This is a study of some of the hard questions that people ask about creation. Examples are: Did dinosaurs really live with people? Is there any evidence of apes evolving into man? Is natural selection and evolution the same thing?
Required Resources:
Book - Unlocking the Mysteries of Creation by Dennis R. Peterson - http://creationtoday.org/product/unlocking-the-mysteries-of-creation/
DVD - Heaven & Earth - https://answersingenesis.org/store/product/heaven-and-earth/
DVD - Life - https://answersingenesis.org/store/product/life/
DVD - Check This Out - https://answersingenesis.org/store/product/check-out/
DVD - Dinosaurs & Dragon Legends - https://answersingenesis.org/store/product/dinosaurs-dragon-legends/
Did dinosaurs really live with people?
Watch DVD - Dinosaurs & Dragon Legends or on youtube video - the first 3 minutes of
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eoxZvV6YY8
The answer to that question is yes. Since we know that land animals and man were created on day 6, then we know that dinosaurs lived with people. Many people believe that dinosaurs died out 60 million years ago, but history tells of examples of people living at the same time as dinosaurs. There are historical records from Europe in the 1500's of dinosaurs in their science books and in China at the time of Jesus there are written records of dinosaurs. Even in the Bible dinosaurs are mentioned; they are, however, called dragons, Behemoth and Leviathan. The word dinosaur is a fairly new word and started being used in the 1800's to describe the huge reptile bones that were discovered. The word means terrible lizard and correctly describes many of these creatures.
Teacher: Make up cards with these verses written on them from the King James Bible.
Psalm 44:19, 74:13, 91:13 and 148:7. Isaiah 13:22, 14:29 and 27:1. Jeremiah 9:11, 49:33. Job tells of huge animals that could only be dinosaurs. He calls them Behemoth and Leviathan. Job 40:15- 41:2. Have students read the cards with the Bible passages.
Google search Kuku Yalanji picture of plesiosaurs and download.
Download creation.com/australias-aborigines-did-they-see-dinosaurs.
Print picture of Ica stones. Google search Ica stones images. The Ica stones of Peru were found in a cave that was hidden for hundreds of years. A flood exposed the entrance and inside were discovered many stones which were named Ica stones. These stones were studied carefully and found to be authentic. They show clearly pictures of numerous dinosaurs.
The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, wrote that during his own life there were common reports of winged serpents in Ethiopia. The Jewish historian, Josephus also wrote of flying serpents at the time of the Exodus from Egypt. 200 years after the Flood a family of people went to live in a certain valley in what is now China. The men had to go first to kill off the dragons that were living there.
Book - Unlocking the Mysteries of Creation pages 154 - 155. Read 1-9 picture captions.
Also page 168 read EXTRAORDINARY SAURIAN IN BOLIVIA.
Goggle Search - Soft dinosaur tissue image. Find image to show in class and print.
There have been many finds of dinosaur bones that are not fossilized, but have been found soft with tissues, blood vessels and dried blood. These dinosaur bones have been "dated" at 65 million years old. But scientific studies show that these soft tissues would last at most 600,000 years under the very best conditions.
Where did all of the races come from?
Watch DVD - Check This Out : The Origin of Races.
Is there any evidence of apes evolving into man?
The answer to that question is no. There are many scientists that have spent years looking for old human or ape skeletons trying to find one that would prove that man evolved from an ape like creature. No one has been successful. Here are some examples of failed attempts: Peking Man - A group of researchers found a large number of apelike skull fragments including some parts of lower jaws in a cave near Peking China next to a fire pit and tools. It was assumed that since the skull and tools were found together this was an ape-man link. However, students are seldom presented with a more plausible explanation. Monkey meat is very tough but monkey brains are still considered a delicacy in that part of the world. Since only the skull fragments were found, it is quite likely that Peking man was somebody's meal… not man's ancestor.
Java Man - In 1892 Eugene Dubois found a thick boned skull cap in the same area as a human thigh bone. This is still presented as evidence of an early man that evolved from an ape. However, many years after this supposed creature was widely accepted as an ape to man link, Dubois admitted that the skull cap and leg bone were separated by 46 feet. When a scientist who is looking for that ape to man link finds a modern man's skeleton with a skull that is broken into pieces he will, because of his beliefs, put together that modern man's skull and give it an ape like appearance. Because of their belief in evolution, what they believe is an ape to man link in reality is not.
Book - Unlocking the Mysteries of Life.
Read on page 126; A colorful Reader's Digest book titled… then the THINK!
Read on page 128; Ramapithecus.
Read on page 131; What about the Artist's Reconstruction?
Google search Java Man images. Print two or more pictures. Explain to your class that all of these pictures are created by an artist and are not based on scientific finds. These pictures are made up because a scientist believed that these pictures were true. A person with only the top part of a skull or 2 inches of a jaw told an artist what kind of picture he wanted.
Study 1 Thessalonians 5:21; Ecclesiastes 10:12b-13 and Psalm 139:14-17.
Why do some Christians believe in evolution as part of God's creation process?
There are Christians who want to believe in what the Bible teaches, but they also want to believe what the scientists tells us of evolution. But these Christians are wrong.
Read Mathew 19:4-5 - There were no millions of years before man; God created man on the 6th day of creation.
1 Corinthians 15:21-22 and Romans 5:12 - Adam brought death to creation; evolution did not bring death long before Adam. If we believe that God used evolution we must believe that there was death before Adam and Eve sinned. How could a God of love allow such a horrible process as disease, suffering and death for millions of years as part of His "very good" creation? We need to accept Genesis as literal history; to understand it as it is written. Many of the New Testament's teachings like sin, come from a literal historical reading of Genesis.
Why would a loving God allow pain and suffering?
Watch DVD - Check This Out: Pain & Suffering.
Are natural selection and evolution the same thing?
No. Natural selection helps animals adapt to a certain environment. Example: The Artic Fox has an excellent white winter coat that keeps out freezing cold that can go down to -70 below zero. Natural selection can give that fox what it needs to survive the artic climate because its genes contain the information for that change. Only 6% of their body weight is fat in the summer months but that amount increases to 30% in the winter. Also, in winter the Artic Fox's fur increases 140% in multiple layers on their bodies and extra fur grows on their feet. Natural selection cannot change that fox to a higher animal. That fox will always be a fox. Evolution states that all animals change from a lower form of animal and we know that evolution cannot happen in a world of observable science.
What is the Big Bang?
The Big Bang is a belief about how the universe began. Many people believe that billions of years ago the universe began as a tiny, very hot and dense point about the size of a pea. This point contained all the mass and energy of the universe. It is supposed that over billions of years, the energy from the big bang cooled down as the universe expanded. Some of this energy formed stars and the matter clumped together to form planets. To think that a random expansion could provide us with a planet that is just the right size for its' gravity to hold an atmosphere and is the perfect distance from the sun for heat and energy. The earth's rotation is also perfect in stabilizing heat; if the earth did not rotate, one side would be a permanent deep freeze and the other side would be too hot. Did the big bang just happen to give us a magnetic field to protect us from the sun's deadly radiation and give us the right amount of numerous gases so that we can breathe? I don't think so. To think that all this started with a point no bigger than a pea is a bit foolish.
Watch short clip www.icr.org/thatsafact. Scroll to Big Bang?
Read - Nehemiah 9:6
Watch DVD - Heaven & Earth: Chapter Stars (2 minutes and 17 seconds long).
Are there examples of scientists being wrong about the evidence that they find?
Google search http://darwiniana.org/horses.htm print.
Yes. First example: Horse evolution - Evolutionists have developed a chart (show picture) that shows how horses evolved. This chart, however, was proven wrong 50 years ago. In some places where horse fossils were found, two or more of the horse series have been found buried together in the same layer of rock. This indicates that they lived at the same time and were not distantly related transitions.
Next example: Book - Unlocking the Mysteries of Creation. Page 106; read "What is the Geologic Chart?" and show picture.
Does the fossil record show that evolution is true?
Book - Unlocking the Mysteries of Creation. Page 101: read "What Was Life Like in the Ancient Tropical World?"
Google Search 70 million year old bat fossil images. Choose and print picture. Show students. Scientists found what they claimed to be a fossil of a 15 million year old bat. A few years later they found another fossil of a bat that they dated at 70 million years old. Both fossils look exactly like a modern bat. If evolution were true the 70 million year old bat would have been in a stage of evolving into a modern bat, but it was not. Think about it; as a bat was evolving and had smaller wings, it could not fly and it could not run. There is no possible way it could find food or escape predators.
Google search Whale evolution chart images. Print and show students.
Book - Unlocking the Mysteries of Creation. Page 102 read Whales with legs.
Watch short clip www.icr.org/thatsafact. Scroll and find whale evolution.
Book - Unlocking the Mysteries of Creation. Page 105 read Puzzling To Darwin.
Could natural laws have evolved?
Watch DVD - Heaven & Earth chapter Natural Laws (1 minute and 52 seconds long)
Did birds evolve from dinosaurs?
Google search Archaeopteryx fossil images. Choose picture and print.
The answer to that question is no. Dinosaurs are land animals that were created on day 6 and birds were created on day 5 of creation week. Dinosaurs and birds were created as fully developed, 100 % dinosaurs and birds by an all-powerful Creator God who shared what and how he created as real history in the first book of the Bible, Genesis. Plus, there are too many physical differences for evolution to possibly occur. Dinosaurs are cold blooded while birds are warm blooded and have a much higher metabolic rate. Bird's lung and oxygen intake are vastly different than dinosaurs. Feathers are very different from scales in both their structure and growth. There is no way possible that new information could be added to the DNA to change a dinosaur (or any reptile) into a bird. Information can be scrambled or lost but new information cannot be added to the DNA.
Show picture of Archaeopteryx.
Many biology textbooks and museums make the claim that Archaeopteryx was the perfect transitional fossil, being the perfect intermediate between reptiles and birds. As proof they point to the fact that this ancient bird had teeth, claws on the wings and a long tail. While no modern birds have teeth, there has been another ancient bird fossil with teeth. The ostrich and a South American bird called the hoatzin have claws on their wings. The long tail is a fully feathered tail that you would see on a bird. Most evolutionists now realize that the Archaeopteryx is a true bird after finding more fossils that show a far greater details of its feathers.
What about the pictures that I have seen of dinosaurs with feathers?
Print article and read highlights.
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/11/1120_021120_raptor.html
Scientist that believe in evolution are frustrated because they can't find fossils of animals that are between reptiles and birds. Because there are no intermediate fossils, they want you to believe that some dinosaurs had feathers. It's all a lie; dinosaurs are 100% reptile and birds are 100% birds.
Do we see an orderly creation designed by an orderly Creator?
Watch DVD - Life chapter : Communities (2 minutes and 8 seconds long)
What is the perfect evidence for Biblical Creationism?
There is no "magic" evidence to convince a person that strongly believes in evolution to change his belief to that of a Creator God. Yes, there have been people that in their past did not believe in God but have since believed, but that was more of the working of the Holy Spirit than any evidence. Remember that we all have the same evidence but look at that evidence based on our belief.
Book - Unlocking the Mysteries of Creation page 92.
If you study the amazing structure of the cell, a person that believes in a Creator God will praise that God for his wonderful creation. A person that believes in evolution will be amazed the such a complex cell could evolved from a pool of chemicals. Each person is looking at the same cell, yet coming to very different conclusions as to its' origins. Any evidence you as a believer in Creationism present to a person who believes in evolution will be looked at as an error on your part. Your evidence is either a lie or you were mistaken in your interpretation of that evidence.
I know we read this passage of scripture before in an earlier lesson, but we need to study it again.
Read Romans 1:18 - 21; 25. Study these verses carefully with your students.
People have a sin problem that pushes God out of their lives. Bottom line: People do not want a Holy Creator God telling them that what they are doing is wrong.
Read Romans 8:7. Read it again…slowly.
Even though there is no perfect evidence, the best evidence in my opinion would be the information in the DNA. You know that the information in our DNA is incredibly vast and you know that mutations only scramble existing information or lose information. Information has to come from information. God is the beginning of information. Evolution cannot make new information; a Creator God is the only way we can have a creation.
What about "junk" DNA?
Watch short clip www.icr.org/thatsafact. Scroll to junk DNA.
Were there really cavemen?
Were there men living in caves? Yes. Were these men dumb brutes grunting around trying to invent fire? No. Remember that people were just as intelligent back in ancient times as people are today. We have more things like cars and computers but that is an accumulation of skills that one generation will pass on to the next, not people getting smarter over time. People would find shelter in caves when they first settled an area or if they were displaced by war or famine. Caves make lousy housing, but if that was the only thing available until more sturdy houses could be built, then living in a damp cave was better than nothing.
We need to get rid of the caveman stereotypes of what we see in textbooks. We need to look at history from a Biblical perspective. For example, it did not take long for people to work metal. Read about advances there were just a few hundred years after creation.
Read Genesis 4:22
Watch video clip. What is the Evolution Formula? - https://youtu.be/jAMc5H-S9Kw
Doesn't chimp DNA prove evolution?
Watch video clip www.icr.org/thatsafact. Scroll to Chimp DNA. Found on "next page".