Today’s New Reason To Believe

Thanks to a spectacular new discovery concerning the geophysical history of the earth, one more detail in biblical author Moses’ chronology of Earth’s creation history has been scientifically verified. The breakthrough yields yet more evidence for the divine inspiration of the Bible’s words and message. First, let me offer some personal background for this discovery.

I signed my name in the back of a Gideon Bible late one August night in 1964, thereby committing my life to Jesus Christ. This commitment was based—to a large extent—on the evidence I had accumulated for the truthfulness of the Bible’s content and message. Much of that evidence consisted of several dozen Bible passages wherein future scientific discoveries were accurately predicted thousands of years in advance of the discoveries.

There were two passages in the Genesis 1 creation account, however, that at the time I had to place in the unresolved anomaly category. Genesis 1:2 implied that islands and continents either did not exist on early Earth or they covered an insignificant fraction of Earth’s surface. Genesis 1:9-10 placed the period of most aggressive continental landmass growth within creation day three; that is, roughly halfway through God’s creative activity on Earth. The problem with these two passages was that in the early 1960s the prevailing view among geologists and geophysicists was that continental landmasses, though shifting in position and shape, had covered a large fraction of Earth’s surface throughout Earth’s history.

This view, though troublesome, did not disturb my faith in an inerrant Bible. I was aware that the view lacked physical evidence and that a detailed plate tectonic model for the history of Earth’s crust had been developed for only the past 0.25 billion years. Thus, I adopted a wait-and-see approach to the supposed anomaly.

During the 1980s and especially the 1990s geophysicists had determined most of the physical and chemical processes that operate through plate tectonic activity to transform ocean floor basalts into continental silicates. The researchers demonstrated that indeed virtually all of the silicates on Earth came from these processes. This meant that Earth must have begun as a water world in which water covered the entirety of its surface. Further, the rates at which these processes operate implied that it took a few billion years for the continents to build up to their present sizes.

These discoveries and analyses by geophysicists proved consistent with advances taking place in paleontology. These advances showed that Earth’s first life was strictly marine life and that terrestrial life appeared much later in the fossil record. The net result of these discoveries, analyses, and advances was to vindicate the bold statements made in Genesis 1 about the history of Earth’s oceans and continents, thereby providing yet one more piece of evidence for the Bible’s power to accurately and consistently predict future scientific discoveries thousands of years in advance of their time.

One detail about continental buildup remained to be put to a scientific test. Genesis 1:9-10 seems to imply that it was during creation day three that Earth experienced the most dramatic episodes of continental landmass growth. Now, a team of British geologists and geophysicists has demonstrated through osmium isotope measures that Earth’s continental crust didn’t grow gradually and roughly linearly through time but rather it advanced through a series of pulses.¹

Geologists have noted for some time that much of Earth’s continental crust dates to be one of four specific ages, namely, 1.2, 1.9, 2.7, and 3.3 billion years, with the first three dates being predominant. Since large upper mantle melting events are known to trigger the growth of continental crust formation, the British research team used measures of the rhenium-187 to osmium-187 ratios to track and date upper mantle melt events. They discovered that these upper mantle melt events cluster around three specific ages: 1.2, 1.9, and 2.7 billion years ago. The fact that these dates coincide with the ages for most of Earth’s continental crust provides strong evidence for (1) “the pulsed models of continental growth by means of large-scale mantle melting events,”² and (2) dramatic growth of continental landmasses at approximately the halfway point during the history of life on Earth.

In confirming that the most dramatic growth of continental landmasses occurred at about the halfway point in life’s history on Earth, the British research team also vindicated Genesis author Moses. His chronology was correct in describing a past period of aggressive continental landmass growth and in dating that period as occurring on creation day three (out of the total of six creation days). Thus, the discoveries made by the British earth science research team illustrate how the more we learn about science the more reasons we uncover for belief in the Bible as the inspired error-free word of God.

1. D. G. Pearson, S. W. Parman, and G. M. Nowell, “A Link Between Large Mantle Melting Events and Continent Growth Seen In Osmium Isotopes,� Nature 449 (September 13, 2007): 202-05.
2. Pearson, Parman, and Nowell, 202.

Thanks to a spectacular new discovery concerning the geophysical history of the earth, one more detail in biblical author Moses’ chronology of Earth’s creation history has been scientifically verified. The breakthrough yields yet more evidence for the divine inspiration of the Bible’s words and message. First, let me offer some personal background for this discovery.

I signed my name in the back of a Gideon Bible late one August night in 1964, thereby committing my life to Jesus Christ. This commitment was based—to a large extent—on the evidence I had accumulated for the truthfulness of the Bible’s content and message. Much of that evidence consisted of several dozen Bible passages wherein future scientific discoveries were accurately predicted thousands of years in advance of the discoveries.

There were two passages in the Genesis 1 creation account, however, that at the time I had to place in the unresolved anomaly category. Genesis 1:2 implied that islands and continents either did not exist on early Earth or they covered an insignificant fraction of Earth’s surface. Genesis 1:9-10 placed the period of most aggressive continental landmass growth within creation day three; that is, roughly halfway through God’s creative activity on Earth. The problem with these two passages was that in the early 1960s the prevailing view among geologists and geophysicists was that continental landmasses, though shifting in position and shape, had covered a large fraction of Earth’s surface throughout Earth’s history.

This view, though troublesome, did not disturb my faith in an inerrant Bible. I was aware that the view lacked physical evidence and that a detailed plate tectonic model for the history of Earth’s crust had been developed for only the past 0.25 billion years. Thus, I adopted a wait-and-see approach to the supposed anomaly.

During the 1980s and especially the 1990s geophysicists had determined most of the physical and chemical processes that operate through plate tectonic activity to transform ocean floor basalts into continental silicates. The researchers demonstrated that indeed virtually all of the silicates on Earth came from these processes. This meant that Earth must have begun as a water world in which water covered the entirety of its surface. Further, the rates at which these processes operate implied that it took a few billion years for the continents to build up to their present sizes.

These discoveries and analyses by geophysicists proved consistent with advances taking place in paleontology. These advances showed that Earth’s first life was strictly marine life and that terrestrial life appeared much later in the fossil record. The net result of these discoveries, analyses, and advances was to vindicate the bold statements made in Genesis 1 about the history of Earth’s oceans and continents, thereby providing yet one more piece of evidence for the Bible’s power to accurately and consistently predict future scientific discoveries thousands of years in advance of their time.

One detail about continental buildup remained to be put to a scientific test. Genesis 1:9-10 seems to imply that it was during creation day three that Earth experienced the most dramatic episodes of continental landmass growth. Now, a team of British geologists and geophysicists has demonstrated through osmium isotope measures that Earth’s continental crust didn’t grow gradually and roughly linearly through time but rather it advanced through a series of pulses.¹

Geologists have noted for some time that much of Earth’s continental crust dates to be one of four specific ages, namely, 1.2, 1.9, 2.7, and 3.3 billion years, with the first three dates being predominant. Since large upper mantle melting events are known to trigger the growth of continental crust formation, the British research team used measures of the rhenium-187 to osmium-187 ratios to track and date upper mantle melt events. They discovered that these upper mantle melt events cluster around three specific ages: 1.2, 1.9, and 2.7 billion years ago. The fact that these dates coincide with the ages for most of Earth’s continental crust provides strong evidence for (1) “the pulsed models of continental growth by means of large-scale mantle melting events,”² and (2) dramatic growth of continental landmasses at approximately the halfway point during the history of life on Earth.

In confirming that the most dramatic growth of continental landmasses occurred at about the halfway point in life’s history on Earth, the British research team also vindicated Genesis author Moses. His chronology was correct in describing a past period of aggressive continental landmass growth and in dating that period as occurring on creation day three (out of the total of six creation days). Thus, the discoveries made by the British earth science research team illustrate how the more we learn about science the more reasons we uncover for belief in the Bible as the inspired error-free word of God.

1. D. G. Pearson, S. W. Parman, and G. M. Nowell, “A Link Between Large Mantle Melting Events and Continent Growth Seen In Osmium Isotopes,” Nature 449 (September 13, 2007): 202-05.
2. Pearson, Parman, and Nowell, 202.

Latest Genetic Evidence Indicates No Interbreeding between Neanderthals and Humans

I don’t want my teenage daughters to date Neanderthals. Apparently, the first human fathers didn’t like the idea much either.

New findings reported at a recent Biology of Genomes meeting (Science, May 18, 2007, p. 967) douse the flames of romance between humans and Neanderthals, seemingly once and for all.

In the last decade, paleoanthropologists have isolated and analyzed DNA fragments from the fossil remains of at least thirteen distinct Neanderthals. These specimens typically date between 30,000 to 40,000 years in age (though one specimen is about 100,000 years old) and encompass most of the Neanderthal’s range (Europe, western Asia, and the Middle East).

The DNA sequences from all the Neanderthal specimens indicate that humans and Neanderthals must be distinct species. These species are so different that, if viewed from an evolutionary standpoint, it appears as if the last shared ancestor for Neanderthals and humans lived nearly 800,000 years ago. More importantly, the data also indicates that Neanderthals did not evolve into humans.

These results invalidate traditional evolutionary models, like multiregionalism, and at the same time powerfully support RTB’s views on human origins. The RTB model regards the hominids recovered from the fossil record as separate species, distinct from anatomically and behaviorally modern humans. Accordingly, these animals were created by God, and since that time they have gone extinct. Genesis 1 makes no specific allusion to the hominids. Their creation along with other animals on either Day 5 or Day 6 can only be inferred.

In response to this data, some anthropologists have advanced more sophisticated human evolutionary models. One version, for example, maintains that when modern humans migrated around the world they interbred with Neanderthals and Homo erectus whenever they encountered them. Even though Neanderthals didn’t evolve into modern humans, some evolutionary biologists think that they still may have contributed to human origins through interbreeding, infusing their genes into the human gene pool.

This idea has not received much support. Analysis of mitochondrial DNA by researchers from the Max Planck Institute seemingly indicated that Neanderthals and modern humans did not interbreed. This work compared DNA recovered from four Neanderthals with corresponding DNA isolated from the remains of five modern human fossils. The Neanderthal and modern human specimens all date within the same time period (between 30,000 and 40,000 years ago) and were recovered from corresponding geographical locations. Even though the Max Planck Institute investigators readily recovered Neanderthal-type DNA from the Neanderthal specimens, they did not detect any in the modern human remains. This suggests that Neanderthals likely did not make any genetic contribution to the earliest modern humans.

Preliminary results from studies of Neanderthal nuclear DNA were much less certain, however (Science, November 16, 2006, p. 1068-1071). Analysis of nuclear DNA is potentially much more informative than mitochondrial DNA. One analysis of Neanderthal nuclear DNA sequences found no evidence for interbreeding. Another analysis, however, noted some genetic signatures in the Neanderthal genome that could be taken as evidence that humans contributed to the Neanderthal gene pool.

The latest work compared the Neanderthal DNA signatures with the DNA signatures from African and European DNA and found no evidence for gene flow between humans and Neanderthals. Analysis of human and Neanderthal Y-chromosome sequences support this conclusion as well. Humans and Neanderthals did not interbreed.

Now, if only I could get one of my daughters to fall for a rich doctor…

For a more detailed discussion of how Neanderthals fit into RTB’s human origins model, see Who was Adam?