Creation Science Papers

 
Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy must have had a great deal of free time on his hands now that the asteroids have missed us and the galaxy isn't going to be consumed by a hydrogen cloud for at least 40 million years. He was thinking of writing a paper for a new journal sponsored by Answers in Genesis [Creationists: publish and perish].

Phil was interested in the first two papers that were published in the Answers Research Journal. One was a geology paper and one was about microbiology. Phil wanted to know how good they were.

Being as relieved as him about the fact that the Earth survived the near miss, I decided I could spare a few minutes to read the microbiology article. It's by Alan L. Gillen from that famous center of research called Liberty University. Here's the abstract.

The world of germs and microbes has received much attention in recent years. But where do microbes fit into the creation account? Were they created along with the rest of the plants and animals in the first week of creation, or were they created later, after the Fall. These are some questions that creation microbiologists have been asking in recent years. Ongoing research, based on the creation paradigm, appears to provide some answers to these puzzling questions. The answers to these questions are not explicit in Scripture, so the answers cannot be dogmatic. However, a reasonable extrapolation from biological data and Scripture can be made about the nature of microbes in a fully mature creation. This article attempts to provide reasonable answers to when microbes were created and is meant to stimulate discussion and further research in this area.

Very little has been written in Bible commentaries or in creation literature on the subject of when microbes were created. Some have postulated that microbes were created on a single day of Creation, such as Day Three—when the plants were made. This is partially due to the “seed-like” characteristics that bacteria and fungi have—therefore classifying microbes as plants. In addition, we observe microbes (such as Escherichia coli) isolated in the lab and we tend to think of microbes as individual entities much like birds or fish or animals and, therefore, created on a single day. However, in nature, the vast majority of microbes live in biological partnerships, not in total isolation. The natural symbiosis of microbes with other creatures is the norm. Therefore, we postulate that microbes were created as “biological systems” with plants, animals, and humans on multiple days, as supporting systems in mature plants, animals, and humans. This idea is further supported by the work of Francis (2003). Francis calls microbial symbiotic systems a biomatrix, or organosubstrate. He proposes that microbes were created as a link between macroorganisms and a chemically rich but inert physical environment, providing a surface (i.e., substrate) upon which multicellular creatures can thrive and persist in intricately designed ecosystems. From the beginning, God made His creation fully mature, and complex forms fully formed. This would insure continuity and stability for the times to come. Although we cannot be certain as to specifically when the Creator made microbes, it is within His character to make entire interwoven, “packaged” systems to sustain and maintain life.

I didn't read any further.

Phil, the bad news is that this is a pile of crap. The good news is that you won't have to waste very much time writing a paper for this journal. You can probably knock it off in an afternoon.

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