Where Do We Stand Compared to Other Creationists?

Barry and Helen Setterfield, January 2016

One of the disturbing things that is present on both sides of the evolution/creation debate is the fact that theory is taking precedence over facts.  Those who are against the concept of Noah’s Flood producing the majority of the vast fossil record have very good reasons for that – data.  Those who are against the idea that millions and billions of years were required to produce the fossil record have very good reasons for that – data.  But there is, on both sides, a cherry-picking of the data in order to support their presuppositions and theories.

God did not deceive us in creation.  Paul is very clear in Romans 1 that all creation testifies regarding Him. So perhaps looking at the data and following where it leads might be of benefit to both sides.  That is what we have tried to do, and the results have been fascinating.  The physical data absolutely supports the Bible in both its statements and its precepts, and quite literally.  But this is not the scenario supported by many creationists – nor by evolutionists. It simply has agreement with data (and the Bible) going for it – it does not have big names to back it up. 

In our humble opinion, both the standard creationists and the standard science as taught in public schools are doing an equal disservice to students:  it has become a “my way or the highway” approach.  If we want our children, our students, to be willing to take the Bible seriously as educated, thinking adults, then we must be willing to take ALL the data seriously.

We do not support the positions taken by Hugh Ross or Des Ford (old age progressive creationists) as we believe that the data and the Bible deny both. Furthermore, though we gratefully acknowledge that Henry Morris did much to get the creationist movement started, his modeling is deficient where the geological and astronomical data are concerned. His approach, and those who have followed in his steps (such as creationists in Australia and the USA) was to take Biblical statements and build a theory on those statements while side-lining any data which disagree with the theory. The evolutionist does the same thing; he takes Darwin's Origin of the Species as a theoretical concept and tries to force-fit the data into that approach.

Because we believe that God has not lied in His creation and the data it provides, our approach has been to consider both the scriptural statements and the physical evidence, the data, in astronomy, geology and physics and see where that leads us. Our website documents that journey of discovery.

A fairly brief summary of the model that the rock and fossil data provide along with the Biblical statements can be found in the Rock and Fossil summary. This comes in two parts, so you need to look at both. There are other questions which have been answered later on in that listing.

Astronomically, there have been recent developments which are dramatically changing the way astronomy can account for what we see. The old way of looking at things astronomically has been to apply gravitational physics to explain all that we see. This has led to the concepts of missing mass, dark matter and dark energy - none of which have actually been observed, despite a long period of searching. The new approach notes that 99% or more of the visible universe is in the form of plasma, which is a gas whose atoms are stripped of their electrons so negative electrons and positive ions (mainly protons) are moving around independently of each other.

Plasmas are not affected by gravity to any large degree; they are controlled by electricity and magnetism. The interactions of electricity and magnetism in plasmas in space can be up to 10³⁹ times stronger and faster than gravity. In the lab, using plasma filaments, we can produce miniature galaxies and stars in fractions of a second experimentally. Because plasma interactions scale linearly, we can upscale these lab results to universal phenomena and end up with formation times much less than gravity requires. This is the source of much discussion in astronomical circles and among electrical engineers.

Another piece needs to be added to this puzzle. In physics recently it has been found that there is an intrinsic energy in the vacuum, even when cooled to absolute zero (about minus 460 F or minus 273 C). Analysis indicates that this energy, which is called the Zero Point Energy (ZPE) is the energy imparted by the original stretching of the universe. As the stretching went on the ZPE built up. The ZPE actually controls the electric and magnetic properties of the vacuum. When the ZPE was low in the early days of our cosmos, currents were intrinsically stronger and voltages higher, and plasma interactions were faster. We know how the ZPE has built up in strength from data from distant galaxies. We can therefore draw a curve of its behavior through time as it built up. We can then apply that information to plasma physics and the formation time of galaxies and stars etc. When that is done, it turns out you can get a whole universe formed in less than 7 days using known physical processes. God could have done it that way using the laws He instituted in Genesis 1:1.

The final piece of information that the ZPE gives is that with the properties of the vacuum being different, the speed of light was significantly faster originally and slowed as the ZPE built up. Analysis shows light could get back from the most distant parts of the cosmos in less than 8000 years.

In addition, since atoms are made up of electric charges and magnetic fields, all forms of atomic clocks ticked faster. Using the same data from astronomy about the ZPE behavior with time, we can correct the billions and millions of years of atomic time to orbital time. Orbital time is gravitationally based and is not affected by ZPE changes. You and I run our lives by orbital time; the time it takes the Earth to go once around the Sun or the Moon once around the Earth. When the atomic dates are corrected to orbital dates using the ZPE data, then everything fits into a timeframe with a creation about 5800 BC. Furthermore the 3 catastrophes in the geological column that separate the 4 main eras then are found to coincide with Noah's Flood, the Babel catastrophe, and the Peleg continental division of Genesis 10:25. Here is more about the astronomical model that emerges from plasma physics.

In conclusion, while we do not discount the idea that God could have created the universe and all that is in it via one miracle after another, we are convinced that the data He left in that same universe indicates that He may have achieved the same thing in the same six literal days using physical processes He established. We strongly disagree with the concept that the vast majority of the fossil record and geologic column was built up in the year of Noah's Flood. Noah's Flood was a real event and, as the Bible states, totally destroyed the world that was. Totally. Nothing left, not even fossils. The fossils show every evidence of being built up through several hundred years after the Flood through other general and localized catatastrophes. These are the two main areas where we have strong disagreements with both the long age theistic creationists and the recent creation models which are so prevalent and claim that Noah's Flood was responsible for most of the geologic column and the fossils in it. In both cases, we believe the data itself, without any 'massaging' or 'interpretation,' indicates otherwise.