Assumptions of Evolution
It goes without saying that the principal assumption of evolution is—deep time or “old earth.” This is not a modern idea, and reaches back to ancient Greek philosophers, who held that there was no need of a God or gods, for the Universe had come about by chance. A companion assumption of evolutionists-- the fossil record --is held up as evidence of the development of all life-forms, from simple to complex, over a vast period of “geologic time, depicted in textbooks as the “Geologic Column.” https://creation.com/evolution-ancient-pagan-idea. These assumptions became known as the deistic traditions of modern thinking.
Assumption of vast ages, or “deep time” was promoted by amateur geologist Sir Charles Lyell, who based his ideas on the principle of Uniformitarianism, expressed as The Present is Key to the Past. Lyell assumed that present tranquil geologic processes observed in his day could be extrapolated, uniformly, into past ages. Lyell recorded his ideas in a book, Principles of Geology (1830). This tome was to have a huge effect on young Charles Darwin, for the vast ages described was just what Darwin needed to support his ideas of biological evolution by natural selection, as expressed in the “fossil record!” These ideas have held fast, to this very day.
Evolutionist scientists buttress their claims to deep time, with the discovery of radioactive dating techniques. These purport to state ages of rocks and associated fossils with precision. A number of creationist scientist-scholars, have taken up the study, and have identified “fatal flaws” in the techniques, which stem from the assumptions that go into them. Prominent among these is Dr. Tasman Bruce Walker of Creation Ministries International (CMI), creationist Mechanical Engineer and Geologist with hundreds of learned papers on the subject to his credit.
Radiometric dating, involves precise measurements of the number of radioactive isotopes in a sample. Given a “known” rate of decay, with the use of accelerator mass spectrometers, and other fancy stuff, scientists can measure precisely, the number of atoms(!) in a rock sample, and the results are used to determine “how long” the sample has been decaying. There are a few problems. All dating methods are based on assumptions about age, not measurement of age. Dr. Walker points out, that you cannot determine the age of a rock using radioactive dating because no one was present to measure the radioactive elements when the rock was formed, and no one monitored the way those elements changed over its entire geologic history. In terms of Carbon Dating—which measures the radio of C14/C12 isotopes, applies only to once-living, organic materials-- secular scientists have it all wrong because they don’t take into account the Global Flood, which engulfed vast amounts of vegetation –as the coal fields on every continent testify—which drastically altered the C14/C12 coefficient! With regard to the rocks, when you examine their mineral content, how much was dissolved in submersion in the year-long global flood.
“Next time you see dates quoted in the millions of years,” Dr. Walker concludes, “Remember that the numbers are not scientific measurements of time elapsed. They are the result of big philosophical assumptions.” https://creation.com/radioactive-dating-fatal-flaw Take away their deep time and they have nothing—nothing—left with which to challenge the creation model of origins. Pray that more and more scientists will realize the futility of their quest and return to Christ. A great many creationist scientists were once convinced evolutionists.
For the first 18 centuries of Christianity, most believers agreed unanimously that God had created the earth approximately 6,000 years ago. Enter the industrial-scientific revolution, as men searching for raw materials, ores, and coal to feed hungry furnaces that a lot of strange things began to turn up. It was at this time the term “dinosaur” (terrible lizard) was coined. Geology was a new science. Exploration and discovery was limited to localities in England and the Continent; hence, newly identified geological features took on the names of localities, such as “Cambria,” in the UK. These appellations are still in use today, as applied to the so-called Geologic Column, which purports to identify discrete ages, eras and epochs and the flora and fauna peculiar to them. The Geologic Column purports to be a record of biological evolution over hundreds of millions of years.
The ideas of deep time and biological evolution infiltrated the Church of England at that time, with disastrous results for biblical creationists. The events are chronicled by creationist author Dr. Terry Mortenson, Ph.D. in –The Great Turning Point: The Church’s Catastrophic Mistake on Geology--before Darwin. The heresy soon crossed the Atlantic, and gradually infiltrated most churches and educational institutions in America. It was once against the law to teach animal ancestry of man in America. Now it is illegal to teach anything but, in public schools.
Two pioneers of Creation Apologetics emerged beginning in the late 1940’s, with publication of two books on the Global Flood (Rehwinkel, 1951; Morris & Whitcomb, 1962). Studies of the Global Flood, its manifest geologic work on Earth, and the associated fossils, were catalyst to the Creationist movement, which has since reached maturity in such organizations as Creation Ministries International (CMI).