Life in Layers
In art class or craft time, maybe you have done sand art. Using a glass jar and several different colors of sand, you begin to pour the sand into the jar one color at a time. Then you might take a long, sharp utensil like a pencil and run it down the side of the jar to make the colors zig-zag into pretty shapes. Naturally, the first color of sand you pour in the jar is on the bottom; the second is next to it; the third is on top of that, and so on.
Did you know that if you could look at the Earth in a jar, you would see layers similar to the ones in your sand art? In fact, the cover picture of this month's Discovery shows a section of the Grand Canyon that has many layers. Scientists call these layers the geologic column. Geology is the study of the Earth, which is why these layers are called the geologic column.
In these layers of the Earth we find millions of different fossils. Evolutionists teach that the "simplest" organisms are found in the "oldest" layers at the bottom of the geologic column, while more "complex" organisms are found in "younger" layers at the top. Evolutionists also teach that each layer was laid down over millions of years and that the fossils found in the layers represent plants and animals that evolved during that time in Earth history.
But neither of these teachings is true. In fact, the idea that these layers were laid down over long periods of time, that they contain organisms in a "simple-to-complex" order, and that they somehow "prove" evolution, has some serious problems. This issue of Discovery will show you some of those problems. For instance, some plant and animal fossils cut through several layers. Does that mean that these plants or animals were being fossilized over millions of years? Also, those animals that look "simple" aren't as simple as some people once thought. Trilobites (sea-living animals with a shell that can be found in the lower layers of the column) had more complex eyes than most of the "complex" animals found above them. How could the plants and animals be progressing from "simple to complex" if the ones on the bottom were already complex?
Another problem with this idea of long ages of time has to do with the Flood of Noah. Think back to your sand art. Imagine dumping water into the jar very quickly and shaking it up really hard. When it settled out, would the bottom still be the sand that you poured in first. Probably not! Those who look at the geologic column and say it took millions of years to form do not even consider the great Flood of Noah.
When we examine the geologic column more closely, we find that it gives some good evidence for creation. For example, if evolution were true, then we would expect to see many half-and-half fossils (such as a half-reptile/half-mammal) gradually changing from one kind of animal into another. But what we really find are millions of plants and animals that are fully formed and that appear in the column with no gradual line of fossils before them—which is exactly what you would expect to find in a world that was created!
We hope this issue of Discovery teaches you great things about the Earth and its history, and we hope that you will remember that God created it and controls it.
Butt/Ehrman Debate: Suffering and the Existence of God
In this debate, national best-selling author and self-professed agnostic, Bart Erhman, contends that the pain and suffering in the world show that the loving God of the Bible does not exist.
