Speaking against the common theory of evolution taught in schools, Dr. Jonathan Sarfati, speaker for Creation Ministries International, spoke last night in the Student Union Little Theatre about using science to defend the Bible. Sarfati presented a similar lecture Saturday at the College Heights Baptist Church that focused more on Christian viewpoints. This lecture was different in that he presented scientific evidence that supports biblical events, such as the Great Flood, and that evolution may be wrong.
“Some people have misconceptions about evolution,” Sarfati said. “It’s like the religion of the education system. So it’s not science versus religion, but really a case of two religions fighting each other, with science as a weapon.”
Sarfati, a doctor in Raman spectroscopy, explained that there should not be a division between science and the Bible. In fact, according to Sarfati, modern science owes its rise to religious people, such as Sir Isaac Newton. According to Sarfati, Newton wrote more about religion than he did about science and it was because of his faith that he was able to discover the law of gravity among other scientific milestones. More founders of modern science were similar, such as Nicolaus Copernicus.
Brianna Winn, senior in special education and a member of Christian Challenge, is currently in a class that talks about K-6 science classes and how the theory of evolution is taught.
“There’s always the debate about evolution and creation,” Winn said. “I just liked hearing from the opposite viewpoint that’s not prominent in school.”
Sarfati believes that Earth is only four thousand years old, and carbon dating that shows the planet to be millions of years old is actually wrong. Usually, when scientists carbon date, they compare two carbons and the lower the ratio, the older an object is. According to Sarfati’s argument, the ratio between carbon-12, an element that pre-exists in the human body, and carbon-14, an element absorbed through breathing or eating, was very low.
“It’s no wonder they get things that are millions of years old,” Sarfati said. “If you have an already low carbon-14 ratio, things will look older than they seem.”
This low ratio can be explained by the Great Flood described in the Bible. In Sarfati’s viewpoint, before the flood began, there were changes underwater, such as rock slides from underwater mountains. These rockslides may have buried the carbon-14 in the air, which reduces the amount of carbon-14 the earth has today. This leads to inaccurate readings when scientists carbon date an object.
Another piece of evidence for the flood Sarfati provided was the sudden burial of animals. During his presentation, Sarfati showed pictures of fish giving birth and dinosaurs fighting. According to his theory, there is no possible explanation for a carcass of fish or dinosaurs to be lying around undisturbed until the earth buried them. Instead, something sudden and catastrophic must have happened, like the flood.
Dillon Rockrohr, junior in english, said that he was glad to hear another viewpoint and science being used for creationism.
“I believe in an intelligent designer,” Rockrohr said. “But I don’t know about the time frame. That’s a little above my pay grade but I think I’m leaning towards creationism.”
Jeff Scott, graduate student in environmental engineering, became a Christian three years ago and said that Sarfati brought up questions he had never thought of before.
“It was nice to hear an argument different from the secular view,” Scott said. “I just accepted everything but it was great to see science on creationism’s side.”
