The Fossil Record: Unearthing Nature’s History of Life

Foreword

Dr. John Morris received his Ph.D. in geological engineering from the University of Oklahoma and is President of the Institute for Creation Research in Dallas, Texas. Frank Sherwin received his graduate training in biology from the University of Northern Colorado, Both have extensive resumes in creation research and ministry. During their many travels throughout the United States and abroad, they have lectured in schools, universities, churches, and other venues, presenting the scientific and biblical evidence for creation. The combination of Morris’ training and experience in geology and Sherwin’s expertise in zoology has resulted in this beautiful and persuasive book on The Fossil Record.

There are some evolutionists who, while defending evolution, do admit that the fossil record provides adequate evidence to determine which has the strongest evidence, creation or evolution. Thus, evolutionists Glenister and Witzke state that “the fossil record affords an opportunity to choose between evolutionary and creationist models for the origin of the earth and its life forms.1

Futuyma expressed a similar belief when he said:

Creation and evolution, between them, exhaust the possible explanations for the origin of living things. Organisms either appeared on the earth fully developed or they did not. If they did not, they must have developed from pre-existing species by some process of modification. If they did appear in a fully developed state, they must have been created by some omnipotent intelligence.2

The authors begin by documenting that the worldviews of those involved in this contest are of considerable importance. Thus, Richard Lewontin, evolutionist and Harvard professor, states:

Yet, whatever our understanding of the social struggle that gives rise to creationism, whatever the desire to reconcile science and religion may be, there is no escape from the fundamental contradiction between evolution and creationism. They are irreconcilable world views.3

The authors make it abundantly clear that theirs is the biblical worldview, which holds that God created the earth and all living organisms, as related in the first ten chapters of the book of Genesis. They then describe what should be found in the fossil record if creation is true and contrast that to what should be found if evolution is true. This discussion includes information on important aspects of geology and dating methods.

As you read this book, you will find that Morris and Sherwin indeed present powerful scientific evidence from the fossil record that living organisms appeared abruptly on the earth in a fully formed state and remained in stasis until the present day. They exhibit amazing complexity from the start, not simple-to-complex evolution. Their fossils point to rapid burial in catastrophic, watery conditions, and are typically found today in mass fossil graveyards with organisms from mixed habitats, having suffered agonizing deaths. These features are just what should be present if they resulted from creation and a cataclysmic flood such as that recorded in the Bible.

The authors then dig into the most interesting part of this book as they lay out the scientific evidence from the fossil record that in many cases is devastating to evolution. One example was so utterly contradictory to evolution that the evolutionist source proclaimed that “this is one count in the creationist’s charge that can only evoke in unison from the [evolutionary] paleontologists a plea of nolo contendere”!4 Thus, they leave the evolutionists in a position of no defense.

Morris and Sherwin have thoroughly searched the scientific literature that augments their personal field study of the fossil evidence related to many features from fossils of the smallest organisms to the origin of man. They have assembled a wealth of material that is sufficient to enable all who study the fossil record with an open mind to realize that the record declares that “in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” I urge everyone who has an interest in the fossil record to obtain a copy of this excellent book.

Duane Gish, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President Emeritus
Institute for Creation Research

References

  1. Glenister, B. F. and B. G. Witzke, 1983, Did the Devil Make Darwin Do It?, D. B. Wilson, ed., Ames, IA: State University Press, 58.
  2. Futuyma, D. J., 1983, Science on Trial, New York: Pantheon Books, 197.
  3. Lewontin, R., 1983, In the Introduction to Scientists Confront Creationism, L. R. Godfrey, ed., New York: W.W. Norton and Co., xxvi.
  4. Strahler, A. N., 1987, Science and Earth History – The Evolution/Creation Controversy, Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 408.


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The Fossil Record

The claim that fossils document evolution is simply not true. ICR geologist Dr. John Morris and zoologist Frank Sherwin unearth the evidence of earth’s history and conclude that the fossil record is incompatible with evolution, but remarkably consistent with the biblical account of creation and the great Flood of Noah’s day.

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