2 Section A
THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE By WILLIAM T. PELLETIER, PH.D. [WOODSIDE NEWS COLUMNIST]
Texas Trip
N oah’s Ark, dinosaur
tracks, fossils, caves,
canyons! These were high-
lights of September’s 25-day
4100-mile rolling camping
trip to Texas.
WILLIAM T. PELLETIER cording Creation, Fall, Flood,
fisher Cave PH.D.
Far back in Fisher cave on
Missouri’s Meramec River, we found
names and dates going back to 1892
inscribed on stalagmites.
The water-deposited flowstone, sta-
lactite, and stalagmite formations were
impressive and instructive. As ground
water seeped through the cave and
evaporated, dissolved minerals remained
to form complex structures. Many were
dormant; others were active.
It is impossible to determine an age
Palo Duro Canyon
likely formed
rapidly by turbulent
run-off from a
massive flood
for cave structures because the deposi-
tion history is unknown. Water flows
start and stop, and water flow rates vary
greatly through time. Cave structures
are good examples of how foolish it is
to base age estimates on current pro-
cesses assuming they have remained
constant.
Spectacularly beautiful limestone
caverns are officially believed to have
taken tens of thousands of years to
form. But worldwide many examples
are known to have formed in under one
hundred years. The remarkable struc-
tures of limestone caverns were prob-
ably formed over no more than a few
thousand years following Noah’s Flood.
One interesting structure we saw was
a compound stalactite four feet across.
It terminated on a broad flat base eight
feet across suspended eight feet above
the cave floor. How did such a struc-
ture hanging from the cave ceiling come
about? The tour guide’s explanation was
that the base was originally supported
by a clay foundation which had been
washed away by a flood in the cave.
That’s an example of geologists’
relatively recent willingness to accept
catastrophic hydrologic explanations
for earthly phenomena, rather than
insisting on uniformitarian explana-
tions of gradual erosion. Creationists’
emphasis on catastrophic change (cre-
ation, sin, flood) to explain earth’s ge-
ology is gradually influencing “official”
explanations.
In Fisher Cave we noticed broken
stalactites and stalagmites. The guide
explained the cave rooms were used for
parties around 1900, and people broke
formations that were in their way. My
daughter Blessing asked how they
NOVEMBER 2009
knew it was used for parties. ers we see today. After the flood carved Creation eviDenCe museum
The guide said newspapers of the canyon, water collecting in the bot- We camped at Dinosaur Valley State
the time and people’s journals
documented such use. Bless-
ing commented that the same
tom formed the little river.
This is exactly what happened with
the North Fork of the Toutle River at
Park on the Paluxy River near Glen
Rose, Texas. People have been finding
fossil dinosaur and human footprints
answer works when we are Mount St. Helens in 1982 when geolo- intermingled here for 80 years. Near-
asked about our faith – we gists watched a mudflow carve an enor- by right on the river is the Creation
have documents (Bible) re- mous canyon in one day. The Grand Evidence Museum.
Canyon’s formation was similar. The museum staff has excavated
Jesus’ death and resurrection. 11 dinosaurs, 475 dinosaur tracks and
fossil museum 86 human footprints since 1982. One
noah’s ark We enjoyed exploring Mt. Blanco Fossil fossil we saw was an 11-inch human
In Branson, Misssouri we watched Museum near Lubbock, Texas with Joe right footprint with the footprint of a
Noah the Musical. It was an impressive Taylor, museum curator and world-re- therapod dinosaur partially overlap-
fictional account of an actual histori- nowned fossil restorationist. Excavating ping it—clear evidence of man’s co-
cal event. At one point the entire the- and restoring fossils is meticulous, high- existence with dinosaurs. The foot-
ater became the inside of Noah’s Ark. ly-skilled, tedious work with little glory. prints were found by Alvis Delk in
It was a striking demonstration of the The museum is a scientific institu- July 2000.
enormity of the ark with scads of ani- tion committed to B iblical interpreta-
mals (live, animatronic, or sculptured) tions of fossils and earth history. Taylor naturalism
lining the walls on three levels. contends, “Evolution is an old-fash- Today’s “worship the creature rather than
Regrettably no dinosaurs were de- ioned theory not substantiated by facts. the Creator” philosophy (Rom 1:23,25)
picted as part of the ark’s contents. What the Bible says is more scien- impacts state parks. We noticed a mis-
Land dinosaurs were created on Day tifically accurate. Our museum shows guided spiritualism in state parks that
exalted creation above
PHOTO COURTESY MT. blANCO FOSSIl MUSEUM
PHOTO bY jO AlICE PEllETIER
man the steward of cre-
ation.
Most states where we
camped prohibited col-
lecting dead wood for
campfires to preserve it
for insect habitats. They
say man should not in-
terfere with nature.
One ranger told us
she liked the park’s river
because it was one of the
few in the state with no
dams to control flooding
so the river “can do what
Above: Dinosaur footprint overlapping human footprint from Paluxy it was meant to do.” Floods
riverbed cause a lot of damage and
human suffering, but this
6 (Genesis 1:24-25), and Noah took there was a worldwide flood only a few ranger viewed “nature” as supreme and
specimens of every kind of land animal thousand years ago.” not to be interfered with through dams,
on the ark, including dinosaurs (Gen- The museum has intricately carved regardless of the human impact.
esis 6:19-20). burial stones from ancient people In Fisher Cave we were sternly
groups. Over 11,000 of these stones warned that flashlights were to be
Palo Duro Canyon have been found and one-third de- aimed off bats so as not to disturb their
Southeast of Amarillo we camped pict men with dinosaurs. Evolutionists sleep. We were told not to touch cave
in Palo Duro Canyon where rocky believe dinosaurs died out 70 million walls even if stumbling. It was clear
vistas took our breath away. “The years ago. The stones contradict this from signs and instructions that pre-
Grand Canyon of Texas” is America’s since they were engraved long before serving the bats and formations in the
second largest canyon – 120 miles man first discovered dinosaur fossils in cave was more important than human
long, 20 miles wide, 800 feet deep. the 1820s. These artifacts seem to cor- considerations.
By comparison, Arizona’s Grand roborate the Bible’s record of man and The application of this philosophy
Canyon is 277 miles long, 18 miles dinosaurs co-existing. is actually self-contradictory. By
wide, 6,000 feet deep. naturalism’s own tenets, man is
Official dogma is that the part of nature. Everything man
canyon was formed over mil- does is part of nature – so how
lions of years through erosion can it be considered interfer-
by the Prairie Dog Town Fork ence? It’s not logical for natu-
of the Red River. This is a small ralists to complain about people
river flowing through the bot- breaking stalactites for parties
tom of the canyon that you – that’s a natural thing to do.
can wade across and in places Creationists have a Bibli-
step across. Did this tiny river cal view of managing creation
form the huge canyon? No way! as Yahweh ’s regent (Gen 1:28).
Rather, the canyon formed the Only creationists can logically
river. object to wanton destruction of
The canyon likely formed natural beauty.
rapidly by turbulent run-off from
a massive flood (probably Noah’s E-mail Dr. Pelletier at
Flood 4500 years ago). Flood- BibleScienceGuy@woodsidenews.
waters quickly carved through org. Follow the BibleScienceGuy
still-soft, water-deposited sedi- at twitter.com/BibleScienceGuy.
ments to reveal the beautiful lay-
©2009 William T. Pelleti.er