telling stories in science, the influence of the worldview, water as the cause of destruction

Secular science program under review

The secular science program under review. The topic is telling stories, the influence of the world view on doing science, and the influence of water as a cause of destruction

I came to watch a five-part program series called Earth (Production: BBC/PBS, Great Britain 2023). This series followed familiar lines. It brought up millions of years, the birth of the earth by itself, the birth of life by itself, the theory of evolution that at first life was only in the sea, how the climate on the earth was sometimes extremely hot, sometimes extremely cold and sometimes it rained heavily for two million years.

What did you remember about this program? Perhaps the best description is that the program was full of storytelling. Stories after stories, but what is the scientific basis of the stories? There is not a single piece of evidence that the Earth could have come into being by itself. There is not a single piece of evidence that life could have arisen by itself. It cannot be proven that life was initially only in the sea and not at all on earth. Millions of years cannot be proven true because, for example, coal deposits contain radiocarbon, which should not be in the deposits at all after 100,000 years, because its official half-life is only 5730 years. In fact, no coal deposit has been found that does not contain radiocarbon (Lowe, D.C., Problems associated with use of coal as a source of 14C free background material, Radiocarbon 31(2):117-120, 1989). This refutes the claim presented in the program about the age of the coal deposits being hundreds of millions of years.

The stories presented in this program are characterized by a naturalistic world view. It means a worldview where there is no Creator outside the universe who has created everything. So, when scientists have such a worldview, they try to use it to come up with explanations for how the earth was born, how life arose by itself, and how the first primitive cell became the current flora and fauna. For this, they use millions of years to help, because they think that long periods of time automatically make many things possible, such as the inheritance of species from the same primordial cell. They ignore the fact that radiocarbon in coal deposits and dinosaur fossils cancels out millions of years. Likewise, they ignore the fact that fossils show no gradual evolution, and natural history museums have no examples of the same thing, even though hundreds of millions of fossils have been dug up from the ground.

Why then do these scientists act in this way, even though the practical evidence is against their views? The reason is spiritual blindness. When people don't believe in the existence of God, they ignore the only possibility as to why the universe and life exist. They exist because He, God created everything, and it's not millions of years ago. If they accepted this theistic explanation, they could look at the peculiarities of nature from it. The existence of organisms and their complexity fits better with a theistic worldview, not a naturalistic one. Even atheist scientists admit that the universe and life have a beginning, but as long as they remain in the shackles of their naturalistic worldview, they are outside the truth and have to invent imaginary stories based on the naturalistic worldview about how everything began. That's also how it worked in this program series.

What was interesting about this program was that it allowed for the possibility of disasters. They were not much paid attention to in previous decades by atheist scientists because natural formations were thought to be the result of small slow processes, but now the possibility of catastrophes is acknowledged. In fact, atheist scientists assume that there have been at least five major catastrophes. The largest of them is thought to have been the mass extinction at the end of the Permian period "252 million years ago". The program referred to this large-scale destruction, which was believed to be the result of volcanic eruptions, although the program admitted that "However, no direct traces of volcanic activity can be seen in the rocks":

Two hundred and fifty-two million years ago, a catastrophe occurred, because of which life on earth was in danger of dying... Our planet was then very close to returning to the starting point. Up to 90 percent of the species at that time died. The extinction was much more widespread than the one that ended the age of the dinosaurs…. The destruction of so many species is rare, so the disaster has been enormous….

These rocks, formed two hundred and fifty two million years ago, bear evidence of a widespread extinction. When you climb up this rock, you also move in time. The lower rocks are older than the upper ones. These ancient rocks were once formed at the bottom of the sea, from where they rose to become today's mountains. The rocks reveal the environment in which they were born, but beyond that they are rich in fossils. There are a variety of clams, sea slugs, conch shells and other fossils like this pearl boat that lived in those days.

Many kinds of fossils can be found in the rock layer, which speak of the vitality of the marine ecosystem. However, the situation changed. Here we see a diverse ecosystem full of life. However, it is difficult to find fossils after this layer. The few we find are very small. The diversity seen below seems to have disappeared…. The destruction seems to have been amazingly extensive. However, no direct traces of volcanic activity can be seen in the rock.... The event is not only visible here but everywhere on our planet. Life just disappeared. The same border can be seen everywhere. Life just seems to have disappeared.

Scientists do not talk about mass extinction lightly. It's a heavy term. The mass extinction at the end of the Permian period was the worst of all. It has been called the mother of mass destruction and the great death.

How is the same evidence examined from a theistic and biblical perspective? The destruction has really happened, as admitted in the program, but it is not a so-called the mass extinction at the end of the Permian period, but it is the Flood mentioned in the Bible, which is referred to by hundreds of old flood stories found around the world and the remains of marine life in all high mountains (Himalayas, Alps, Andes... Even on the world's highest mountain, Mount Everest, remains of marine life, such as fish, have been found). The flood explains the layers of the universe and the creation of fossils better than volcanic eruptions alone.

The reason atheist scientists believe in multiple mass extinctions instead of one big one is that they assume different forms of life appeared on Earth at different times. They believe that at first there was only marine life for millions of years, then life near shores, then millions of years later came dinosaurs, and finally came birds and mammals. Because of this view, they invented several destructions, the first of which only concerned marine life, and the last destructions also affected animals on the surface of the earth. They don't consider the possibility that all sea life and land life have existed all along, and that they met the same destruction, the Flood, just a few millennia ago. They reject this biblical description because of their worldview.

However, in the few science programs I've watched in the last couple of years, the effect of water in disasters comes up repeatedly. There are excellent examples of this in several programs (e.g. in programs such as "Dinosaur Apocalypset", " Secrets of the Jurassic Dinosaurs", "Ice age: A Frozen World" and "The European Ice Age". That is, four different programs tell about powerful and large-scale destruction caused by water). The same point of view about the disaster caused by water also appears in this program "Earth". Finally, I will quote from the program. It refers to how the disaster is believed to have been global and that it rained heavily before it. If we take off the evolutionary glasses, it is easy to understand that the quote clearly refers to the Flood:

These mountains are mainly formed by a hard mineral called dolomite. They also have layers consisting of a completely different type of rock. It gives indications of the special phases of the country's history. … Here is a rock that was formed during a strange period. This sandstone is a fairly soft type of stone. You can see individual grains of sand in it. Here again, there is an even softer stone. It crumbles easily in my hands because it is a mud stone. These types of rocks differ from those found below and above. Here there is sandstone and mudstone, while elsewhere there is dolomite. The secret of the unusual rock layer has to do with the way it was formed. Sandstone and mudstone are sediments that are usually formed from sand and mud worn away by erosion and washed into the sea. These strange, soft layers of sand and mudstone are found all over the Dolomites. One must ask what brought about this dramatic change…. The answer can be found in the sky. It started to rain heavily. The period lasted a long time, about two million years…. Such heavy rain seemed so unlikely that many researchers initially thought the event was local. Evidence was also found in China, Iran and North America. Today, the event is believed to have been global. The period is referred to as the wet period of the Carnia phase.