It should be recognized that it is impossible to determine with certainty any date prior to the beginning of historical records—except, of course, by divine revelation. Science, in the proper sense, is based on observation, and we have no records of observation except historical records.

One of man's most vexing problems today is the conflict between energy and ecology, between conservation of jobs and conservation of nature. The need for expanded energy sources and more goods and services for mankind seems completely at cross-purposes with the maintenance of an unpolluted environment.

Man has always been intrigued and fascinated by the heavens. The scholars of antiquity, whether in Sumeria, Egypt, China, Mexico or any of the other early civilizations were well versed in the locations and orbits of all the visible stars. They had counted and catalogued and grouped them all and had pronounced the total number to be almost two thousand stars!

In the early days of geology, especially during the 17^th and 18^th centuries, the dominant explanation for the sedimentary rocks and their fossilized contents was that they had been laid down in the great Flood of the days of Noah.