ABSTRACTS
Sequoyah Caverns: A Testimony of the Genesis Flood
A. Jerry Akridge
Sequoyah Caverns is a large cave system in northeastern Alabama. The main cave, open for commercial tours, is the object of this study. Its features, including speleothem formations, erosional wall patterning, fossilized marine creatures, and an unusual sedimentary deposit containing allogenic pebbles and disarticulated fossil mammals, all indicate the rapid and energetic development of this cave within the recent past. The cave system and its surrounding strata are easily explained by the processes of the Genesis Flood and its aftermath.
A Genesis Model for the Origin, Variation, and Continuation of Human Populations
Joel David Klenck
A model is presented based on a comprehensive analysis of Biblical references for the origin, variation, and continuation of human populations. This paradigm is compared to a breadth of paleontological, bioanthropological, and archaeological evidence regarding human origins. The model provides a more comprehensive explanation for the array of human origins data, especially the (1) alleged evidence for the greater antiquity of anatomically modern human bones, (2) the temporal coexistence of modern and non-modern human populations such as H. erectus and Neanderthals, (3) variation in the morphological traits of human populations, and (4) the continuation of only modern human populations or Homo sapiens sapiens into the present Holocene period.
The Rise and Fall of the Orthogenesis Non-Darwinian Theory of Evolution
Jerry Bergman
Orthogenesis is the theory that evolution occurs in a straight line, not branching, and is internally goal-directed. The theory was an attempt to explain the source of new genetic information in biological evolution. Although the theory boasted a number of prominent supporters, it did not survive scientific scrutiny and is now effectively moribund. The main problem with orthogenesis was that no plausible mechanism to drive straight-line evolution was ever demonstrated, and all of the examples used to support orthogenesis could be explained by other theories. Today the most widely accepted theory concerning the source of new genetic information is gene mutations. But mutation is regarded by some prominent biologists as an inadequate source of genetic novelty. It is important to study the doctrine of orthogenetic evolution because it prepares us to understand what may very well happen to the mutation-based evolutionary theory in the future.
The Origin of Grand Canyon Part IV: The Great Denudation
Michael J. Oard
The Great Denudation is the uniformitarian name for the massive erosional event that stripped tremendous volumes of sedimentary rock from the surface of the Colorado Plateau. Like the origin of Grand Canyon, this event remains inexplicable to uniformitarian geology. However, any hypothesis of the origin of the Canyon must account for the conjunction of these two very large-scale, yet very different events. The Great Denudation was accomplished by east to northeast flowing sheets of water, which left a cobble and boulder lag—the Rim Gravel—on the southwest Colorado Plateau. Uniformitarians propose erosion by northeast flowing streams, but there is no sedimentary evidence for their depositional activity, and the sheet-like erosion is not consistent with observed styles of fluvial erosion. However, the Great Denudation can be easily explained by the sheet-flow phase of the Flood, which occurred early in the retreating stage. Evidence for a single, great, and rapid erosional event is found in the nature of the rocks capping the top two stairs of the Grand Staircase.