ABSTRACTS
Lack of Evidence for Subduction Renders Plate Tectonics Unlikely
PART I—TRENCH SEDIMENTS AND ACCRETIONARY PRISMS
Michael J. Oard
Scientists accepted plate tectonics too quickly. Despite many anomalies, all observations are automatically fit into the plate tectonics paradigm. Geological and geophysical data at subduction zones are critically examined. Trench sediments and accretionary prisms are not in character with early conceptions of subduction zones, resulting in many ad hoc hypotheses.
Laws of Fertility, Role of Natural Selection, and Destructiveness of Mutations
Yuri N. Ivanov
Research into fertility has revealed facts that are incompatible with selectionism, the modern concept of evolution. In whatever species, fertility is never so close to the most productive (optimal) level that it would guarantee survival of most of the offspring. This is a radical contradiction of the selectogenesis theory, which postulates that 1) the level of species fertility has been attained because of selection, and 2) any individual modification of fertility is a matter of adaptation. Neither fertility itself nor its modifications have anything to do with Darwinian adaptation or with increased population growth; actually, they hold the population stabilized within certain limits. It is not the maximization of individual fitness (also known as the reproductive success) that makes up the basic principles of life organization, but allocentrism (the availability of self-limiting properties of species that are advantageous to the ecosystem as a whole, i.e. are good for the mutual benefit of all the species). Despite permanent natural selection for elevated fertility, the distribution of fertility in any species remains invariable. This phenomenon proves the perfect destructiveness of the mutation process. Undoubtedly, mutations that increase fertility have occurred and continue to occur, but do not become fixed because they diminish fitness on the whole. Therefore, selectogenesis cannot be a factor of fertility or of any other character less associated with fitness than fertility, and the creationist concept of the species invariability is thus confirmed. A short classification of cosmogonies is given. Denying the miracle of creation, evolutionism is forced to admit another miracle—the inactivity of the second principle of thermodynamics. Likewise, atheistic science turns out to be inimical to reason and morals.
Historiography and Natural History
John K. Reed
Natural history is commonly considered a science by virtue of the application of the scientific method. Although distinctions exist between human history and natural history, natural history is not a science because the study of unique past events is history. Since natural history is a class of history, it presupposes and requires a “natural historiography”, just as history presupposes and requires historiography. This natural historiography cannot simply appeal to the scientific method; indeed, a focus on method alone is inadequate. A complete and explicit historiography of natural history remains to be developed and applied. Historiography provides a template for a natural historiography, despite differences between human history and natural history. Deriving a natural historiography is best done within an integrated worldview which can define its scope, value, and methods. The worldview of Naturalism cannot do this because of irreconcilable differences between its axioms, methods, and conclusions that pertain to natural history. These problems are not present within Biblical Christianity which can alone define and justify a natural historiography. Christianity validates natural history but modifies its scope, value, and method from that currently accepted and applied.
The Life Clock and Paley's Watch: The Telomeres
Jerry Bergman
The complex telomere structure eloquently demonstrates an example of a precise mechanism which in numerous ways parallels a mechanical watch time piece. The structure also provides a possible mechanism to explain the wide variations in longevity of humans found in history, specifically those described in the Biblical record. This mechanism may also give us insight into the Biblical fall and the change in longevity that has occurred since.
Lunar Crater Giordano Bruno
Don B. DeYoung
There is growing evidence that a major lunar crater formed in recent historical time, A.D. 1178. The feature is now called crater Giordano Bruno, located just beyond the moon’s upper right limb. The evidence includes eyewitness accounts, crater appearance, and lunar vibrations. This lunar impact conflicts with long-age assumptions and fits the recent creation view.