PALEONTOLOGY CLASS DISCUSSION

A university student decides to ask some questions. Let us step into the classroom and listen in. The truth is that evolutionary theory is a myth. God created everything; the evidence clearly points to it. This is science vs. evolution—a Creation-Evolution Encyclopedia, brought to you by Creation Science Facts.

This material is excerpted from the book, FOSSILS AND STRATA.
An asterisk ( * ) by a name indicates that person is not known to be a creationist. Of over 4,000 quotations in the books this Encyclopedia is based on, only 164 statements are by creationists.

Instructor: There are millions of different fossil species. This helps prove it took long ages of time to produce them all.

Student: But prof, it is known that 70 percent of those so-called `different species' have erroneously been given double, triple, or more names.

Instructor: Each creature evolved from something, and then it evolved into still something else.

Student: But prof, what do we do with the species which, according to the fossil record, never evolved from anything else—or into anything else? That includes all the fossils. For example, the octopus never evolved from anything, never evolved to anything, and is the same today as all through the fossil record.

Instructor: We believe in uniformitarianism, which teaches that everything happened slowly, regularly, over millions of years.

Student: But prof, the great majority of life forms originated suddenly, explosively, during the Cambrian,—and those in higher strata appear suddenly also.

Instructor: The most complex creatures are found at the top of the geological column. That's because evolution gradually keeps producing greater complexity.

Student: But prof, the creatures at the bottom of the column—in the Cambrian—are just as complex in many ways as those farther up.

Instructor: We just don't have enough fossil evidence. If we did, we could fill in all the gaps.

Student: But prof, we have over 100 million carefully cataloged fossils; there is hardly anything new ever found anymore.

Instructor: According to our theory, people and animals have lived here for over a million years.

Student: But prof, why is it that historical records only go back merely a few thousand years?

Instructor: Life gradually evolved from very simple creatures.

Student: But prof, we simply have no simple creatures in the fossil strata. They just aren't there.

Instructor: According to evolutionary theory, there are only gradual, slow, transitions from one species to another.

Student: But prof, according to the fossil discoveries—and in the world around us today,—here are only distinct species, with no transitional forms between them. They never blend together.

Instructor: According to the theory, transitional half-fish and half-birds will soon be found among the fossils.

Student: But prof, in the strata and in nature today we only find gaps between all the species. These gaps are never filled.

Instructor: It has taken millions of years for the species to slowly change—evolve—into their present form. We only know what earlier species looked like because of the fossil record.

Student: But prof, not counting the extinct ones, why do all the fossil species look just like those alive today?

Instructor: The fossil record presents a complete evolutionary family tree—with trunk, branches, and twigs.

Student: But prof, why do we only find the twigs wherever we look in the fossils and in nature today?

Instructor: Evolution always goes from smaller animals to larger ones. That's an important proof of evolution.

Student: But prof, why were ancient plants and animals frequently so much bigger than those living now?

Instructor: Because evolution occurred gradually and slowly, each strata in the geologic column contains its own distinct fossils.

Student: But prof, why then are most fossils generally mixed together in several strata? And why are the index fossils similarly mixed through several strata?

Instructor: For millions of years, ancient plants and animals died and changed into fossils. That is where all the fossils came from.

Student: But prof, why is it that fossils are never made now?

Instructor: No fossils before the Cambrian have been found because soft body tissues are never found in fossil form.

Student: But prof, what about all the soft body parts—including the most delicate and tiny features—found at Burgess Pass, in the Northwest, and other places?

Instructor: One of the greatest proofs of evolution would be the animals we only find in fossil form.

Student: But prof, how does extinction prove evolution? Extinction, by itself, has nothing to do with evolution.

Instructor: Living fossils are an outstanding evidence of evolution. The Coelacanth fish has been extinct since Cretaceous times—50 million years ago, and recently it has been found alive off the coast of Africa.

Student: But prof, where was it hiding for the past 50 million years? Did it hibernate all that time? The worst part is that it was classified as a key index fossil for nearly a century. What does that do to the dating theory?

Instructor: The dinosaur is probably one of the outstanding evidences of evolution.

Student: But prof, all that the dinosaur proves is that there once was a terrible catastrophe and that animals can become extinct. The catastrophe disproves uniformitarianism, and extinction is no evidence of evolution.

Instructor: Only the most recent fossils could possibly have amino acid residues in them.

Student: But prof, why then have amino acid residues been found in fossils in all levels of the strata,—all the way down to the Cambrian? That shows that none of the strata are ancient!

Instructor: It was because rock strata were found to be so incredibly uniform that scientists could date it.

Student: Then why are strata missing everywhere on earth? Why are there only a few places where even half of the 12 major levels can be found? And, where they are found, why are the strata mixed up, and the fossils within them mixed up?

Instructor: Overthrusts have occurred in many place; we know this because ancient strata are frequently found on top of much younger strata.

Student: How could massive rock segments—miles long and wide—move horizontally, and do it without disturbing either those segments or the material beneath it?

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Forward to the first major topic in the next series:

ANCIENT MAN: There is clear-cut evidence that humans did not evolve from apes or descend from anything else.