The Bible and Science

• St. Augustine encouraged Christians to see science as a handmaiden helping us to understand God’s world. Science wasn’t to be an end in itself, but another tool in building a relationship with God.
• Evolutionists claim that birds are descended from dinosaurs. No fossilized skeleton has ever been found of an intermediate stage between dinosaur and bird. Archaeopteryx is the closest paleontologists have come. However, Archaeopteryx’s feathers, perching feet, ability to fly, skull, ankles, and the position of its pubis all clearly show that it’s a bird, not a dinosaur.
• In evolution, a new species only occurs with new DNA. Mutations are not new information, but errors in what already exists. Natural selection kills weak animals, allowing the stronger ones to pass on their genes. These are still the same genes the species always had; there is nothing new.
• Why can’t anyone find evidence of the organic soup from which all life sprang? Probably because it’s against the laws of chemistry for enough proteins to accumulate in an excessively watery environment.
• The throwback theory is basically an argument that in the womb a fetus goes through the stages of evolution. This is not true. “Gill slits” are throat pouches that develop organs such as the middle ear canals. The “tail bone” isn’t the remnant of an evolutionary tail, but the end of the spine, which assists posture muscles and supports the intestines. Tonsils help to fight disease, and over 180 other organs thought to be useless have turned out to have important functions.
• All domestic dogs, coyotes, and wolves have the same DNA but in different configurations. A pair of wolves on Noah's ark would be as good as hundreds of pairs of different dogs today.
• About 16 000 animals would have been loaded onto the ark, the average sized animal being a rat. If juvenile, rather than full grown, elephants, rhinos, etc. were taken, this would have freed up even more space. Scientific calculations about how much room was required for these animals and their provisions show that Noah's ark provided suitable accommodation. It’s been calculated that eight people working ten hours a day, six days a week could care for all these animals.
• Steven A. Austin points out that about 77% of the earth’s surface area, including those portions underwater, is missing at least seven of the geologic column’s ten layers. Only 0.4% of the earth’s surface area has every layer. Even then, individual layers may be incomplete. The layers aren’t always in order, either. Sometimes there’s evidence that faults or landslides have caused this but, in other places, the “disorder” appears perfectly natural.
• Radiocarbon dating depends on the carbon-14 from the atmosphere that enters into plants and animals. When these organisms die, the carbon-14 degrades by half-lives. However, carbon-14 doesn’t come down equally all over the earth, or equally over time, so this method of dating isn't always accurate.

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