The Late 1960s
The Wistar Institute Symposium (1966). A milestone meeting was the four-day Wistar Institute Symposium, held in Philadelphia in April 1966. A number of mathematicians, familiar with biological problems, spoke—and clearly refuted neo-Darwinism in several ways. An important factor was that large computers were by this time able to work out immense calculations—showing that evolution could not possibly occur, even over a period of billions of years, given the complexities of DNA, protein, the cell, enzymes, and other factors.We will cite one example here:*Murray Eden of MIT explained that life could not begin by “random selection.” He noted that, if randomness is removed, only “design” would remain,—and that required purposive planning by an Intelligence. He showed that it would be impossible for even a single ordered pair of genes to be produced by DNA mutations in the bacteria, E. Coli (which has very little DNA), with 5 billion years in which to produce it. Eden then showed the mathematical impossibility of protein forming by chance. He also reported on his extensive investigations into genetic data on hemoglobin (red blood cells). Hemoglobin has two chains, called alpha and beta. A minimum of 120 mutations would be required to convert alpha to beta. At least 34 of those changes require changeovers in 2 or 3 nucleotides. Yet, Eden pointed out, if a single nucleotide change occurs through mutation, the result ruins the blood and kills the organism! For more on the Wistar Institute, read the following book: *Paul Moorhead and *Martin Kaplan (eds.), Mathematical Challenges to the Neo-Darwinian Interpretation of Evolution, Wistar Institute Monograph No. 5.(1968). Trilobites are small marine creatures that are now extinct. Evolutionists tell us that trilobites are one of the most ancient creatures that have ever lived on Planet Earth, and they lived millions of years before there were human beings. *William J. Meister, Sr., a non-Christian evolutionist, made a hobby of searching for trilobite fossils in the mountains of Utah. On June 1, 1968, he found a human footprint and trilobites in the same rock, and the footprint was stepping on some of the trilobites! The location was Antelope Springs, about 43 miles [69 km] northwest of Delta, Utah.
Antelope Springs Tracks
Then, breaking off a large two-inch thick piece of rock, he hit it on the edge with a hammer, and it fell open in his hands. To his great astonishment, he found on one side the footprint of a human being, with trilobites right in the footprint itself! The other half of the rock slab showed an almost perfect mold of a footprint and fossils. Amazingly, the human was wearing a sandal! To make a longer story short, the find was confirmed when scientists came and found more sandaled footprints. Meister was so stunned that he became a Christian. This was Cambrian strata, the lowest level of strata in the world; yet it had sandaled human footprints! (“Discovery of Trilobite Fossils in Shod Footprint of Human in ‘Trilobite Beds,’ a Cambrian Formation, Antelope Springs, Utah,” in Why Not Creation? 1970, p. 190).
The Alpbach Institute Symposium(1969). A follow-up meeting of scientists was held and given the title, “Beyond Reductionism.” But it only resulted in fruitless discussions by scientists who had carefully researched the problems with men who were desperately trying to defend evolutionary theories, against an ever-growing mountain of evidence to the contrary.
First Moon Landing(1969). By the 1950s, scientists were able to predict that, if the moon was billions of years old, it would have a thick layer of dust many miles thick. This is due to the fact, as *R.A. Lyttleton explained, that the lunar surface is exposed to direct sunlight; and strong ultraviolet light and X-rays from the sun gradually destroy the surface layers of exposed rock and reduce them to dust at the rate of a few ten-thousandths of an inch per year. In 5 to 10 billion years, this would produce 20-60 miles [32-97 km] of dust (*R.A. Lyttleton, quoted in R. Wysong, Creation-Evolution Controversy, p. 175).
Because of this, NASA first sent an unmanned lander, which made the discovery that there is very little dust on the moon’s surface. In spite of that, Neil Armstrong feared that he and Edwin Aldrin might suffocate when they landed. But because the moon is young, they had no problem. Landing on July 20, 1969, they found an average of 3/4 inch [1.91cm] of dust on its surface. That is the amount one would expect if the moon were about 6000-8000 years old (at a rate of 1 inch every 10,000 years). In *Isaac Asimov’s first published article (1958), he predicted that the first rocket to land on the moon would sink ingloriously in the dust, and everyone inside would perish (Article mentioned in *Isaac Asimov, Asimov on Science: A Thirty-Year Retrospective, 1989, pp. xvi-xvii).
Source: Evolution Handbook
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