The Bittersweet World of Creation Science

Finding Creation Science

After a few years, I was given a copy of a copy of a copy of the Kent Hovind video series on Creation and Evolution. Although Kent Hovind was not the most scientific nor theologically accurate of the creationist speakers, he did have the benefit that he allowed people to copy his material and redistribute it. And this video is good enough to make me realize that there was a significant difference between the word of the Almighty which I said I believed and the theory of evolution which I had been taught all my life. This would become another one of those defining moments in life.

I have been taught evolution all through my school career including grade school, junior high, high school, and college. I had also been teaching evolutionary principles through my volunteer position in the Ohio State Park system in public programs. Evolution was a topic I knew well. Creation, on the other hand, I did not know very well. In fact, I am not sure what the church denomination I grew up in would even have said about the topic. Once again, the search was on for more information to try and clear up this discrepancy.

It took about two years of research and reading from many different creationist and evolutionists authors, but I came to the realization that all of the weight of evidence fell with creationism and that the theory of evolution was full of holes and problems scientifically. Even in college, evolution admitted to a number of problems, but typically the response was with more research they would be able to figure those problems out. Instead, the more they have learned about the physical world and history, the more problems there are with evolution. For us after a couple of years, I became a creationist. It would not be for a few more years, but I would start working on teaching creationism or fully applying those concepts to my life. However, this search had strengthened my faith an award of Elohim.

The Creation and Evolution Debate

The search for good / true science is a difficult one to master for anyone because of personal worldviews. Technically, there should be no 'creation science' or 'evolution science'. There should be only good science which goes where the evidence leads. The fact that such factions exist show there is more to this topic politically and socially than first meets the eye. It is only because Creation is outright rejected without due consideration by secular science that 'creation science' had to form. It often goes unnoticed that the data and evidence discovered in science fits the Model of Created Kinds far better than the Model of Evolution.

It has been said that if one allows Creation Science into the schools, then all kinds of other things must also be allowed in. One example often mentioned is the concept that life on Earth was seeded by space aliens. This is false! If the goal is to teach science, then one teaches from evidence. There is a tremendous amount of evidence to support the concepts of Creation. If space aliens seeding life are to make it into the classroom, those supporting such an idea would first have to find some type of evidence. If they are unable to do so, the topic will not be presented. One does not include ideas simply because they exist. Instead, good science follows the evidence.

In order to pursue truth, one must have many of the same qualities of the warrior. It requires focus and training. It requires conquering the enemies of fear and pride. It can be humbling to follow the evidence where it leads, especially when it does not go where one expects/wants it to go. Good science should not be subject to a popular vote ' it should follow the evidence.

My thoughts at the time focus on the realization that evolutionists are not only ignoring the evidence for creation, but are actively hiding or destroying it ... dishonorable actions rather than dealing with it ... and that this does indeed effect the salvation of people. They are taking people away from the authority of Scripture and of belief in a Creator. it is a war. My thought about the time of the meteor is 'what do you do when you realize this?'.

Many believers throughout the world live in a secular society and with a secular education system. Typically, the classroom will have little if any information about the problems of evolution theory and absolutely none of the support for the special creation that has occurred. Furthermore, the effects upon society from following the concepts of evolution theory include an increase in racism, the eugenics movement of the last century, and now the push for genetically modified organisms today. This type of world view devalues life and, therefore, contributes to suicide, murder, and other types of violence that disregard any sanctity of human life.

We live in a post-truth and probably also post-science society. What do you expect when science has gone the way of desired consensus rather than following the evidence or being based on facts for so long? What do you expect when evolutionary thought is supported not so much by evidence, but by squashing and muting the opposition? Creation Science research and Baraminology are but a weapon in the war of lies going on in the sciences.

My Experience in the Creation Science Movement

I was raised in the public school system and I attended Kent State University where I received a Bachelor of Science for a Conservation Biology Major and a Geography Minor. I was taught evolution and accepted it at that time. I was also raised in a very liberal protestant denomination that had little, if anything, to say about creation.

It was not until around the age of 30 that I became aware of the creation and evolution debate. As I have always enjoyed the outdoors, this topic immediately became important to me. After a couple years of intense study and reading about creationism and creation science, and after seeing how much evidence there was for creation and how many problems there were for evolution, and seeing the importance the topic had on our relationship with the Eternal (because he claims to be the Creator) I decided to become active in the creation science field myself, help defend the concepts of Genesis, and help believers build a relationship with the Creator and know that they can trust the word of Elohim even from the beginning.

When I started out, I was rather naive, and hopeful to be able to work with and help the various researchers and creation science organizations. At that time, I had no idea how much disunity, competition, and academic cliques existed. I had thought that since young earth creationism is a minority position within believers, that it would be a tight knit group and we could work together. I was very wrong.

Without giving away the names of individuals, it does not take long to find out that the major creation groups are actually in competition with each other and cooperation is minimal. Even worse, when you get to look behind the scenes, you find out that there have been lawsuits between groups (both old and new), that ideas get stolen, credit for technical research gets taken by those who don't understand the techniques involved, plagiarism in videos occurs, and other things rear their ugly head even in the believing creation science community.

Furthermore, there are groups that state a person must have a postgraduate degree (meaning a masters or doctorate, rather than simply a bachelors) to be a member of their organization. This essentially meant I was unable to interact in any meaningful way with these groups and any research I tried to bring was ignored.

Even worse, most of the larger organizations have a statement of faith that you must agree to in order to work or volunteer with them. This statement is not numbered, but as one reads through it, it has 42 points. The first 8 points are directly related to creation. The other 34 points are general doctrines. Considering how many denominations there are, I am somewhat surprised there are so many people who can sign it. And in fact, I have met people who admitted they signed it even though they did not agree to everything. I, however, am a little more strict on what I sign.

There were two points that I disagreed with. In my mind, 95% agreement is amazingly high. But when they heard I could not sign it as it was written, the gavel came down and I was now shunned by the general creation community. And a couple higher ranking individuals have treated me like I am somewhere between a heretic and an infidel. This was shocking to me. In my mind, we agree with the concepts of salvation, we agree with the concepts of young earth creationism, we agree with almost every point on this long statement of faith, but for some reason because we disagree with a couple points, we can have no fellowship and no working together.

To me this is a tragedy. From my perspective, all these organizations and all the individuals within them should be able to work together ... and if they did, they could accomplish so much more. It is said a house divided cannot stand and I cannot help but think that this is part of the reason that evolution is winning and creation science is losing. Even though the evidence is on the side of creation, the evolutionists are much more united than we believers are.

Now as mentioned in the opening letter, this is supposed to be a testimony to encourage you ... so why am I painting such a bleak picture of the creation science movement in my opening paragraphs? Well, it is said that every cloud has a silver lining. I will expand this to say that even in this stormy cloud, I have found what I will call bronze, silver, and gold linings that I believer I should share.

The bronze lining, is just the simple fact that despite the problems and internal conflict and competition of the creation science community they are still making progress in research, they are still reaching the public with the good news of a loving Creator, they are still encouraging people in their walk of faith. It's just a simple realization that even if we could do better in unity and we give ourselves hurdles due to our human faults and frailties, His kingdom can still move forward and help people. And this would be true in any ministry and in any other field of work the church endeavors to do. We can remember that these same problems have existed for thousands of years and they do not stop the Kingdom of Heaven from being built.

The silver lining, is much more personal in nature. When doing research on created kinds (the different types of plants and animals that were created) the major organizations have a heavy emphasis on what they call the Ark kinds ( the animals that would have been on Noah's Ark). If I had joined with, or volunteered with, these organizations I probably would have faced heavy pressure to work on that same topic. However, when I went to university I had planned on eventually working in the park system or in forestry and I had taken as many plant taxonomy classification courses as I did all of my animal taxonomy classification courses. Being that I was now an independent researcher free of constraints by these organizations, I was able to pursue my own interest in plants (a topic that is been almost entirely ignored in the creation science research field). This has been a joy and a pleasure for me! It has been said 'find a job you like and you will never work a day in your life'. Well, developing a method to determine flowering plant kinds has been wonderful. And this is how it can be when we pursue the path our Master gives to us to follow.

The gold lining through all of this, is both the most humbling and the most joyful. The first lesson in the gold lining came years ago when I realized I was trying to impress the researchers and leaders of the creation science community. When I gave this up, I was able to focus much better on the work of the Kingdom. However, I was not at peace yet. For years, I was doing the proverbial 'banging my head against a brick wall'. It wasn't until much later I realized that (even if I was not trying to impress them) I was still trying to at least prove myself to them: prove that I was a believer, prove that I was a scientist, prove that I had ideas and research worthy of being accepted.

When I realized that I did not have to even prove myself ... I was truly free. Free to go back to studying creation because I enjoy it. Free to encourage the believers I do interact with about the truth of Scripture. Free to help individuals with topics they are struggling with rather than follow a prescribed plan made by a large organization. Working in the Kingdom by sharing what the Bible says without the stress of trying to impress or even prove myself to others that limit fellowship on the basis of academics or denominational doctrines is so incredibly rewarding.

The people in those organizations are still my brothers, and without that frustration I am able to pray for them and not hold any bitterness against them (although that definitely had been a struggle in the past while wanting to prove myself). It is odd to think about, but if I had not been shunned, I possibly would not have reached the calling, work, and research He wanted me to work on and not had all the joy of discovery nor the peace of helping others that I am now learning.

Why Not Pursue Academia?

Academia is concerned with research, education, and scholarship. To some degree, these are good goals. But many problems can lie hidden underneath. I could probably get a Masters or Doctorate degree as well as try to publish in a scientific journal ... but I have seen what happens and it is not a battle worth fighting. I believe my calling is to help and encourage believers with science rather than prosper in the academic community.

Barriers in Secular Academia When the established leadership of a group or organization is inherently biased, unfair, or 'evil, then that which is good will not prosper under that organization or group. Such bias and unfairness can come from many sources, but typically include philosophies, worldviews, logical fallacies, or a desire of a group to maintain their own control over a situation.

Photography Example For example, I once entered a multi-state photography competition which was open-themed - any subject matter could be entered. This particular contest had only a single judge ... which strongly opens the possibility for personal bias. After the judging was over, it was discovered that all entries that were permitted to be on display or win a prize had to have a person in the image. It did not matter how good an image was for artistic merit, composition, or technique - if it did not include a person it was not shown. A tremendous bias by the judge that was not reflected in the rules for the contest. Many were unhappy with this outcome.

Controlled Science The academic community has chosen to disregard all the evidence, and follow only that evidence which follows a naturalistic philosophy. This is not good and true science which follows where the evidence leads. It is a science with a pre-determined conclusion and any facts must be forced to come to that conclusion. This can be referred to as 'science falsely so called'.

Barriers in Creationist Academia Even within the realm of Creationist Academia, there are problems.

Journals and Copyrights I am currently developing a method of determining flowering plant kinds based on the Floral Formula ... something that is coming out of my unique training, research, and interests during the last 24 years. I submitted the idea to a few Creationist journals. One expressed an interest in this stating they would be "delighted" to have it. They sent the contract. The opening paragraphs basically stated that for the privilege of publishing with their organization, I would give them the rights to all of the work, charts, and graphs that went with it. In other words, if I wanted to quote myself in some future writing, I would have to get permission from them first. The worst part was the realization that this has happened to many other authors and the strong suspicion that once they published, the work they were doing stalled. It has been repeated for decades, but noone has taken the topic that was published to the next level. It sits there and languishes out of the control of the one who first produced it.

Conferences and Time Delays I considered submitting the Floral Formula to a Creationist conference as well. But the rules basically set it up so that once submitted and accepted, the organization gets the right to present and publish the information first ... meaning anything I have to share would have to wait 2 years (until the conference date) before getting out to the public.

Instead, I have chosen to present my current research freely and publicly as well as what is being published in related books. This immediately puts it into the hands of anyone who could benefit from the information.

This page is under construction. My apologies for any misspellings, repeated text, missing references, etc. Please visit again later for a more complete treatment of this topic.