The National Center for Science Education reported earlier this year that seventeen different states

were embroiled in a debate over the status quo concerning the teaching of evolution in the public schools. This is principally due to the work and influence of the Intelligent Design movement, a rapidly growing group of academicians (of which the Discovery Institute, a Seattle-based organization, acts as the brain trust), all of which are walking away from the assumptions of neo-Darwinism. As a matter of fact, in the May 2005 newsletter from Texans for Better Education, author Mark Ramsey indicated that in the last few months as many as one-third of fully credentialed Ph.D. scientists had officially and publicly begun challenging Darwinism as a viable explanation for the origin of life (www.strengthandweaknesses.org).

Because of this widespread notoriety concerning the Intelligent Design movement (ID), especially in light of the highly contested debate in the educational arena, I am repeatedly asked in every seminar about the position of Biblical Creation and ID—are they similar, different, supportive of each other, or what? Moreover, when you listen to the proponents of the neo-Darwinian movement argue their position in this debate, they inevitably allege the

TABLE OF CONTENTS

•Letter from the President__________1

•Origins News Briefs_______________2

•Who Wrote Genesis?_____________4

•Letters from the Field____________6

•Product Highlight--Gift Ideas________________________7

•Recent Ministry Photos___________8

•Upcoming Programs Schedule_____8

(The Museum of Earth History is a joint venture of the Great Passion Play and the

Creation Truth Foundation)

W W W . M O E H . O R G

September-October 2005Vol. 17 No. 5

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teaching of ID in the schools of America to be unconstitutional, because they assert ID is nothing more than “creationism” thinly veiled in an attempt to bring religion into the classroom. So, what is the Biblical position all of this?

Biblical creation predicts Intelligent Design, because the Bible declares that the Creator God used His logos—His concept, His wisdom—with which to create the heaven, earth and sea and everything in them. But beyond that, there is a vast difference between the two positions.

Consider this. After World War I, there were several Christian publications that used, with tongue in cheek, the words of certain scientists who were antagonistic toward Darwinism, as a basis for their anti-evolutionary arguments.1 The difficulty was that their authorities had not abandoned evolution, just Darwin, and they soon developed a new strain of evolution called neo-Darwinism, which has fought against the Bible and its Creator for the last seventy-five years. Thus what seemed to be a scientific

Letter from the President Biblical Creationism and Intelligent Design

sanction for the Biblical view became its nemesis!

I recently viewed, with great interest, a debate between leaders from the ID movement and the neo-Darwinian position that was conducted on the campus of Seaton Hall University. About midway into the discussion, Kenneth R. Miller, professor of Biology at Brown University and one of the members of the neo-Darwinian team, asked anyone from the ID team to identify who this intelligence was that they had been advocating for the past hour and a half. To my amazement, all of the ID team, including Michael Behe and Phillip Johnson, two of its primary proponents, did not say a word—not one word! I was flabbergasted, to say the least.

After a little research, I discovered that Dr. Behe had not given up evolution, as long as chance mechanisms were not employed as its guiding process. He is convinced it took intelligence, but not necessarily the Biblical view of that intelligence. Behe doesn’t have any problem with the idea that man evolved from some primordial ooze via several ancestors. He simply doesn’t believe it happened by accident and random processes. Johnson’s view is pretty much the same as Behe’s.2 Here’s the point, the popular ID position is absolutely not the Biblical view, or even close. While it can possibly be used as a bridge to connect the evidence of intelligent design with the Creator of Scripture, it certainly is not a substitute for the Biblical view.

The modern ID movement, with similar motivation as the neo-Darwinists before them, is not so much against evolution as they are against the neo-Darwinian mechanism for evolution. They are not worried about maintaining the integrity of the Bible, or its historical accuracy or inspiration. They are, however, concerned about the mechanism of evolution. Therefore, many of their advocates are not creationists in any way; they are evolutionists seeking another machine for this process.

Notes: 1. Creation Ex Nihilo, December/February 1998, Vol. 20, No. 1, p. 4. 2. Ibid.

Blessings, G. Thomas Sharp

><

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Origins News Briefs“Most Scientific Papers are Probably Wrong,” NewScientist.com News Service (30 August 2005) retrieved Sep. 01, 2005 from www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id

Most published scientific research papers are wrong, according to a new analysis. Assuming that the new paper is itself correct, problems with experimental and statistical methods mean that there is less than a 50% chance that the results of any randomly chosen scientific paper are true.

John Ioannidis, an epidemiologist at the University of Ioannina School of Medicine in Greece, says that small sample sizes, poor study design, researcher bias, and selective reporting and other problems combine to make most research findings false. But even large, well-designed studies are not always right, meaning that scientists and the public have to be wary of reported findings.

Traditionally a study is said to be “statistically significant” if the odds are only 1 in 20 that the result could be purely chance. But in a complicated field where there are many potential hypotheses to sift through – such as whether a particular gene influences a particular disease – it is easy to reach false conclusions using this standard. If you test 20 false hypotheses, one of them is likely to show up as true, on average.

Surprisingly, Ioannidis says another predictor of false findings is if a field is “hot,” with many teams feeling pressure to beat the others to statistically significant findings.

But Solomon Snyder, senior editor at the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore,US, says most working scientists understand the limitations of published research. “When I read the literature, I’m not reading it to find proof like a textbook. I’m reading to get ideas. So even if something is wrong with the paper, if they have the kernel of a novel idea, that’s something to think about,” he says.

[We’ve been telling everyone who would listen that men are fallible (and as is obvious, some are down-right deceitful) and that the “proofs” of science must be taken with a grain of salt. But I don’t believe I’ve ever heard one say that they weren’t bothered by that fact that the information being put forth could be false

– they just wanted to think about it. Perhaps that could explain such great break-throughs as the “Punctuated Equilibrium” hypothesis … c’mon, a bird from a snake egg?!?!?!]

“Dinosaur big as a plane ruled the sky.” Richard Sadler, The Scotsman, 09 September 2005, retrieved from www.thescotsman.scotsman.com

The largest animal ever to fly – a giant reptile called a pterosaur – was much bigger and more fearsome than previously realized, new fossil evidence has revealed.

Scientists knew from fossils that the pterosaur, which roamed land and seas all over the world for hundreds of millions of years, had a wingspan of up to ten meters [32 to 33 feet]. Now analysis of fossilized footprints and bone fragments has confirmed some specimens were almost twice as big, with wingspans of 18 meters [59 feet], making them as big as a medium-sized commercial aircraft.

Their enormous sail-like wings, made of thin hair-covered membrane between their two front limbs, allowed them to use air currents to fly with little effort over huge distances. “Their flight membranes could be controlled by adjusting the angle of the forelimbs at the shoulder, the elbow and at the base of the hyper-elongated flight finger,” said Dr. Martil (David Martil of Portsmouth University). “In addition it could be controlled by movement of the hind limbs at the hips, the knees and to some degree at the ankle. …This gave pterosaurs far more flight control than birds of equivalent size.”

[Wow! Can you imagine seeing a “bird” the size of an F-4 Phantom fighter jet swooping down into your chicken yard? You can brag about the size of your mosquitoes all you want – it is still just an exaggeration. But with these bad boys… I’m headed to the ‘fraidy hole.’]

“Ligers Make a “Dynamite” Leap in the Limelight,” Maryann Mott, National Geographic News, August 05, 2005; retrieved 8/11/05 from www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/08/0804_050804_ligers.html

It’s half lion, half tiger, and completely real. Now thanks to a cameo in the 2004 cult movie Napoleon Dynamite, the liger has leaped into the limelight, prompting fans to ask, What are they really like?

The faintly striped, shaggy-maned creatures are the offspring of male lions and female tigers [offspring between male tigers and female lions are called “tigons”]

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which gives them the ability to both roar like lions and chuff like tigers – a supposedly affectionate sound that falls somewhere between a purr and a raspberry.

Weighing in at about a thousand pounds [a typical male lion will weigh about 450–550 pounds; a male tiger about 650 pounds] each, they typically devour 50 pounds of raw meat in a meal.

Since 1999, the park (Wild Animal Safari in Pine Mountain, GA) has bred its male lion and female tiger many times, producing about 24 cubs. Not all of them have been healthy, though. “We’ve had 3 out of 24 that, for all practical purposes, were normal but developed as they grew older some kind of neurological disorder,” said Hutcherson (Jason Hutcherson, vice president of the park). “Autopsies didn’t reveal what caused the cubs to develop ‘head shakes,’ so park staff ‘chalked it up to a genetic defect’,” Hutcherson said.

Lion-tiger mating occurs in captivity. But it does not happen in the wild, probably for the same reason humans do not breed with gorillas or chimps.

“Crossing the species line” does not generally occur in the wild, because “it would result in diminished fitness of the offspring,” said Ronald Tilson, director of conservation at the

Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley.

[I suspect that our readers will already have knowledge of ligers and tigons; this is not a new discovery. I included it here for an insight into the mind of the evolutionist. I am particularly intrigued by the take on genetics. There were a couple apparent contradictions that I picked up on, perhaps the reader will have seen more. The comment by Mr. Tilson regarding “diminished fitness” when crossbreeding, seems to fly in the face of the evolutionary tenet of “survival of the fittest.” If these animals, particularly the males, are exhibiting substantially larger sizes, doesn’t it seem reasonable to assume that would give them the edge in surviving? I know on the football field, a 275 pound linebacker will lay low a 175 pound running back

“Patrick” the Liger. Photograph © by Bill Dow/Shambala Preserve

at every hit. And what about the inference that these matings resulted in an unusual production of 3 of the 24 cubs being abnormal? What do we know about abnormal cubs born of matings between two lions and two tigers? Just a quick glance on the internet turned up quotes like, “the mortality rate for African lions is extremely high...” I realize that this partial quote is far from a scientific inquiry, but I think it is within the realm of reason to assume that the production of 3 abnormal cubs out of a group of 24 doesn’t give us a strong support for the idea that these types of matings bring on diminished fitness; rather, I think we should see a strengthening of fitness as we begin to see a greater diversity of genetic dispersal. I guess time will tell.]

Who Wrote Genesis?

Most of us, probably, have never given much thought to who, in fact, authored the book of Genesis, because, like me, you thought Moses was the accepted author. In fact, this was general knowledge, until 1753, when a French physician named Jean Astruc argued there were two different writers for

Genesis one and two. He argued for this idea because there are two different names used for God in these chapters.

In time, this spawned an elaborate documentary on the origin of the Pentateuch by the German higher critic, Julius Welhausen (1844-1918), which, along with the spread and support of Darwinian evolution allowed every liberal theologian all over the world to deny the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. His theory, commonly called the Documentary Hypothesis, provided an apparent academic foundation for the notion that the five books of Moses were authored by numerous writers whose stories were passed along through oral traditions.

However, it only requires a casual glance into the Old Testament text to unmistakably see that Moses is the author of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. No serious question here, because there are at least forty references throughout the Old Testament definitely connecting Moses as the author of these four books.1

But what about Genesis?

Since the Pentateuch is generally considered to be a unit of five books, it is interesting to see that out of the two

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hundred times Genesis is cited in the New Testament, Moses is never specifically mentioned as its author.2 However, in Luke 24:27 we find an interesting verse. Here, Luke is recording the account of two disciples returning to their home from Jerusalem after the resurrection of Jesus. As they walked along the road to their village of Emmaus, they intently discussed the report of Christ’s resurrection, and “and Jesus Himself drew near, and went with them” (Luke 24:15, KJV).

Because they didn’t recognize Him, Luke tells in verse 27 that Jesus “beginning at Moses and all of the prophets, He expounded unto them in all of the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” Question: (1) Where is the first Old Testament mention of Christ? It is in Genesis 3:15. (2) Is Genesis part of the Scripture? Of course it is. (3) Where did Luke say Jesus began His teaching? He began with the writings of Moses. (4) What, then, is the obvious conclusion to this verse? That either Moses is the author of Genesis, or that Genesis is not a part of the Scripture.

Just to be sure I checked in other standard versions of the New Testament to see if the translation read in the same manner, and it did. The New International Version says, “And beginning with Moses and all of the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all of the Scriptures concerning himself.” The New American Standard Version says, “And beginning with Moses and with all of the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all of the Scriptures.” The New King James Version says, “And beginning at Moses and all of the Prophets, He expounded to them in all of the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” Lastly, the Revised Standard Version says, “And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all of the scriptures the things concerning himself.” It seems clear to me that as far as Jesus was concerned, Moses authored, or at least, edited and compiled the book of Genesis! How, then, did Moses gather the information contained in the book of Genesis? There are three possible ways to determine how God directed Moses in the composition of the book of Genesis:

(1) Moses wrote and compiled the information that was passed on by oral tradition.

(2) He received the information by direct revelation.

(3) He wrote or compiled Genesis by using earlier written documents.3

by Shelby SmithCTF Staff

The first view seems quite unlikely since Moses was plainly told by God in Deuteronomy 31:19-22 that he should write down the song he was teaching the people so that they would not forget it.4 God is saying, in effect, to safeguard the sanctity of the message, I want it written down for the people. Thus He is obviously showing that He has little faith in the oral transmission of His Word from generation to generation, due to the high probability that that information can be forgotten or degraded in some way.5 The second view also seems unlikely because of the reoccurring historical requirements of the Genesis.6 The third seems to be the most likely option, and this is due to current archaeological findings combined with the above mentioned historical markers. Nine times, in the Genesis text (King James Version), there is the reoccurring phrase, “…these are the generations of…” The first mention of these phrases is in Genesis 2:4, and specifically involves the Hebrew word “TOLeDOT” (pronounced to-led-dote’), meaning, essentially, descent, family or history.7

There is much debate regarding whether the word is used prescriptively, as an introduction of things to come, or postscriptively, as a summary of things and events just happened. I think the postscriptive use is obvious, thus presenting the conclusion of action just completed. That is not to say, however, that Genesis does not speak of the One who is to come mentioned in Gen. 3:15.

Consider this. In 1936, P. J. Wiseman wrote a book entitled, New Discoveries in Babylonia about Genesis, and he stated that there are internal clues in Genesis which show how it was written.8 These clues come from the system of cuneiform writing encompassing many languages and dialects. Cuneiform writing was a pictographic system of writing, probably developed by the ancient Sumerians (cir. 3000 B.C.), that used wedge shaped characters. The Hebrew word for write means to “cut or dig” and accurately portrays the cuneiform writing style.9 All the civilized countries east of the Mediterranean, including Egypt, and the Hittites, used this method of writing. Wisemen identified the “TOLeDOT” phrase in the ancient Mesopotamian writings of Persia, Babylonia and Assyria. These phrases are referred to as colophons, which are a scribal or signatural device placed at the conclusion of a literary work written on clay tablets (in other words a signature).10

These colophons give the title or description of the passage, period, or occasion in which it was written and the name of the owner or writer of the tablet.11 For

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practical purposes, the use of these colophons remained almost unchanged for over three thousand years. They were found in the Ebla tablets of northwest Syria as early as 2700 B.C. and continued at least until the time of Alexander the Great in 333 B.C.12 We even see a form of colophons in articles today.

The colophon in Genesis 2:4, says: “This is the history (toledoth) of the heavens and the earth, when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.” We note, first of all, that no author is mentioned, as is recorded in all other of the “toledoth” passages. But, who could be the author of this record? Certainly no man could have witnessed this event, only the Creator! Some think this particular record was told to Adam by the LORD, and others believe this was revealed to Moses in response to his request to see the LORD’s glory in Exodus 33:18. 13 And God may have written it himself on clay tablets as He did the Ten Commandments, allowing Moses to act as editor of the text through divine inspiration. Thus his job would not only have been to edit and compile but also to update the names.14

I would like to note that the Jewish scribes must have had a deep desire to maintain the original text due to the painstaking and systematic effort they took to make sure the words were written accurately. The Dead Sea Scrolls exemplify this, being over 95 percent accurate with the only differences being, a few style and spelling discrepancies.15 This respect for God’s Word could only have been passed down from the patriarchs and Moses who did not change the old names in the text as he translated it but gave explanations talking about the new names of these places as seen in Genesis 23:2&19

Toledoth Passages in GenesisColophon

(belonging to or authorship)

1:1-2:4 Record of creation2:5-5:2 Adam5:3-6:9a Noah6:9b-10:1 The sons of Noah10:2-11:10a Shem11:10b-11:27a Terah11:27b-25:19a Ishmael and Isaac25:19b-37:2a Esau and Jacob37:2b-50:26 Probably Joseph

(see explanation below)

to explain where these places were, the Israelites were not yet in Canaan.17

Joseph, in Egypt, probably wrote the remaining chapters, the use of cuneiform was known there also. He more than likely wrote on papyrus or leather since it is lacking the colophons, which only have to do with the use of the stone tablets.18 So in order to understand Jesus as the Messiah we must accept Him as the Creator and I believe we have Moses to thank for this accurate compilation of the book of Genesis.

Reference: 1.) Annotations by Morris, Henry M., Defender’s Study Bible, World Publishing, Grand Rapids, MI, 1995. 2.2.) Morris, 2.3.) Lubenow, Marvin L., Bones of Contention: A Creationist Assessment of Human Fossils. Baker Books,

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Grand Rapids, MI, 1992. 213.4.) Lubenow, 215.5.) Lubenow, 214-215.6.) Lubenow, 214.7.) Lubenow, 216.8.) Lubenow, 216.9.) Lubenow, 214.10.) Lubenow, 217.11.) Lubenow, 217.12.) Lubenow, 214 & 219.13.) Lubenow, 219.14.) Lubenow, 221.15.) McDowell, Josh, and Bob Hostetler. Beyond Belief to Convictions. Tyndale House Publishing, Wheaton, IL. 2002. 172 16.) Lubenow, 221.17.) Lubenow, 221. 18.) Lubenow, 220.

Letters from the FieldDear Creation Truth Foundation,

I met you recently while you were doing the four day presentation at Christ for the Nations Institute. My three children, ages 5, 8 & 11, all took in several of the sessions also. I just wanted to write and say thank you for all of your efforts in presenting the information and getting out the Truth. I found it extremely informative for both myself as well as my children. They have been taught from the start that evolution is wrong and Creation is the truth. The information you presented, as well as the manner in which you presented it gave us a lot more solid evidence, and helped build an even stronger base in our belief systems. I beleive this to be an invaluable tool in today’s day and age. My children are still talking about it.

Again, thank you so much for all you are doing for the Gospel.

Prayerfully, Barbara

Mr. Sharp,

I wanted to thank you for your presentation on “The Truth About Dinosaurs.” I obtained an Environmental Geology degree from Arkansas Tech University in 1995. Through the course of my college years I never believed my instructors regarding the geologic time scale. My understanding of God’s timing was challenged at times because it was hard to understand how mountains made of sedimentary rocks could be thrust upward and folded in such a short time span biblically speaking. The fossil record is a key cornerstone for Geology because the fossil record doesn’t lie…In one hour, you helped draw four years of college and God’s truth into perspective. I remember when I was taught in junior high school that good science has two theories to work from such as Creation and Evolution. Once a theory was proven, it became law or something to that effect. Your ministry will allow children to see science from God’s perspective and not from an evolution viewpoint which you know is taught as fact in our schools and universities without any competitive ideas.

Thank you for allowing God to use you in such a special way by bringing science into God’s time table.

Kevin

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Product Highlight

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* Make reference to this newsletter issue before November 30th, 2005 to receive free shipping.

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The True Story of Noah’s ArkTom Dooley & Bill LooneyDramatic and exciting retelling of a timeless Bible story • Excellent evangelistic tool • Breathtaking artwork makes the

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Many kids will never have the opportunity to see a fossil collection in a museum, due to their location, their family’s income, etc. So we brought the museum to them! In October the students of Perryton, Texas were thrilled to see our presentation about dinosaurs in their school. F.A.C.E., the public school division of CTF, presented the program to the area school kids as well as the several neighboring school districts.

Upcoming Programs Schedule

• Hennessey, OK – First Baptist Church Nov. 6th - 9th• Elk City, OK - First Baptist Church Nov. 13th • Winfield, KS – Evangelical Free Church Nov. 18th - 20th• Midwest City, OK – First Assembly of God Nov. 27th

Please visit our website for the most current list of events.

P.O. Box 1435 Noble, OK 730681-888-57-TRUTH - (1-888-578-7884)

E-mail: ctf@creationtruth.comOffice Hours: 9 am - 5 pm (CST)

Monday - Friday

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Photos Page

Calvary Chapel in Norman, OK hosted the dinosaur program in the month of September. They had a near capacity crowd in their new building.