ever undertaken’. A recent exciting discovery is that the rate of helium escape from zircon crystals points to an amazing conclusion: ‘the helium could not have been escaping from these rocks for more than 6,000 years’.

The third section looks at biology. The evolutionary tree suggests all living things have descended from one common ancestor. The creationist orchard builds on biblical teaching to show God created separate creatures, with many generic [sic — genetic] trees diversifying over time.

The final section returns to geology, with a particular concern to show how the global Flood explains contemporary discoveries relating to plate tectonics, the fossil record and the ice age.

Paul Garner’s book assumes the historical truthfulness of the Bible. He writes in a clear style, explains complex ideas briefly, humbly admits unresolved problems, and paints in the historical background helpfully.

His prayer is that this book will ‘build up your confidence in God’s Word and excite you about the scientific study of God’s world’. His prayer was answered for me; I encourage you to read The new Creationism.

Paternoster has recently published a book co-authored by BCM’s Steve Lloyd: Debating Darwin. Two Debates: Is Darwinism True & Does it Matter? by Graeme Finlay, Stephen Lloyd, Stephen Pattemore and David Swift (ISBN 9781842276198), price £8.99. The book can be ordered from the Authentic Media website or through a Christian bookshop.

The book is a debate between Christians who take opposing views on the scientific merits of neo-Darwinism and its compatibility with the Bible. The first half considers the theological issues and the second the science. Each contributor responds to their opponent’s essay.

Steve’s chapter moves the biblical argument into new territory by comparing the whole biblical story of creation to new creation with the neo-Darwinian account of earth history. Understood in this way the debate is not merely over the interpretation of the early chapters of Genesis but the coherence of the historic Christian understanding of core doctrines such as the cross and resurrection. Steve sets out three doctrines that express aspects of the ’story-line’ of the Bible (Adam as a historical individual, a global flood and ‘no-agony-before-Adam’) and argues that these are incompatible with neo-Darwinism.

In his response to the chapter by Finlay and Pattemore, Steve demonstrates that the mere presence of literary structure in the early chapters of Genesis does not make them a-historical in the way that is required to make them consistent with neo-Darwinism. He goes on to suggest that the real point of disagreement is not over the interpretation of the Bible but whether we approach the Bible with the belief that the neo-Darwinian account of earth history is an unassailable fact.

In both his contributions Steve points to new creationist research as the way to provide a satisfying and compelling scientific narrative to complement the biblical story.

The Creation Biology Study Group (BSG) held its annual conference at the Holiday Inn Hurstbourne, Louisville, Kentucky on 30 and 31 July 2009. Once again, the conference took place jointly with the annual meeting of the fledgling Creation Geology Society. Paul Garner was there representing Biblical Creation Ministries. (The photo on the right shows some of the geologists visiting Louisville Zoo. From l to r: Steven Austin, Paul Garner, Kurt Wise and Andrew Snelling).

The first day of the conference was devoted to the symposium of talks that were given at the Genesis Kinds Conference in England in February. You can read a full report of those talks here.

The second day was given over to the contributed biology and geology talks. The biology talks were as follows:

• Tom Hennigan began with a survey of the current taxonomic status of bears and the implications for baraminology. More data are needed, but the bears appear to form a holobaraminic group that underwent rapid diversification after the Flood.
• Todd Wood gave a fascinating talk about Odontochelys, the toothed, half-shelled fossil turtle that has been interpreted as an evolutionary intermediate. Baraminological studies suggest that Odontochelys occupies odd positions in morphological space that would not be expected of an intermediate. However, the analyses were based on data sets including relatively few morphological characters and so firm conclusions could not be drawn.
• Jean Lightner spoke about the strange patterns of variation observed in the Anatidae (ducks, geese and swans) and what this means for the intrabaraminic evolution of the group. A possible role for directed mutation in speciation was also discussed.
• Kurt Wise offered a series of suggestions for creation biology research from the field of evolutionary genetics. Research since the 1940s has yielded many insights with interesting implications for how we understand the role of natural selection and mutation in the natural world.
• Roger Sanders talked about the origin of the liver toxins found in Lantana (’shrub verbena’). He suggested mechanisms by which the liver protectants also known to occur in this plant genus could have given rise to the toxins during diversification.
• Jud Davis gave some theological reasons for God’s use of ‘negative elements’ (such as darkness, formlessness, emptiness, nakedness) in his pre-Fall creation. These elements play an important role in the overall salvation story of the Bible, especially as we understand the final consummation of all things.
• Cindy Golian presented some initial data from molecular genetics comparisons between modern human populations and discussed their implications for migration patterns following Babel.
• Ying Liu spoke about his research on human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) and their role during the menstrual cycle. Such retroviruses are usually regarded as molecular fossils that point to the common ancestry of humans and chimps, but his research suggests that at least some HERVs were created in situ for a purpose.

The geology talks given later in the afternoon were as follows:

• Kurt Wise presented compelling evidence favouring the rapid formation of a cave system in Cumberland County, Tennessee, by the passage of rising hydrothermal fluids. This is in stark contrast to the usual model of slow dissolution by weakly acidic water flowing from the surface.
• Paul Garner reviewed what is currently known about the grain size and textural characteristics of sediments from modern sandwaves. Sandwaves are underwater dunes common in tidally dominated shallow marine environments and have been suggested as a possible modern analogue for certain cross-bedded sandstones in the stratigraphic record.
• John Whitmore showed numerous photographs of thin sections documenting the presence of detrital mica grains throughout the Coconino Sandstone in central and northern Arizona. Mica is a soft mineral that is not expected to survive the harsh abrasion that occurs in desert environments. Thus it poses a challenge to the conventional interpretation of the Coconino Sandstone as an eolian deposit.
• Stephen Cheung described the discovery of four types of dolomite (dolomite beds, clastic dolomite grains, dolomite cements and concentric ooids) within the Coconino Sandstone at Andrus Point and several other outcrops in northern and central Arizona. These discoveries suggest the need to re-think the depositional environment of the Coconino Sandstone.

Another exciting development was the announcement that the Creation Geology Society, established last year, is now open to members. Anyone wanting to join is invited to contact Dr Marcus Ross, the Society Secretary, for more information.

This year’s biology abstracts can be found on the BSG website (see Occasional Paper 13) and the geology abstracts will shortly be available on the Cedarville University website. The next conference will be held at Truett-McConnell College in Cleveland, Georgia, on 28-30 July 2010 and will once again be a joint meeting of the biology and geology groups.