Welcome to Science, Scripture, and Salvation, a radio ministry of the Institute for Creation Research. In this program, we want to encourage you in your Christian faith by showing how scientific evidence supports the Bible, particularly the Genesis account. The book of Genesis lays the foundation for all matters addressed in the rest of the Bible. The nature of God, His sovereignty in creation, man's purpose, sin, marriage, family, and why we need a Savior are all introduced and explained in Genesis. When we see that the first and most foundational book of the Bible can be trusted in all matters, including science, it builds confidence in the rest of the inspired word all the way to Revelation.
On today's show, we'll get some insights from Brian Thomas, science writer with the Institute for Creation Research. Here's Brian Thomas. This week at the Institute for Creation Research, we're considering the evidence, the scientific evidence. for recent creation. But of course we get the question.
Why does that even matter? God could have created soon, quickly. He could have created millions of years ago. What's the big deal? We've pointed out some reasons why it does matter.
It matters to the other scriptures that refer to Genesis as being actual straightforward history, and it matters to the Lord Jesus. He referred to Genesis as being actual straightforward history. But one other reason why this recent creation issue we think is an issue, and it's one that demands our attention. Is this the foundation for who God is to each one of us? I remember raising my kids when they were very young.
I wanted to introduce them to the Lord at an early age, at the earliest age possible.
So, what do I do? I say, hey, little Johnny. Who is Jesus? And he goes, Who is Jesus? I don't know.
I don't see any Jesus around me. I said, Jesus, the Lord Jesus, He's the one who made you.
So, his identity as our creator is at the core of who he is to us. And it's because he created us. Directly. and were descended from Adam. Who, according to the book of Luke, descended from God, God made him.
directly. It's because we're related in that way. that we can say, Ah, I'm accountable to this, my Creator.
So when we insert millions of years, billions of years of history, We sort of erode and drain our confidence from the identity of God as our powerful Creator. There's no good scientific reason to do that, and what we've been doing this week is showing good scientific reasons to not do that. In fact, good scientific reasons That supports recent creation, a creation of the world that may be only thousands of years old, according to the scriptures. And those eyewitnesses who recorded what they experienced. and not millions of years old.
So let's take God at His word. And there's every good scientific reason to do so. For example, we consider the evidence from human population growth. Back in 2011, the world's human population reached seven billion, according to the United Nations. Media outlets were heralding the issue of overcrowding the planet.
Well, how long did it take for this many humans to be born? We consider the evolutionary version of human population growth It seems to present a fantastic scenario, a fantasy scenario, to answer that question, how long did it take for this many humans to be born? In this imaginary long ages history, the population did not grow at all. for millions of years. before suddenly and recently it took off only a few thousand years ago.
In the journal Science, july twenty ninth, twenty eleven issue, Demographic Anthropology Expert. Jean-Pierre Bouquet Appelle wrote, After the members of the genus Homo had been living as foragers for at least two point four million years, Agriculture began to emerge in seven or eight regions across the world almost simultaneously at the beginning of the Holocene.
So they have names for these eras and these imaginary time zones into which they plug all data and through which they interpret all the data that they encounter.
Well, supposedly the advent of agriculture enabled population growth, and that's sort of their answer. but according to the Bible and historical records there never was a time when humans were not engaged in agriculture. It's not in the Bible. It's not in history, hence. Have recent secular scientists invented this 2.4 million years of humans without agriculture?
The problem is that in this projected time line, people, which they refer to as genus Homo, must have had virtually no population growth for at least 2.4 million years. This is incredible. Bouquet Appelle wrote The world's population on the eve of the emergence of agriculture is estimated to have been six million individuals.
So that is, for the first human couple that supposedly evolved from apelike ancestors, would have had only six million descendants after two point four million years.
Now this requires a population growth rate of Point zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero nine Which is essentially zero. No growth for 2.4 million years? That sounds incredible. In other words, you'd have to have, for every two parents, you'd have to have exactly two kids. And those two kids would have to become parents of exactly two more kids.
They can't die off because of any accident. They can't have any more or less kids for two point four million years. thousands, over a hundred thousand generations this supposedly went on. It's an incredible story. In contrast, the average historically observed growth rate of the human population has been zero point four per cent.
Not zero. At times it spikes up above 2%. But even a pre industrial farming population growth rate of 0.1 percent per year, a very low estimate, would have yielded to day's seven billion people in only seven thousand years. The late doctor Henry Morris, founder of the Institute for Creation Research, asked, How could it be that the planet only now is experiencing a population crisis? Why not several hundred thousand years ago, soon after man first appeared on earth?
I think here's what happened. I think we're only now experiencing a population growth because we're only now. This is far removed from our origins. The 2.4 million years of evolutionary history of no population growth never actually happened. We're going to take a short break.
Stay with us. The design of the human body inspires awe and fascination, and for good reason. It's made up of so many different parts and systems, all working together for a greater purpose. Check out our book, Guide to the Human Body, to discover astonishing facts about the construction of the cell, the mechanics of hands and feet, and the incredible abilities of the brain. Published by the Institute for Creation Research, Guide to the Human Body will answer questions you didn't even know you had.
How do our eyes give us sight? How does a baby take its first breath? What happens to the human body in outer space? Guide to the Human Body's full-color images and easy-to-read format shows our amazing design points to the ultimate designer, God. Order your copy from the Institute for Creation Research by calling 800-628-7640 or visiting icr.org.
That's 800-628-7640 or visiting icr.org. Welcome back to Science, Scripture, and Salvation, a radio ministry of the Institute for Creation Research. Here's Brian Thomas. Not only do we see evidence for recent creation in our own bodies with our fast mutation rates and accumulating mutations, Not only in the Earth with dinosaur proteins still in existence, and not only in population growth, but we see it in the stars, we see it in outer space. Plenty of time clock processes that indicate recent creation.
An exciting new one that I've been investigating is this interesting comet. First of all, comets shouldn't exist in an evolutionary billions of years old solar system because they swing very close to the sun when they finally get there. and the sun destroys them.
Solar wind knocks the outer surface of these comets to pieces.
So every time the comet rounds the Sun close to it, The comet comes away much smaller.
So how many times can it swing around the sun? and still be a comet. We were supposed to receive the comet of the century last year, but it went back behind the back side of the sun and it never emerged. It was destroyed. The sun destroyed it.
And yet the solar system is loaded with comets. Hundreds and hundreds of comets. None of them should exist. But it's fine if they exist in a recently created thousands of years old solar system, which is what the Bible teaches. But there's one comment in particular that has drawn my attention.
It's called Hartley 2. Named after an astronomer named Hartley.
So Comet Hartley 2 is an odd dumbbell-shaped object, and it rotates and tumbles as it orbits its oblong orbit around the sun. One end of it, though, this is really unique, spews carbon dioxide gas so violently that it regularly throws off chunks of ice as it travels around the sun every six and a half years. or so. Astronomers are scratching their heads over how such a small object could still have so much energy and material after billions of years of supposed existence. No wonder they're scratching their heads, because they squeeze billions of years into this picture.
But if you erase the billions of years, you can have Comet Hartley two swinging around the sun, getting eroded, and with enough energy to emit carbon dioxide gas from these jets from one end of it, like it does. It's very interesting. Space.com said its nucleus contains an abundance of carbon dioxide. It's dry ice. It's volatile material, especially in space, it burns easily, so scientists would expect much of it to have burned away in the four point five billion years since the comet supposedly formed.
I put this supposedly in there. They say that's how long this comet has been in existence, along with the rest of the solar system. But in fact, as ICR News, which is on our website, icr.org. Right on the front page there. We pointed out long ago that when data from the flyby was fresh, From Hartley II, one would expect not just, quote, much more of it to have burned off, but all of it should have burned off eons ago, assuming the evolutionary age.
So a detailed analysis of Hartley II was published in the journal Science. The study's principal investigator told Space.com we are still trying to sort out the implications for formation. In other words, it's still a mystery. The biggest remaining question, or at least the one that most interests me, is why there is so much CO two in this comet and why it seems to differ between the two ends.
So nobody knows how this one mile long flying space rock could possibly still have so much carbon dioxide after billions of years. But this is a familiar story in the world of astronomy. Nobody knows how the material that supplies Enceladus's jet like fountain could possibly exist either. That's one of Saturn's moon, and it has a jet ejecting material into space. Where did all the material come from?
Where did the power to jet it out come from. Why isn't the universe and the solar system old, cold, and dead, instead of alive and producing these fountains? Comet Hartley two shows an excited state of rotation. A nodding motion, that was unexpected. The science report said these changes are presumed to be due to torques produced by the outgassing, but after 4.5 billion years, How could the comet's outgassing still be able to generate enough force to push around this 300 megaton comet.
The whole thing should have fizzled into space dust in only a fraction of those supposed billions of years. Maybe it is young. Maybe it's only thousands of years old, Comet Hartley 2. Amazing testimony to recent creation. Thank you for joining us on Science, Scripture, and Salvation, a radio ministry of the Institute for Creation Research.
That's all the time we have for our program today, but we would love to connect with you through our website at icr.org. For over 45 years, ICR has equipped believers with evidence of the Bible's accuracy and authority by showing how science supports the Genesis creation account. Our scientists research the evidence for creation and communicate their findings through books, articles, DVD series, and conferences. Please visit our website at icr.org for more information about the latest scientific discoveries, to subscribe to our free magazine and devotional, and to locate our next creation conference at a venue near you. All of this and more at icr.org.
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