Essential Facts about Life on Earth
Fascinating, Surprising Information Regarding Our Origins. Did You Know this Concerning Evolution?
By Lennart Sundstad
How did nothing spontaneously turn itself into everything? Automobiles, to cite one example, are manufactured by thinking beings at an already-existing factory, on a planet with laws of nature in place. The vehicles are put together following meticu-lous, intelligent planning, design, testing and skilled work on suitable materials. What about the universe and life – did it not create itself out of solely nothing, and without purpose, only to be finally destroyed? The answer to this question is amazing and at the same time appealing!
Do You Produce Dollar Bills, When Burning Paper?
Hardly! Yet we are expected to believe in fanciful suppositions regarding the origins of life. These odd conjectures influence our view on the meaning of life, and dictate our treatment of each other and Planet Earth. One unsustainable theory goes like this (see Vance Ferrell’s three-part book of reference, “Evolution Encyclopedia,” Chapter 1, The Origin of Matter, Part 4, at evolutionfacts.com):
Without any assistance, nothing compressed itself into a tiny, tiny dot. This dot then stretched or blew itself up, without the use of energy. Thus, it is assumed, helium and hydrogen came into being - emptiness had filled itself with something! It is presumed that the natural elements came into existence through even more explosions. Without any gravitation, the compression would never have stopped. So nothing would have, forever more, been falling into itself. Without gravitation, the expansion would never have halted, either. Hence, all would only have been an eternal emptiness, and you would never have received this flyer.
The original bang - from the outset impossible in itself - would only have produced radiation, and that will not hand you a universe. Through creative activities, let it be noted, you make things, you do not destroy them. Thus, the Big Bang disqualifies itself. Still, we are here! Who, then, fashioned everything, without ruining anything?
Gases, like hydrogen and helium, never form chunks. In frictionless (= having no resistance) space, therefore, matter would have gone on spreading forever. Nonetheless, it is held that matter - without the aid of a plan or a Creator - aggregated into the universe. According to evolutionary thinking, the laws of nature would have been obliged to invent themselves. Do you believe that?
Moreover, the universe is mathematically designed, most orderly, and fine-tuned. Without precise laws of nature from the outset, the planets would have raced about like headless chickens or crashed into each other! A “Big Bang” would, therefore, have rendered the exact orbits of the heavenly bodies impossible. An explosion brings about chaos, not order.
The Privileged Planet!
From the fascinating DVD, The Privileged Planet (copies may be ordered from illustramedia.com) we learn, among other things, circa 20 prerequisites for life in space. Here are some of them: The planet in question must be localised within the Habitable Zone (if the Earth were closer to the Sun by 5%, it would be as hot as Venus; 20% further away and it would be as cold as Mars). It must circle the right type of star; be protected by gaseous giants; travel in a nigh on circular orbit around its sun; possess an atmosphere rich in oxygen; have the right mass; itself be circulated by a moon; be fitted with a magnetic field. Also required are flexible parts in its crust, streaming water, a correct correlation between oceans and continents, and a suitably quick planetary rotation. All conditions must be fulfilled simultaneously. For this to have happened spontaneously is mathematically impossible. In addition, small errors in the laws of physics - which are uniform throughout the cosmos - would prevent life. Just like conjuring forth an automobile by tossing an ignited stick of dynamite is unfeasible, chance cannot create a universe and life! Who, then, was the originator of it all? What do you think?
How Did the First One-Celled Creature Arise?
“For many years the medieval idea of spontaneous generation was the accepted explanation. According to Webster, spontaneous generation is ‘the generation of living matter from non-living matter ... [it is taken] from the belief, now abandoned, that organisms found in putrid organic matter arouse spontaneously from it.’
Simply stated, this means that under the proper conditions of temperature, time, place, etc., decaying matter simply turns into organic life. This simplistic idea dominated scientific thinking until 1846, when Louis Pasteur completely shattered the theory by his experiments. He exposed the whole concept as utter foolishness. Under controlled laboratory conditions, in a semi-vacuum, no organic life ever emerged from decaying, nonliving matter. Reluctantly it was abandoned as a valid scientific issue.” - Joe Crews, How Evolution Flunked the Science Test, pg. 3 (can be read or downloaded free and without obligation at amazingfacts.org).
Can Evolution Still Do the Impossible?
“Dr. George Wald, Nobel Prize winner of Harvard University, states it as cryptically and honestly as an evolutionist can:
‘One has only to contemplate the magnitude of this task to concede that the spontaneous generation of a living organism is impossible. Yet here we are - as a result, I believe, of spontaneous generation.’- Scientific American, August, 1954.
That statement by Dr. Wald demonstrates a much greater faith than a religious creationist can muster. Notice that the great evolu-tionary scientist says it could not have happened. It was impossible. Yet he believes it did happen. What can we say to that kind of faith? At least the creationist believes that God was able to speak life into existence. His is not a blind faith in something that he concedes to be impossible.” - Crews, pgs. 4-5.
Nobody would claim that the next version of Windows will create itself spontaneously, whereas the non-existent universe is supposed to have made itself out of nothing! Can you smell a very big rat? What do you intend to do about this information?
“The chance for a proper combination of molecules into amino acids, and then into proteins with the properties of life is entirely unrealistic. American Scientist magazine made this admission in January of 1955: ‘From the probability standpoint, the ordering of the present environment into a single amino acid molecule would be utterly improbable in all the time and space available for the origin of terrestrial life.’
A Swiss mathematician, Charles Eugene Guye, actually com-putes the odds against such an occurrence at only one chance in 10(160). That means 10 multiplied by itself 160 times, a number too large even to articulate. Another scientist expressed it this way:
‘The amount of matter to be shaken together to produce a single molecule of protein would be millions of times greater than that in the whole universe. For it to occur on earth alone would require many, almost endless, billions of years.’ - The Evidence of God in an Expanding Universe, pg. 23.” - Crews, pgs. 7-8.
A lone protein molecule will not create life, so the impossibility would only have increased. Who, then, gave rise to everything?
Cartoonist Jim Pinkoski’s book A Creationist’s View of Dinosaurs and the Theory of Evolution should make us sit up and take notice:All parts of the eye have to be in place at one and the same time, for the eye to function. Simple forms of life, too, have complex eyes. These only work when all of the pieces are assembled. Pinkoski quotes none other than Darwin: “To suppose that the eye, with all its inimitiable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree” (Origin of Species, 1902 edition, Part One, pg. 250). Thus the eye disproves Darwin’s tenet (pg. 12). When did all the one-eyed animals decide to evolve an extra eye? Where are, for instance, all the one-eyed dinosaurs (pg. 13)? The absence of intermediary forms weighs down the theory of evolution even more.
Moreover: Ought not evolution to continue? Where are, for example, animals with an extra leg, or some other novelty? Can it be this simple: The flora and fauna of the Creator are perfect, requiring no additional major physical changes? Mutations should only have brought forth one body part, such as an arm, at a time. Where do we find one-winged birds, one-legged “ape men”, etc. (pg. 14)? (How do you think an extra leg into existence? Or hair on a bald person’s head?)
The Moon recedes by about 5 cm (2 inches) yearly from the Earth. Had the Moon (and the Earth) come into existence several milliard (billion) years ago, the Moon would have been too close to the Earth. The result? Well, all life would have been drenched two times a day by huge tidal waves! When man landed on the Moon, the layer of dust there was only 2.5 centimetres (1 inch) deep. Had the Moon been several milliard years old, the layer of dust on it would have measured several feet (1 foot = 30.48 centimetres). The Sun consumes its mass and shrinks by about 1.5 metre an hour. Had the Sun and the Earth been in their current positions milliards of years ago, the Sun would have been even more of a giant, than today. The Sun would have burned up our home in the cosmos (Pinkoski, pg. 19).
Almost all mutations are harmful, yet it is believed that they have contributed to the existence of men, shrubs and stones (pg. 20). Transitional forms between non-living matter, protozoa, etc. all the way to monkeys and humans are lacking. Sudden leaps in the chain of evolution would have meant that a reptile laid an egg, and a bird hatched from it (pg. 21).
What Is Evolutionary Suicide?
Answer: For a life form, while evolving, to decide to split itself into two sexes! Only an idiot of a life form would demand such a challenge, by turning itself into two genders, forcing the male and the female to find each other in precisely the right moment in their cycles of reproduction, to guarantee the continuation of its species (Pinkoski, pg. 15).
What Is More, Than Impossible?
“Various protein molecules can have 50, 100, 200, 300, or even 400 linked amino acids - and each amino acid is made up of a special arrangement of 4 or 5 chemical elements, and each chemical element is made up of a unique combination of neutrons, protons and electrons! ... The probability for forming DNA proteins is gigantic: 1 in 10167 625!!! ... Mathematicians usually consider any event with a probability of less than 1 chance in 1050 as having a zero probability!!” (Pinkoski, pgs. 16-17. His emphases).
Did You Know This About Geological Layers?
“In Glacier National Park there is a “1 billion year old” block of “Precambrian” limestone on top of a “Cretaceous” shale formation which is supposedly only 100 million years old.” (Pinkoski, pgs. 22-23.) It should be the other way around, according to the theory of evolution. Did a mistake happen? Then that mistake was strong, because the shale formation is more than 563 km long, 56.3 km wide and over 9.5 km thick! Enormous, unbelievably strong currents during a worldwide flood would have been able to stack different layers of sediment from various directions (containing the skeletons of sundry animals) on top of each other. Compare Genesis, chapters 6-8, at the very beginning of the Bible!
Is the Fern More Advanced, Than We Are?
According to the theory of evolution, simple life forms evolve into more complex life forms. Pinkoski, therefore, wonders why a fern can have 434 more chromosomes, than a human! Against this background, the list of the number of chromosomes of different life forms presents surprises: Penicillin, having 2 chromosomes, is the simplest form. From the penicillin “evolved” the fruit fly with 8 chromosomes. The fruit fly gave rise to the tomato and the house fly, each having 12 chromosomes. Further up the list is wheat, 42 chromosomes, which “fathered” the bat, with 44. “Grandchild” to wheat is none other, than man, having 46 chromosomes. We are, read and behold, the twin brother/sister of tobacco, also with 46 chromosomes. The sweet potato, 90, “birthed” the gold fish, 94. “The crown of evolution”, according to the theory, is thus the fern, having 480 chromosomes (pgs. 40-41). Are you laughing or weeping at this kind of craziness?
“Even more difficult is to understand the development of form in connection with size. All engineering has as its basis the principle of a small machine not being able to be dimensioned to a far greater scale just like that. You will soon reach the stage in development, where modifications no longer are enough, and you are obliged to fundamentally alter the design. This corresponds with the principle of weight changing with the cube of the size, whereas surface size and power transferable via strings, tendons or muscles is changed with the square of the size. This is why a fly dimensioned to the size of a dog would break its legs, and a dog the size of a fly would not be able to maintain its body temperature. If evolution started with small organisms, it would quickly have reached a point, where small structural changes because of the increase in size would have been insufficient. This would have required a completely new design for the species to survive. But the very basis of “natural selection” is that nothing can bring forth such a new design itself.” - Liv och Under i Naturen, pg. 54 (Swedish language edition of Creation - Nature’s Designs and Designer, published in the United States by Pacific Press Publishing Association, and having a number of contributing authors. Fourth printing of the Swedish version, put out in 1975). Life forms, then, cannot change in size from that of an amoeba to that of a gigantic dinosaur. This excludes evolution. Who, then, created the different species? Any suggestions?
An Enzyme Cannot Evolve at the Same Time as Its Organ of Control
“The many ingenious mechanisms employed by a cell merely to control the action of its enzymes, demonstrate the fact that if the cell just consisted of a bag of enzymes, it would never have survived. We do not know of any natural process of selection, where both an enzyme and the organ controlling it have evolved simultaneously - the enzyme to perform a specialised duty, and the organ of control to stop it from performing that duty. There is no such thing as a function which means both an advantage and a disadvantage. Thus, an enzyme cannot evolve at the same time as its organ of control. However, they could not have evolved separately either, without one preceding the other. Had the enzyme first come into existence, it would have been without an outer control, and that would have been a most unusual situation. Also, the device for shutting it off could not have appeared first. Furthermore, enzymes and their organs of control are integrated units. Their operation is co-ordinated. There is no reason to believe that they ever were apart, or could have arisen independently of each other.”- Liv och Under i Naturen, pg. 89. Read that again - and think, think very deeply! What conclusion do you now draw about the origin of life?
Natural Selection Hinders Evolution from One Species to Another
”Natural selection cannot produce new genes; it only selects among pre-existing characteristicsa.
... The variations Darwin observed among finches on different Galapagos islands is another example of natural selection producing micro- (not macro-) evolution [small changes within a species, not the transition into a new species]. In other words, while natural selection sometimes explains the survival of the fittest, it does not explain the origin of the fittest. Actually, natural selection prevents major evolutionary changes.d” - Dr. Walt Brown, In the Beginning, pg. 6 (this volume can be downloaded gratis at the site creationscience.com/onlinebook/). Author’s emphases and raised letters (the latter point to the list of references in the book).
Did you notice? If natural selection inhibits the evolution from one species to another, there can be no evolution from one species to another! Or have you heard about a Volvo turning itself into a SAAB, even in small steps during a long period of time? The theory of evolution has fooled us enough; it is time to discard it, at this very moment! (We will shortly find a better explanation, so read on.)
Fossilised Animals and Fishes
The effects of the Flood are still to be noticed: Fishes, animals and trees would have rotted many times over, if they had been waiting for millions of years to be covered by layers of sediment. Rather, fossils the world over seem to have been buried rapidly, tissues being preserved in several cases. Animals of many kinds can be found in mass graves. There they lie, their bodies twisted and contorted, as if buried violently and quickly - like in a catastrophic flood! A photo in Dr. Brown’s book shows one fish swallowing another fish. Both are fossils, indicating a rapid process of being turned into stone. “Thousands of such fossils have been found” (Brown, pg. 9). See also former atheist Walter Veith’s brilliant, free and not-to-be-missed lectures on amazingdiscoveries.org. Select AD TV and then “Total Onslaught”, or his presentations about science.
Veith, of course, was aware of the reprehensible, former system of apartheid in his native South Africa. He stresses the possibility of biologic variations among humans, hence different skin colours, etc. Belief in creation, therefore, says “No thanks” to racial and class hatred. We are of the same race. Fascism, communism and racism prove that hatred on the inside only consumes us.
“Sounds Reasonable...”
Vance Ferrell again (same source): “Chaos can never change itself randomly into cosmos; disorganized matter can never transform itself by accident into the highly organized elements with their whirling atomic particles, or into stars circling one another with thorough precision and balanced orbits. And it can never change mud and seawater into plants and animals.” Do you also see that? Why, then, are we not told these matters of course at school and in the media? Does someone not want us to know?
Life only comes from life. Since it could not have created itself out of nothing, life must have had an originator – a since eternity past self-existing, immortal Creator, who is superior to time, space, matter, life and death.
This is how He did it: “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. ... For he spake and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.” Psalms 33:6, 9. God spoke matter forth. The first man, however, was a handiwork: “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Genesis 2:7.
Thus the hen preceded the egg, for the egg could not have laid itself. Since the hen was unable to conjure forth herself, she - and the rooster! - had a Creator. Then the egg could be laid, and the chicken could peer out.
Surely you have a different view of science now?
Creation Week in Short
The Creator spoke forth matter and ordered it to assume the shape and nature He desired (Genesis 1-2:3). On day one the 24-hour day was introduced - light was separated from darkness. Day two saw the atmosphere appear - the correct mixture between oxygen and nitrogen. Otherwise, a single spark would have made the planet catch fire and burn up, or nobody could have breathed and the birds would have had nothing to fly in. On day three were the land, the sea and the vegetation spoken into existence. This ensured space for ocean and land animals plus man, as well as providing food for the animals and ourselves. On day four God arranged the Sun and the Moon. They were to regulate seasons and to give light both night and day (there will have been some other type of light during the first three days). On day five He ordered forth the ocean-living animals and the birds, on day six the land animals and man. All conditions for life were in place. Flora and fauna are inter-dependent and give off nutrients, etc. which benefit each other. This makes evolution impossible. In evolution only the fittest survives, at the expense of the rest. The seventh day was reserved for rest and society with God, which we have largely forgotten. Have you heard about stress, not to mention unhappiness?
Long ages between the days of creation would have meant burning heat for the one side of the planet (following the creation of the Sun), while the other side would have been frozen in ice. Without, among other things, a protective atmosphere, all water would have evaporated because of the Sun’s intensive rays, had the Sun been put into operation on day one.
The length of the week and the name of the day of rest (the seventh day) in many languages, Sabbath, also prove the accuracy of creationism. From the beginning, the day of rest of creation week was to be kept holy during one and the same weekly day, every week. This we can learn from the fourth commandment in Exodus 20:8-11, which orders rest from work during the seventh day. Keeping holy a day of rest hundreds or maybe a thousand years long would not have been reasonable.
Adam (and Eve) experienced part of the sixth day of creation week and all of its seventh day. Had those days been thousands of years long, Adam’s eventual age could not have been what it was. Due to his rebellion against the Creator, he was 930 years old at his death, and not thousands of years old before the fall (Genesis 5:5). Thus days, weeks, months and years were reckoned from the beginning. (We get the year from the Earth’s voyage around the Sun. The month is determined by the Moon circling our planet. The day is governed by the rotation of the Earth. No natural/cosmic explanation can be found for the length of the week, except for the seven days of creation week!)
Practical, Don’t You Think?
All cars share the same basic components that work. In like manner, the Creator has used the identical, basic pattern in constructing certain limbs in various creatures. For example, birds, men and even whales have humerouses, radiuses, ulnas, carpals, metacarpals and phalanges in their wings, arms and pectoral fins, respectively (Pinkoski, pg. 23).
Well Thought Out Beetles and Woodpeckers!
Some living proofs of God’s geniality are: the bombardier beetle (Latin: Brachitus crepitans), which defends itself against attack by firing extremely hot, irritating gases out of two explosion tubes in its tail. Evolution for thousands of years would have been pure “dynamite” for the poor beetles, which would have blown themselves up, before eventually finding the right chemical mixture, pressure and enzymes. From where did the woodpecker get its cushioning pro-tecting its brain from being concussed during its rapid, hard drum-ming against a tree trunk? The archer fish (Latin: Toxotes jaculatrix) has such good sight it masters the refraction of light, and catches its prey by spitting at it (pg. 30). And did you ever consider the following: Any fishy forefather of man simply could not have stepped out of the ocean, and started developing for millions of years. Fishes suffocate on land. This creature must have been very much like a human to have survived leaving the water! The opposite is also true: Should a land living animal have decided to turn itself into a creature of the sea, it would have drowned itself as a non-developed amphibian. This creature must have been very much like a fish at the outset, but then it would not have made it on land...
What does Pinkoski have to say about professed Christians, who believe in evolution? “If we evolved from apes, then the Bible is a lie! If the Bible is a lie, then God is a liar, God’s angels are liars, the Bible prophets are liars, and that would also make Jesus a liar. Jesus lived in the Jewish culture, and every Jewish synagogue in the world taught the law, the first five books of the Tanakh {the Hebrew Bible}! Nobody, but nobody argued with the story of Genesis and the written account of the 7 literal days of creation! Every Jew knows that God created Adam and Eve on the 6th day - and that meant Jesus knew it too! If that straight forward story was a lie, then would God be a liar for permitting it to be included in Scripture and passed on down the centuries to billions of believers! So if you’re going to believe in Jesus, then that means you must also accept the fact that God’s Word tells us that He created Adam and Eve in one day!” (pgs. 42-43. Author’s emphases). II Timothy 3:16 says: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God”, and Titus 1:2: “God... cannot lie”. Do you still believe in evolution, or do you trust the Word of God, which calls Him the Creator?
“The living, human soul freezes into an icicle in a world without God. Perhaps you will recall Homunculus - the artificially made human being brought about by magic by alchemists in the second act of Goethe’s Faust. He was always cold. You feel the cold, when you consider yourself merely a complicated product of chemical substances and chemical reactions: a soul-less being. We humans long, in our inmost being, for a Father, the source of warmth, love, light. Just like all fundamental human needs are satisfied in real life, so does the soul have its needs. We can find God. We can know him.” - Richard Wurmbrand, Svar paa Moskvas Bibel, pg. 124 (a skilful refutation of a handbook for atheists. From the 1979 Swedish edition. Original title: My Answer To The Moscow Atheists. Arlington House, 1975).
”It was very good”
That was how the Master Designer graded the world He had just created (Genesis 1:31). First the Bible describes a happy world, without suffering and death. Then man decided to learn, what it means to be independent from God. He had been warned about the dire consequences. Equipped with free will, he was, however, allowed to choose his way. God does not desire forced obedience, and has not made us into robots (see Genesis 1-3).
Then almost the entire Bible describes God’s strenuous efforts to persuade man to be rejoined to Him. What is more, He paid for man’s rebellion through the sinless life and voluntary, sufficient offering of the divine Christ (for historic proof concerning the Saviour, read The Case for Christ, by investigative reporter Lee Strobel. You will marvel at his astounding findings!).
Finally the Bible describes a world forever delivered from evil and death (Revelation 21-22). There the original meaning of life will be carried through. We get one life, in which to decide whether we shall be freed from the spirit of insubordination for ever (Hebrews 9:27-28; II Corinthians 5:10). The theory of evolution only offers strife and ruin, without any meaning of life. God fills the vacuum with His goodness and hope for the future! Are you glad He does?
Caring and Assistance
A Christian will know the solidarity of the Lord, to use a word normally lacking real meaning among humans. Here are a handful of examples of His many efforts to secure our eternal good:
A Meaningful Existence
Life, therefore, is no hopelessness in the middle of the wrongly perceived emptiness of eternity! This is made clear by that master-piece called The Great Controversy. This book comes to you free of charge and concerns itself with world history from the dawn of Christianity to the restoration of paradise. A literary pearl, it sketches fascinating character portraits; analyses evil and suffering; deals with the rebellion against the sound world order in heaven and on the Earth; man’s condition in death, spiritism; the judgment and its execution; the gift of salvation; dictatorialness, fanaticism and tyranny; the struggle for enlightenment and religious liberty; God’s commandments falsified; the Protestant Reformation; the French Revolution; biblical prophecies, including the one about the USA; the Anti-Christ; the powers supporting the Anti-Christ; the play and counter-play behind the scenes leading soon to a final war between good and evil, besides much else. The Great Controversy clearly shows that God only wants to bless us, and controls world events, including the drama enfolding before the return of Christ!
For more on our origins, visit: evolutionfacts.com; amazingdiscoveries.org or creationfacts.org
You may also download or listen to it (MP3) at www.greatcontroversy.org or order the free book from
Faith & Liberty, PO Box 35946, London N17 7WG, Great Britain
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