Observing Creation | The Institute for Creation Research

Observing Creation

Creation and evolution studies are limited to observations in the present, but both speculate about unseen events of the long ago past. Mainstream scientists typically use the principle of uniformitarianism to guide their study, assuming that past processes were the same as those possible today and that “the present is the key to the past.” Creation scientists unapologetically employ the Word of the Creator, the Bible, to guide their investigation into the past. Scripture doesn’t give us all the details, and so there is much room for research. But revelation is the true key to the past.

According to Scripture, in the beginning things were, to God’s eyes, “very good” (Genesis 1:31). They must have been very different from things today, because in our world things are not always so good. They were certainly without sin, and thus without the “wages of sin” (Romans 6:23), which is death. Creation was perfect in every respect in a perpetually optimum state of operation, working under a similar but different set of laws from that of today.

The first instance of disobedience to God and the rejection of His authority over creation resulted in the Curse of Genesis 3, which ruined the original perfection of all things. Today, all living or inanimate things undergo a ubiquitous deterioration, continually spiraling in on themselves. We still observe hints of the original perfection, but only hints, marred by sin and its effects.

After the Curse, processes operated in ways we would recognize, and from that time until the present, uniformity of natural law has reigned. We can be certain that every time an object is dropped, gravity will pull it down. Every time wood is burned, heat will be released. Every time parts move, friction will be generated. In the present time, the constancy of natural law can be assured.

How things operated in the beginning, we can only imagine. Thus, the confidence we have in present natural law must not be over-applied into the past before the present laws of nature were fully enacted—before God’s “very good” creation was altered by man’s sin and the resulting penalty. It’s almost like a curtain was drawn between then and now, and we can only see through it dimly.

A similar curtain was drawn at the time of the great Flood of Noah’s day, an episode during which present processes were operating, but at greatly altered rates and intensities and on wide scales. Catastrophic flood and tectonic processes acted on regional—if not continental or global—scales, while today’s uniform processes affect only local areas (stream and lake beds, beach fronts, tidal zones, hurricane paths, etc.). The great Flood permanently altered the entire earth.

The Flood’s survivors were promised there would never again be such a flood. The Flood of Noah’s day was totally out of our experience, and we can hardly imagine it. The imprint it left cannot be avoided and can be seen everywhere on the planet.

In total, three curtains have been drawn over the past. The first was drawn at the end of the six days of creation, when God “finished” His creating and making, at which time He prohibited further creation or annihilation of either matter or energy. He seldom thereafter used creative processes, and we have no access to them. The second was at the Curse, when He initiated the death of all living things and deterioration of all non-living systems. Finally, the third curtain was evident at the great Flood, when processes used were acting at greatly accelerated rates, scales, and intensities—“off the scale” of today’s processes.

Uniformity can address none of these three world-altering episodes and, thus, cannot arrive at ultimate truth. Furthermore, if we ignore these great historical events, we cannot expect to arrive at truth regarding earth’s history.

* Dr. Morris is President of the Institute for Creation Research.

Cite this article: Morris, J. 2012. Observing Creation. Acts & Facts. 41 (9): 15.

The Latest
NEWS
Ichthyosaur Graveyard Explained by the Flood
Ichthyosaurs are marine reptiles that occur globally in the same rock layers as dinosaurs. Specimens with babies support the idea that they gave live...

CREATION PODCAST
What Do We Do With Geology's Unconforming Features? | The Creation...
Welcome to the fifth episode in a series called “The Failures of Old Earth Creationism.” Many Christians attempt to fit old...

NEWS
Freshwater Fish Fossil in Australia
Yet another fish fossil has been discovered. This one was found in the Australian desert and was dated by evolutionists to be “15 million years...

NEWS
May 2025 ICR Wallpaper
"Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." (Romans...

NEWS
Acoustic Communication in Animals
We are all familiar with vocalizations in the animal world. For example, dogs bark, birds sing, frogs croak, and whales send forth their own distinct...

ACTS & FACTS
Creation Kids: Crystals!
by Michael Stamp and Susan Windsor* You're never too young to be a creation scientist and explore our Creator's world. Kids, discover...

APOLOGETICS
Playing Chess with Little Furry Critters
God’s multifarious and marvelous designs for basic creature needs are so innovatively clever and providentially purposeful that Christ’s...

ACTS & FACTS
Credit Only Our Creator
History was my favorite subject as a young kid. But it always puzzled me when my teachers said, “We study history so that we don’t repeat...

ACTS & FACTS
Genomic Tandem Repeats: Where Repetition Is Purposely Adaptive
Tandem repeats (TRs) are short sequences of DNA repeated over and over again like the DNA letter sequence TACTACTAC, which is a repetition of TAC three...

ACTS & FACTS
Dinosaur National Monument: Fossil Graveyard of the Flood
Straddling the border of Utah and Colorado, Dinosaur National Monument (DNM) is one of the richest exposures of dinosaur fossils in the world.1...