This month, as we celebrate black history, we would like to commemorate a black scientist who was a person of God as well as a person of science—George Washington Carver.  Carver was born into slavery near the town of Diamond, Missouri July 12th, 1864.1  An interesting and tragic fact is that the infant George and his mother were kidnapped by civil war guerillas, like William Quantrill or Jesse James.  These men fought against union or anti-slavery sympathizers like George’s future foster father Moses Carver.  Moses sent a Union scout after the pair to rescue them from the bandits.  Only George was able to be found, and his mother’s fate was never known.  The Carvers took George and his brother Jim into their home and raised them as their own.
 
George was a sickly child and spent time helping his foster mother Susan Carver around the house and in the garden.  George became known around the village of Diamond as the “Plant Doctor.”2  The Carvers recognized George’s special gift for learning and applying his inquisitive nature.  They did what they could to educate him and nurture his interests.  However, George felt the need to pursue learning and life elsewhere beginning at the age of 14.  Despite his foster parents’ objections, he set out on an adventure that would find him meandering around Kansas.
 
His path was not a straight one.  He did many things to support himself over the next decade including cooking, housework, laundry service, working at a grocery, homesteading etc.  He seemed to find encouragement and assistance most everywhere he went and wrote affectionately of the people in the places he lived.  But he also ran into the harsh reality of racism and mob justice during an instance where he witnessed the lynching of a black man who had been pulled out of jail after being arrested for the rape of a 12-year-old white girl.  He left town immediately afterward.  During his time in Kansas, he took a brief trip back home to see his family.  A short time later, his brother Jim (the stronger and healthier of the two brothers) died of smallpox.  Gone was his only known blood relative.

About five years after being rejected by a college because of his skin color, he was encouraged by a Christian family, who he met attending a church in Winterset, Iowa to apply again to another school.  Thankfully, he was accepted with open arms into Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa in 1890.  He enjoyed his time there and studied piano and art for which he had a talent.  He took no science classes.  His art teacher noticed his affection for botany because he was always drawing plants. “As it happened, she was the daughter of a horticulture professor at Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts…”3 and as the story goes, the rest is history.

He continued to paint at Iowa state, with one of his paintings being chosen to represent the state in the 1893 fair called, the “World’s Columbian Exposition”, also known as the “Chicago World’s Fair”.  But he felt as if God was calling him to greater things.  He worked with an expert on plant disease and co-authored several scholarly papers while at Iowa State.  Carver graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1894 and then a master’s degree in Agriculture two years later.  As a master’s student they gave George a graduate teaching position with freshman as he had a gift for teaching.  Iowa State didn’t want to lose him, but he had several job offers.
 
The one he accepted was from Booker T. Washington of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, now known as Tuskegee University.  The reason was clear.  He wanted to help black Americans gain economic prosperity.  According to Adair, “He believed that the sort of education Tuskegee provided ‘is the key to unlock the Golden door of freedom to our people.’”4 Washington had started an annual conference to help farmers.  Carver turned it, the results of his study, and work at the Tuskegee experiment station into a monthly “Farmers Institute”.5

Carver excelled as a teacher, wanting his students to be actively involved in their learning and discover for themselves, stating, “each individual, no matter of what his color or creed, has his particular task to do in life”.6 He linked his Christian beliefs with his work as a scientist. “He talked about the way ‘the Creator’ was revealed in the wonders of nature.  He believed that science and religion in no way contradicted one another. “‘We get closer to God’, he wrote years later, ‘as we get more intimately and understandingly acquainted with the things he has created.’”7  

As a scientist, he made a tremendous impact upon the time in which he lived and thereafter.  He designed a mobile demonstration lab which was known as the “Jesup Wagon” after Morris K. Jesup, a New York banker who helped fund the project.  The project became so successful that it took the notice of the USDA who later took over the project.  A student of Carver’s became the USDA’s first black demonstration agent.

Dr. Carver (honorary degree) had a servant’s heart, which manifested itself in doing everything he could for the poorest and most vulnerable farmers.  He set up trainings, extensions and wrote pamphlets.  He knew that the subsistence farmer was very vulnerable to weather, crop disease, and poor soil as well as lack of nutrition.  It is one reason he promoted crops other than cotton, which robbed the soil of nutrients, replacing it with crops such as soybeans, peanuts, and sweet potatoes.
 
Those crops and their promotion took him away from his teaching, spending more time in the lab trying to help people by extending the market for their products with 300 or so uses for the peanut and 100 for the sweet potato.  This is where he gained his fame and notoriety.  His efforts took him so far away that one day he ended up testifying before congress in Washington, D.C.  They told him he had ten minutes to speak.  He so captivated them with his wit and wisdom that the Republican Chairman of the committee said, “Go ahead brother, your time is unlimited.”8 Carver’s testimony helped the committee decide to implement a tariff on imported peanuts.

Yet, despite a drastically reduced classroom teaching influence he continued a close relationship with his students and those he mentored.  Passing on what he learned was part of that servant’s heart.  He taught his “boys,” as he called them, more than agriculture and science.  It should be noted that “In many cases, it is clear that Carver's personal example did indeed change minds that had previously held to prejudiced notions of black inferiority.  ‘You have shown me the one race, the human race’, one of his boys wrote.  ‘Color of skin or form of hair mean nothing to me now’.”9  Believing deeply in the Golden rule, Carver felt that love would win out over racial prejudice in the end.
 
While Carver is most famous as an agricultural scientist and inventor, especially for uses of the peanut (he did not invent peanut butter) and sweet potato, he impressed me most for his character and service to those in need.  And despite conditions and experiences that could have left him bitter and resentful, he was known for his Godly character.  According to author Gene Adair, “In his speeches and interviews, he almost always referred to the Bible and divine guidance. His accomplishments, he was fond of saying, were not his doing but we're the work of God.”10

Born into slavery, a teacher, school administrator, scientist and science ambassador, George Washington Carver was a man that all Americans should know about because he exemplified Christ to many…I know he did to me.





​ 
1 Tuskegee University “The Legacy of George Washington Carver.” https://www.tuskegee.edu/support-tu/george-washington-carver
2George Washington Carver National Monument “Not Just The Peanut Man”.  George Washington Carver National Monument (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)
3Adair, Gene “George Washington Carver. pp33-34
4 Ibid, p. 41
5 Ibid, p. 59
6 Ibid, p. 85
7 Ibid, p. 54
8 Ibid, p.14
9 Ibid, p. 87
10 Ibid, p. 83
Morris, Henry "Men of Science Men of God"

This week, as we celebrate the birth of the Savior of the world, there’s another birthday we can remember too: Louis Pasteur, born on December 27, 1822, in Dole, France. This Fun Fact is the second of three that I have, designed to defend a common claim that can come in at least two different formats: “All real scientists believe in evolution,” or, “No real scientist believes God created the world.” You may recall the first one I featured was about Johannes Kepler.

Louis Pasteur was about as real as any scientist could be, and his findings have proven invaluable.

Who was Louis Pasteur?
Louis Pasteur’s experiments with bacteria provided life-saving data for the medical and food prep industries. But he was not only a great man of science: he was also a man of great faith, demonstrating that life comes from life.

Here are some other fun things to know about Pasteur:

• He is considered the “father of microbiology.”
• His conviction of the truth of biblical Creation and the fallacy of Darwinian evolution led Pasteur to disprove the then-popular belief of spontaneous generation, an evolutionary idea which suggests that living organisms can arise from nonliving matter.
• He also shares the title of “father of germ theory and bacteriology” with Robert Koch, a German physician, because of his work in determining that germs cause disease
• . From this, he also developed the process of heating and rapid cooling in order to kill microbes—a process we still use today and call “pasteurization.”
• One of the first scientists to understand the concept of immunization, Pasteur led the way to developing many vaccines for humans and animals, including to protect against anthrax and rabies.

Indeed, Louis Pasteur is credited for having saved more lives than any other one person in history. Well, mortal lives that is.

When we turn our attention back to the Savior Whose birth we celebrate this week, we can’t help but remember His contributions as well. Born in a lowly stable in Bethlehem of Judea, Jesus—the Son of God—came into our world to save the eternal lives of all who believe on Him.

And even before that—about two thousand years before that—God gave us the first gift: life, the universe, and all that is in it. Indeed, while we can be grateful for the accomplishments of real scientists such as Louis Pasteur, our ultimate praise goes to the Creator Himself.

“You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.” –Revelation 4:11 (NKJV)

Don’t just take my word for it! Visit YouFormedMe.com/people/pasteur.html to read, watch, and listen to supporting research and commentary from scientists, doctors, theologians, and more!
​
This blog is from a special series of “Creation Fun Facts” by Terri Kammerzell, starting from June 10, 2020. Read the introduction at TruthOfGenesis.com/blogs/building-a-biblical-defense-of-creation.

I think you can agree with me that 2020 has been just about the most dumbfounding year most of us can ever remember. Even if you haven’t experienced as much personal loss or trials as you may have in other years, the restlessness and chaos in the world around us are at unprecedented levels. So many changes have been made in our world this year, and some of these changes—for better or worse—will never be undone.

Another word for “change” is “evolve.” That’s why, when it comes to this week’s Fun Fact, I was careful to be precise in my wording:

What is Darwinian Evolution?
The idea of Darwinian Evolution suggests that life began as a chance combination of nonliving chemicals.

For some reason, this Fun Fact has been the most challenging for me to write about this year. In fact, I already postponed it once because I was struggling to find a good angle. The irony is that I have more resources for this Fun Fact than for any others on my website. In fact, perhaps that is the problem: I have too many ideas about what to communicate with you regarding it.

Let’s start by breaking it down and focusing on some of the keywords.

Why “Darwinian Evolution”? As I mentioned above, “evolve” in itself is not a dirty word. It simply means change. Things change. Change is one of the few absolute guarantees in this world (except when you’re staring at a vending machine). In fact, I don’t know of any creation apologists who don’t acknowledge the reality of “microevolution,” but as I mentioned when I wrote about the finches Darwin observed on the Galapagos Islands, microevolution is the result of changes (usually from mutations, adaptation, etc.) that occur within a kind (which I defined last week when I wrote about dinosaurs on Noah’s Ark). But the term “Darwinian Evolution” specifically refers to something we also call “molecules-to-man evolution,” or “macroevolution.”

Why “idea”? Isn’t macroevolution a fact? After all, it is widely taught in public—and even some Christian—schools all over the world. Couldn’t it at least be referred to as a “theory”? Scientifically speaking, no. Macroevolution is not only not a fact, but it doesn’t even qualify as a theory. The scientific method starts when someone has an idea and asks a question. Then they do some basic research and formulate a statement of predictability, called a hypothesis. From there, they conduct tests and experiments, analyze data, and examine if the hypothesis could be true. It is only after repeatable, observable, testable processes that a hypothesis makes its way to the next step: a scientific theory. Even scientific theories have been later disproven because nobody can possibly do every single test in the world to make sure their hypothesis always proves true.

What about the idea that all of life originated from the chance combination of nonliving chemicals? In other words, could something have come from nothing? And then, could that something which came from nothing, and has nothing to interact with develop into a more orderly and complicated something else, over and over again, until life developed?

Well, let’s ask some critical questions:

1. Can it be repeated? Nope! No scientist has ever been able to make something out of nothing. (By the way, the Law of Mass Conservation tells us no scientist ever will be able to either.)
2. Has it ever been observed? Nope! Nobody was there to see this supposed non-miraculous event of nothing making something, supposedly millions or billions of years ago. And since that time, no scientist has ever been able to make it happen again (refer to question 1 above).
3. Can it be tested, quantitatively and/or qualitatively? Nope! (Refer to question 1 above.)

Therefore, I refer to Darwinian Evolution as just an “idea” in my Fun Fact. But if you’ll indulge me a bit, there are a couple of other important aspects to this Fun Fact that I’d like to bring to your attention.

First, in this one-year blog series, I am presenting to you the set of 49 Fundamental Facts I developed for a homeschool Bible class. But in my first post, and on the main page of my website, I clearly explain that these Fun Facts are “evidence-based.” Each week, I have been presenting evidence to not only debunk the idea of molecules-to-man evolution, but also to confirm the biblical account of Creation. As a reminder:

• On June 26, I told you about the bombardier beetle and how his little gas chambers had to be in place right from the beginning, or he would have died from improper use or incomplete combustion reactions. “And,” I mentioned, “as a pretty good rule of thumb, dead animals cannot evolve.”
• On July 24, I introduced you to the concept of “irreducible complexity,” mentioning the giraffe and beetle as great examples that defy evolution “because their complex designs could not have gradually evolved to what they are.”
• Similarly, on September 4, I explained why the human brain could not be “the result of random chance combinations and millions of years of evolution.”
• On October 9, I described how “although the ‘backward design’ of the human eye has often led unbelievers to cite it as an example of ‘chance’ evolution, in reality, the irreducible complexity of our eyes points to a very creative and thoughtful Designer!”
• And on November 6, in my “More Chaos, Not Less” post, I told you, “Evolutionists have a hard time overcoming the Second Law in their hypotheses about organisms becoming more complex over time.”

Even with all these insurmountable proofs against Darwinian Evolution, there are still many who just refuse to believe in a God Who created life. And on July 31, I explained that truth somewhat with my Fun Fact of Romans 1:20, which says, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and godhead, so that they are without excuse” (NKJV). I told you then: “In the world of creation science and apologetics, this passage pops up a lot. Of course, Darwinian evolution has become so commonplace, and the ‘accepted science’ of the public schools in our country. But . . . when it comes down to it, evolution—as a scientific model—was developed to try to find a way to explain origins without a Creator, without a God to Whom each one of us is accountable.”

In the study of logic, we would call this a “rescuing device.” Rescuing devices are arguments people come up with because they don’t want to reevaluate a flawed presupposition or worldview they are holding onto. This takes us into the other side of the creation apologetics camp. This is the side that takes into consideration that everyone on the planet has access to the same evidence. However, how a person interprets that evidence is all about their worldview, which is the basic network of their beliefs that they assume to be true from the beginning. It’s sort of like how the color of lenses a person may wear will cause them to see the world differently than a person with no lenses, or with a different color.

And so, it is important to understand that arguing for the voracity of the Bible on the basis of evidence can only get you so far. Sometimes, you have to be able to challenge a person’s worldview and help them realize the flimsiness and inconsistencies of any worldview that does not start with God as the Maker of all. My goal is to also produce a set of “Logic Fun Facts” within the next year, but in the meantime, I highly recommend watching Dr. Jason Lisle’s “Ultimate Proof of Creation” presentation. (He starts around the 10-minute mark.)

The last thing I want to mention about this Fun Fact is the inconsistencies of accepting molecules-to-man evolution but also holding to many socially ethical campaigns. For example, yesterday (December 10) happened to be “Human Rights Day.” Established by the United Nations, the annual observation is geared to bring awareness of the “rights” to which some humans around the world are deprived. This same international organization also promotes Darwin’s evolutionary ideas. How ironic is that? If Darwinian Evolution is true, then human beings are merely the result of chance combinations of nonliving chemicals.  And, in that case, why should they have any rights at all, when there was nobody to give them those rights in the first place?

This reminds me of a conversation I had with one of my students five years ago: He came into Bible class one week and sincerely asked me, "Miss K, what if evolution really WERE true?" I stopped and thought about it logically and said (something to the effect of), "Well, then we wouldn't be more than animals. And if that were true, there would be no need for an eternal focus, and really we would have no real purpose in this life. Nobody would have a God-shaped vacuum, so there would be no need for anyone to believe in God, and the idea of creationism would never have had a need or purpose. If evolution were true, I think it would be the only story given for our existence. I would think there wouldn't even be any Christians."

Or, as I later read from C.S. Lewis: "Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning..."

I don’t know about you, but to me the irony of people celebrating rights given by nobody to humans—the result of random chance processes—just adds to the chaos level in the world this year. And, ultimately, I don’t think that’s merely by chance. The shorter Satan's time gets, the more desperate he is to distract, deceive, and destroy as many people as possible. After all, he is the master of the rescuing device. 

Don’t just take my word for it! Visit YouFormedMe.com/theories/evolution.html to read, watch, and listen to supporting research and commentary from scientists, doctors, theologians, and more!
This blog is from a special series of “Creation Fun Facts” by Terri Kammerzell, starting from June 10, 2020. Read the introduction at TruthOfGenesis.com/blogs/building-a-biblical-defense-of-creation.

I have three Fun Facts designed to defend a common claim that can come in at least two different formats: “All real scientists believe in evolution,” or, “No real scientist believes God created the world.”

Well, this Sunday marks the 390th anniversary of the death of Johannes Kepler, so I thought it was a good time to introduce you to the first of these three.

Who was Johannes Kepler?
Best known for discovering the three mathematical laws of planetary motion, Johannes Kepler was a devout biblical Creation scientist with a deep love for Jesus Christ.

Johannes Kepler didn’t just tinker with his microscope in his garage. He left a pretty impressive legacy of scientific accomplishments:

• He was the founder of physical astronomy, revolutionizing scientific thought by applying physics to astronomy. Previously, physics had been considered a branch of philosophy, and astronomy had been considered a branch of math.
• He developed the first tables for tracking the movement of stars.
• He not only defended and promoted the theory of heliocentrism (that the sun is the center of our universe), but he helped people understand how that theory aligned with the Bible.
• He discovered the three mathematical laws of planetary motion which established the discipline of celestial mechanics. In fact, he proved the planets orbit in ellipses, not circles, around the sun. We call these “Kepler’s Laws.”
• He also discovered a supernova, improved the process of calendar-making, improved the telescope, and located many stars and planets.

So, what do you think? Was Johannes Kepler a “real scientist”? And yet, one of the best quotes we have from Kepler was how he defined science: “thinking God’s thoughts after Him.” With his biblical worldview, he knew that the universe must have been created in a logical way, obeying organized patterns that came from an intelligent Designer. That is how he was able to make so many discoveries which have enabled scientists who have come after him to continue making even more discoveries (whether they give the credit to a Designer or not).

Incidentally, there are a lot of modern-day real scientists who believe God created the world too. In fact, this year my friends from the Creation Fellowship Santee have had the privilege of hosting several, including a couple of my favorites: Bill Morgan, Steve Austin, Jay Wile, Jason Lisle, and Gary Bates.

Don’t just take my word for it! Visit YouFormedMe.com/people/kepler.html to read, watch, and listen to supporting research and commentary from scientists, doctors, theologians, and more!
This blog is from a special series of “Creation Fun Facts” by Terri Kammerzell, starting from June 10, 2020. Read the introduction at TruthOfGenesis.com/blogs/building-a-biblical-defense-of-creation.

Today marks the nineteenth anniversary of one of the top-five deadliest events in American History: the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Those of us old enough to remember where we were when we heard the news are probably also able to remember the great American spirit that it fueled and the wave of compassion and concern that swept our nation as a result. I remember, too, the messages pouring in from other nations of the world, offering their deep condolences and heartfelt sympathy. At that time—and for a little while after—the value of a man was understood. The value of a man was cherished. The value of a man was precious.

But why? After all, the prevailing wisdom of textbook science would say that we all originated from stardust and that human beings are the result of millions of years of evolution, the result of random, chance combinations of chemicals, just slightly more evolved than apes and other animals. If that is true, man has no intrinsic value. Man has no soul. But what if the sentiment that followed the tragedy of those terrorist attacks was actually evidence of Romans 1:20, a Fun Fact I introduced to you several weeks ago? In Romans 1:20, Paul tells us that everyone, in their heart of hearts, knows there is a God.

If Romans 1:20 is true, then it would logically flow that we know we also answer to God. And we know we were made by God. In fact, we were made in a very special way and for a very special purpose by God. Check out my Genesis 2:7 Fun Fact:
After God spoke everything else into existence, how does the Bible describe the uniqueness of man?
Genesis 2:7 says that “the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being” (NKJV).

Do you know that scientists estimate there are over one billion stars in our Milky Way Galaxy alone, and that there are over one billion galaxies in the universe, each with its own collection of millions to trillions of stars? No human could ever count them.

All throughout the Word of God we see references to stars and their importance in creation. In Job 38, God paints a picture of the morning stars singing while He was creating. In Genesis 15, God used the stars as a comparison to the number of offspring Abraham would have. Of course, we know from Matthew 2 about the very bright star that marked the place where the baby was born. And the psalmist tells us in several locations that the stars praise the Lord (e.g., Psalm 19:1, Psalm 148:3).

But the best thing we know about the stars is that God has numbered them and knows each of them by name! (Psalm 147:4, Isaiah 40:26) Yet, even then, with all the detail and explanation of the Creation account in Genesis 1, the creation of this myriad of celestial beings is summed up in five words: “He made the stars also” (Genesis 1:16 KJV).
In Psalm 8, when David stood in awe of creation and the work of God’s fingers, he said, “What is man, that You are mindful of him?” (v. 4 ) God spoke the stars into existence, but later formed man, “crowned him with glory and honor” (v. 5), and gave him dominion over all creation (v. 6 NKJV).

We were made for a very special purpose: for the glory of God. (Isaiah 43:7)

This is something, as a young adult, I dismissed for a time in my life. I was taken in by the culture of the day. I was convinced that I was just a cog in a wheel. How could my actions bear any impact on the world? And how could a busy God be noticing whether I followed His Word or not? I forgot the value of a man (or a woman). I forgot my value. And I used that as a license to do what I wanted, to justify sin, and to rationalize my own version of morality.

Here we are in 2020, and we look around and see a mess. We see the world trying to define the value of a man: some too low and some too high. The world is telling people that their happiness in this life is all that matters, and their value does not extend beyond the grave, so live it up! Do what makes you happy! Be true to yourself and be whomever, whatever, whichever you want to be. Oddly enough, in this message, the world is also promoting the value of a man to be equal to or higher than God. You get to determine what makes you happy. You get to determine not just your actions and character, but even your DNA. Choose your own ethnicity. Choose your own gender. Choose your own age. Choose your own value.

But guess what?! God didn’t just create Adam in His own image and then let nature take its course. Down through the ages, every human being that has ever been conceived has been known by God. Has been created by God. Has been loved by God. God made you, He formed you in your mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13), and even before the foundations of the world, He knew you (Ephesians 1:4). All human beings are equally made in the image of God, and, as such, they have dignity and deserve respect. Ephesians 2:10 tells us that “we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (NASB).

It is a treacherous time we are living in, but one thing we can still be certain of is what Paul tells us in Philippians 1:6: “He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (NASB). In fact, Isaiah compares us to potter’s clay (64:8). With God as our Potter we have two options: we can remember our value to our Maker and submit ourselves to Him, pliable and moldable on the Master’s wheel. Or, we can be unyielding, hardened in heart, deceived by the world into choosing our own destinies but ultimately crumble under the Master’s hand.

If you have forgotten your value to the Lord, today is a good day to remember it. He has not forgotten. Psalm 103:14-18 is a good place to be reminded:
     For He Himself knows our frame;
     He is mindful that we are but dust.
     As for man, his days are like grass;
     As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
     When the wind has passed over it, it is no more.
     And its place acknowledges it no longer.
     But the lovingkindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him,
     And His righteousness to children’s children,
     To those who keep His covenant
     And remember His precepts to do them (NASB).
 
Don’t just take my word for it! Visit YouFormedMe.com/bibleVerses/genesis27.html to read, watch, and listen to supporting research and commentary from scientists, doctors, theologians, and more!
This blog is from a special series of “Creation Fun Facts” by Terri Kammerzell, starting from June 10, 2020. Read the introduction at TruthOfGenesis.com/blogs/building-a-biblical-defense-of-creation.

Happy Senior Citizen’s Day! Did you know that President Ronald Reagan declared this a national holiday in 1988, and two years later the United Nations made it a world holiday, to be observed on August 21 each year? The day is to help raise awareness of issues that affect the older and (usually) wiser generations. You can celebrate the day by taking some time to bring cheer to your own aged relatives or find some others who need it. In 2020, although the opportunity for physical contact might be less, the need to cheer these folks is undoubtedly greater.

While you may want to refrain from calling them such names as “fogie” or “fossil,” I, nevertheless, thought it would be a good week to introduce my Fun Fact about the fossil record:

What is the fossil record?
The fossil record is a “recording” of history found in sedimentary layers and made of fossils, which are the remains or traces of plants and animals found in rocks.

As I mentioned in my first blog, posted on June 10, these Fun Facts I’m introducing to you are “evidence” or “science” -based. But it’s important for us to understand that there is another perspective to Creation apologetics: presuppositional. The best way to explain the difference is that we all—believers and unbelievers—live on the same planet and have access to the same evidence. How we interpret that evidence depends on our worldview (which is a network of our pre-assumed beliefs). It’s kind of like the prescription of the glasses you wear which makes your view of things a little (or sometimes a lot) different than other people’s views. The fossil record is probably the best Fun Fact I have to illustrate this.

The fossil record is a “recording” of fossils, and that is undeniable. But your worldview will determine how you view that recording, and even how you view those fossils. It happens to be through the lens of Scripture and a biblical view of origins that we are able to explain the fossil record more clearly and with fewer unanswered questions.

I’ve known some Christians who believe that an evolutionary approach to explaining the origins of the world is incongruent with the Bible, but they’ve never taken time to learn of the confidence we have in the evidence which actually supports the biblical account. Instead, they try to dismiss whole truths and categories of science because they assume that evolutionists have “created” them to support their humanistic ideas. It’s so important to be able to know the difference between real science, real evidence, and faulty interpretations. One example is natural selection. Many people have often attributed natural selection to Charles Darwin, suggesting he made up that idea and it is the equivalent of evolution. However, natural selection is a scientific process that was discovered long before Charles Darwin.  In reality, it is just the predetermined variability within a kind allowed by a creatures DNA code. He just manipulated it to try to prove his erroneous ideas. We’ll talk more about that later when we discuss other Fun Facts.

The fossil record is another example of this, though. Some Christians don’t understand that fossils do exist and that there actually is a recording of them. They assume that evolutionists have made up their existence. Fossils and fossil layers do exist. It’s our worldview that determines how we explain their existence.

So here are some highlighted findings for you to keep in mind about the fossil record, in terms of how it actually supports the biblical accounts of Creation and the global Flood:

• What Makes up the Fossil Record: More specifically, the fossil record is made up of large horizontal layers, deposited by moving fluid. The layers, or strata, are classified vertically by primary material deposited in them, which has distinct colors and textures that differentiate layer from layer. The layers were deposited on a continental scale, so that we see the same layers in the Grand Canyon as we see in the eastern states and other locations across North America. Additionally, we find comparable layers on other continents all over the world. Not all layers exist in all places, but where the sedimentary layers do exist, the layers are always in the same order.
  
  
• Evidence for Rapid Burial: Evolutionists would suggest that the fossil record was laid down slowly, over millions of years. However, in order for fossilization of a living organism to occur, it has to happen rapidly. In fact, most organisms that die do not fossilize. Instead, they are eaten, scavenged, or recycled back into their environment. So, a fossil is only formed when the organism dies and is buried rapidly, such as would have occurred during Noah’s Flood. In fact, evidence of rapid burial includes fossils of animals who were in the middle of a fight, animals in the process of eating other animals, and even animals giving birth! What’s more, some animals fossilized so swiftly that their soft parts still remain. We especially see this in the discoveries of dinosaur soft tissue with red blood cells. Soft tissue cannot last more than a few thousand years, which means there is no way the sedimentary rock layers containing them can be millions of years old. (We’ll talk about this more at a later date this year too.)
  
  
• More Rapid Burial Evidence in Trackways: Trackways are the evidence of movement, like footprints, of animals. Scientists have found that when examining the fossil record layers from bottom to top, as new layers introduce the fossils of new animal kinds, the first layers contain those animals’ trackways. That means that in one layer, an animal’s footprints—not its hard parts—are fossilized. Then, in the layer above it, the animal’s hard parts are fossilized. There is no way that there could have been a long period of time between the fossilization of an animal’s trackways and its hard parts. That had to have happened rapidly. What’s more, in many of the trackway fossils, scientists have found evidence in the heel-and-toe patterns that the animals were walking or climbing (or running) away from the direction the water current was carrying them. (This is particularly noteworthy in higher layers that were supposedly “desert deposits” laid down with little to no water. There was clearly a strong current carrying these animals.)
  
  
• Order Within the Layers: Evolutionary geologists make claims that the layers of the fossil record resemble ages, suggesting the fossils contained in them are those of organisms that died over specific and progressing time periods. However, if the fossil record had been formed rapidly during a global flood, what we would expect to find is that the lower layers contain the fossils of marine life (shells, clams, trilobites, worms, etc.). The higher you go up the layers, you would expect to find a mix of marine and terrestrial organisms with a greater percentage of terrestrial animals the higher the layer. Guess what the fossil record contains? Lower layers that contain the fossils of marine life with higher layers that contain a mix of sea and terrestrial animals. Instead of each layer representing eras of time of elongated history, it is more likely that each layer represents a stage of the Genesis Flood, and even a geographical location of the types of organisms that were living in and then rapidly buried during each stage.
  
  
• No Transitional Fossils: Finally, for Darwinian evolution to be true, the fossil record should have evidence of transitional fossils. However, there are no transitional fossils. The fossils always show that chickens produce chickens, zebras produce zebras, turtles produce turtles. Animals reproduce after their own kind, just as God ordered them to do in the Bible. No transitional fossils.

Scientific models are based on good, testable hypotheses. When it comes down to it, the fossil record is much more congruent with the hypotheses scientists make based on the historical narrative of the Bible rather than on the fictional alternative of naturalistic evolutionary processes.

Next week, we’ll cover the topic of sedimentary rock. I had a health coach who was also a science teacher and seemed to be confused between the terms “sedimentary” and “sedentary.” Every week she encouraged me not to be sedimentary. Today, I’m encouraging you to visit a senior citizen dear to you and help keep them from becoming too sedentary.
 

Don’t just take my word for it! Visit YouFormedMe.com/geology/fossilRecord.html to read, watch, and listen to supporting research and commentary from scientists, doctors, theologians, and more!
This blog is from a special series of “Creation Fun Facts” by Terri Kammerzell, starting from June 10, 2020. Read the introduction at TruthOfGenesis.com/blogs/building-a-biblical-defense-of-creation.

July 11 is an international day of observance: “World Population Day.” This annual event began in 1987, inspired by the public interest in “Five Billion Day,” when Earth’s population had crossed the 5,000,000,000 mark. Today, there is an estimated global population of over 7.5 billion, which means that in 33 years, the population has increased by approximately fifty percent. Should we be concerned that the global population will ever exceed Earth’s capacity?

If we were concerned about such a predicament, what types of humanitarian causes might we be inclined to endorse? Before we wander down that trail too much further, I think even as Christians, with a biblical worldview, we can acknowledge there are great humanitarian causes that help restore the dignities of population groups and help us demonstrate God’s love, pointing people to Him.

But, unlike many secular (humanistic) humanitarians, as Christians our focus really should not be on what the human race has done, is doing, or will do to impact the earth, but rather on what God has done, is doing, and will do to and with His creation.

Six times—at the end of each working day of Creation—we read in Genesis 1 that “God saw that it was good” or “very good.” How good was it?  In the Song of Moses recorded in Deuteronomy 32, Moses says of God in verse 4 that His “work is perfect.” As far as the planet itself goes, science confirms God created it perfectly to sustain life (something we will explore in a future Fun Fact). Based on Moses’ song and our studies of DNA, we can believe the first set of animals created—be they air, water, or land—were created flawlessly. God saw that His work was “very good,” and “very good” meant “perfect.”

We also know God gave a command to Adam and Eve, as well as to Noah’s family, to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth (Genesis 1:28; 9:1; 9:7), so we know His intention for this planet for this time we are in was that the population should continue to grow, just as it is doing.

Finally, we also know that God has an expiration date (which only He knows) for this temporary home of ours (Matthew 5:18, 24:35; Mark 21:33; 2 Peter 3:10; Revelation 21:1; etc.).

But what about the expiration date of the people God has created? This is an interesting Fun Fact from the biology category:
What is gene depletion?
Gene depletion, also known as genetic entropy, is the observed fact that many variations within one kind are caused by mutational losses.
This Fun Fact has some terms that might be unfamiliar to many people, especially those who didn’t particularly enjoy their high school science classes. Let’s break it down a bit:

• Entropy is a measure of disorder. When something is orderly (or “very good”) and it becomes disorderly, the amount of change in order can sometimes be measured by its entropy. Most often, we see this in the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which we will discuss at a later time this year.
• The term “gene depletion”—and the basic principle of this Fun Fact—I learned from my friend Russ Miller, the Off-Grid Creationist and founder of Creation, Evolution & Science Ministries. He argues that, when combined with natural selection, gene depletion makes Darwinian evolution a scientific impossibility. Gene depletion is a loss of information, and the idea of Darwinian evolution is predicated on a gain of new (beneficial) information. We will discuss this more later this year too!
• Finally, Dr. John Sanford, retired Cornell geneticist and the President of Logos Research Associates, coined the term “genetic entropy,” and wrote a book on the topic. He explains that genetic entropy, or genetic degeneration, demonstrates that we are experiencing a mutation, or erosion, of our genes at a high rate. Our genetic coding, or DNA, is becoming more disorderly. Genetic entropy happens at a personal level, throughout the course of a person’s life, but genetic entropy also happens from generation to generation. We inherit mutations from our ancestors.

So, putting it all together, when creation scientists study DNA and the law of entropy, they see that over time our genetics have been withering and decaying. It’s kind of like making a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy. By the hundredth copy, there will be many flaws, or mutations even if the original was “very good.”

Just how many more generations does the human race have left before no more legible “copies” can be made? That’s an answer scientists have not been able to officially pinpoint yet. But when we consider what the Bible says, it is certainly evident that God does not intend for unlimited generations of the human race. Indeed, we can trust that just as Earth has an expiration date, Earth’s population has a maximum. Both are numbers that only God knows. And both are situations that humans, in our limited and finite capacities, have no ultimate control over. We are the creation, and the Creator is not only omnipotent and omniscient, but also true and loving when He tells us in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you, . . . plans for your welfare, not for disaster; to give you a future and a hope” (HCSB). In these days of confusion and chaos in the world around us, is your hope in the God Who made you?
 
Don’t just take my word for it! Visit YouFormedMe.com/geology/geneDepletion.html to read, watch, and listen to supporting research and commentary from scientists, doctors, theologians, and more!
This blog is from a special series of “Creation Fun Facts” by Terri Kammerzell, starting from June 10, 2020. Read the introduction at TruthOfGenesis.com/blogs/building-a-biblical-defense-of-creation.

Commemorating the anniversary of the supposed 1947 UFO crash in Roswell, July 2 has been designated by some as “World UFO Day.” The purpose, as some would say, is to raise awareness to the possibility of life in outer space, to bring people together to stare at the skies in hopes to see flying objects, and to urge governments to declassify files on UFO sightings.

In keeping with the spirit, I thought this would be a good week to introduce you to my very related Fun Fact, and to raise awareness about what the Bible might have to say about life in outer space.

Is it possible that there are living things in space?
Yes, but probably only those that originated on Earth, such as bacteria and astronauts. The Bible seems to rule out any native intelligent life in outer space since they would be under the Curse with no possibility of salvation, and Christ—Who died once for all men—will only return to the inhabitable Earth.

The articles and videos I link to on my website basically cover this Fun Fact from three angles: whether science supports the possibility, whether the Bible supports the possibility, and what are the motives of people searching or hoping to find intelligent life in outer space?

I will let you explore the science angle on your own or wait for future blog posts about Fun Facts that talk about that aspect. But now, let’s skip to the third angle: I would like to suggest that at the heart of the search for intelligent—or even simple—extraterrestrial life is a difference of worldviews, and specifically, what a person’s worldview tells them about the origins of life.

By and large, the majority of people who are hoping to find life on other planets are people who are seeking to confirm their evolutionary worldview. After all, if life could have evolved by random chance on Earth, why couldn’t life have evolved—or be evolving—on other planets, whether in our solar system or beyond (“exoplanet”)? If they could find signs of life on other planets, it would help them confirm their beliefs about the origin of life on our own.

And there’s that word: “beliefs.” Because to date, there is no observable, repeatable, testable scientific evidence that something comes from nothing. So evolutionists are still looking—in faith—for solid proof. Having found none on our own planet, many are looking outward.

Additionally, philosophers through the ages have drawn on the passages of Ecclesiastes 3:11 and Romans 1:18-23 to demonstrate that people have an innate emptiness in their hearts that needs to be filled with God. When it is empty, they will search for something else to fill it. This is another search which fuels the hope to find some “greater” life outside ourselves. (We will also discuss this basic biblical concept more fully at a later time this year.)

On the other side of the worldview coin are Christians who acknowledge that life began as a supernatural and intentional event planned and designed by an omnipotent Creator. For us, it is natural that some curiosity could arise about a God Who can do anything. If He created life on Earth, couldn’t He have created life elsewhere?

And so, this Fun Fact looks to that question. In the end, while we cannot be 100% certain we will never find life on an exoplanet, we can draw some conclusions from clues in the Bible that suggest we never will.

Genesis 3 teaches us the origin of sin: Adam sinned and rebelled against God. The same chapter also explains that not only are we all descendants of Adam and Eve, but we have inherited from them a sin nature. Romans 3:23 confirms this: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (HCSB). Romans 6:23a tells us what the consequences of sin are: “For the wages of sin is death” (HCSB). Romans 5:12 also confirms these three ideas in one sentence: “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all men, because all sinned” (HCSB).

Next comes the solution. The rest of Romans 6:23 has the great news: “but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (HCSB).

So how does the gospel message apply to our Fun Fact? Romans 8:22 tells us that “all of creation is groaning” because of the curse from Adam’s sin. If God had created life on other planets, the curse would be applied to them as well. Additionally, God is a holy and just God, and all through the Old Testament we find “rules” that He put into place for His people and for their redemption. Hebrews 10 tells us that the animals sacrificed in the Old Testament were not enough to pay the price for sin. We needed a blood relative to do that for us, which is why Christ had to come to Earth and become a descendent of Adam, to be our relative. This “kinsman redeemer” principle is seen in the story of Ruth. Christ became our kinsman redeemer. The redeemer of the human race.

Were there any “intelligent” life other than humans on another planet, though they would be under the curse of sin, they would not be under the redeeming grace of Christ’s sacrifice. Could Christ also die for them? No, because verse 10 of Hebrews 10 concludes by saying, “Jesus Christ once for all” (ESV).

A human sinned, bringing on a curse for all creation. Christ is the redemption, but the once-and-for-all sacrifice of His human blood is the saving grace of the human race. So, we see that the Bible seems to rule out any native intelligent life in outer space.

Don’t just take my word for it! Visit YouFormedMe.com/astronomy/ufo.html to read, watch, and listen to supporting research and commentary from scientists, doctors, theologians, and more!
This blog is from a special series of “Creation Fun Facts” by Terri Kammerzell, starting from June 10, 2020. Read the introduction at TruthOfGenesis.com/blogs/building-a-biblical-defense-of-creation.

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In 2009, God started me on two new paths in my life: homeschooling my fifth-grade son and working for a large retailer. In regard to the first, right from the start I made the choice to not only forego public charter funding, but to pay tuition and out-of-pocket expenses for curriculum so that we could be part of a Christian homeschool advisory program. To me, it was a no-brainer. I didn’t want to just add a Bible class to teach my son about the Lord. I knew, having been a Christian since I was four years old, that God is not only our Savior but also the author of logic and the source of all reason. To truly give my son a Christian education, I wanted him to study curricula that pointed to God’s role in every aspect of learning: the providential guidance of the forming of the United States, the literary devices woven through the Bible, the fact that math is the way God thinks about numbers, and—especially—the science that supports the truths found in the Bible.

I grew up in a church that taught biblical Creation. On multiple occasions I attended conferences with Ken Ham, Dr. Gish, and Dr. Morris.  I learned about Creation. I took notes about the importance of Genesis. And I submitted those notes to my Christian schoolteachers for extra credit. I knew Whom I had believed: I believed in the Creator of the World. He was my Savior, and someday I would spend eternity with Him.

Throughout my adult life, trials and temptations have come and gone, and I’ve had periods of time when my relationship with the Lord and my commitment to Him have struggled, but I’ve never wavered from my faith in His saving grace.

When I worked for the large retailer, my coworkers knew I was a Christian. My coworkers knew I homeschooled my son. My coworkers knew my faith was strong. But the only questions I ever fielded about any of those was why I would homeschool, and boy, was I armed with answers to those questions!

Over the five years working there, I watched the company and my store slide down a scale of trading traditional biblical values for socially acceptable, but very immoral, ideals. I knew it was not just my company, but the country and the world in general. The longer I kept working there, the more I felt my convictions contradicting with those of the company for which I was driving profitable sales. And the longer I had to reconcile this internal conflict, the more unsettled I was, and the less satisfaction I received from any “job well done” remarks I heard from my bosses.

Finally, in 2014, I felt the Lord calling me away from there, to focus on homeschooling my own son more hands-on, and to ministering to other homeschool families through tutoring and teaching co-op classes.

In my last days at the retail store while training my female replacement, I had a rude awakening. She was very outspoken about her disbelief in God and her acceptance of the company’s unbiblical ideals. One day she challenged my faith. She started asking me questions about why I could believe in the Genesis story as truth, when so much “evidence” that contradicted it existed. She had studied her public-school textbooks. She had learned evolution from her public-school textbooks. She believed her public-school textbooks.

And me? A Christian for some three decades? I had no logical answer to give her. And I had attended Creation conferences. I had learned from Ken Ham, Dr. Gish, and Dr. Morris. But I was totally unarmed in this battle. Because even though I studied, learned, and believed, I never took it to the next level. I never comprehended 1 Peter 3:15—to “always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks [me] a reason for the hope that is in [me], with meekness and fear” (NKJV).

And there lay the challenge. What good were my convictions if I couldn’t defend my belief? How was I bringing glory to God or advancing His kingdom if I couldn’t even answer her questions to defend the Word of God and the science that supports it?

Thus, I’ve made it my mission these past six years to study Creation apologetics. And not only to study, but to teach. It’s my desire to make sure my son and the other homeschool students I am entrusted with learn answers to the questions they will encounter like I did.

If you’ve spent some time studying Creation apologetics, you will understand this next truth. There is a lot to learn, and no way to remember it all!

And so, in 2015 I came up with an idea to help my students remember at least some of the key points of design and biblical Creation: 49 Fundamental Facts. Or, for short- “Fun Facts!” I created seven facts for seven categories. They are simple question-answer building blocks that lay a foundation for being able to give a defense for design.
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Those Fun Facts are now displayed on my website, YouFormedMe.com, and presented with clickable links to resources that expound on the truths. Over the next year, it will be my privilege to share them with you, one per week, and to give you a little insight about how we can know they are true.