While recently driving through the Arbuckle Mountains—at least in Oklahoma, we call them mountains— as so many times before, I was impressed by all the exposed geological strata cut away during highway construction, leaving sheer cliff walls of beautifully layered rock. The seismic up-thrusting and folding of the underlying tectonic plate formed the Arbuckles. These formations were formed by ancient seasthatoncecoveredthearea,along with sediment containing various marine species. Over time, compression forces fused the sediment into rock layers that can now be observed at various places along the roadside.
These layers of sedimentary rock, called strata, are widespread throughout the world, with perhaps the most impressive example occurring in this country, the Grand Canyon. Through the Canyon flows the Colorado River, tracing its course and slowly eroding rock formations and exposing strata from the basement of time, with the oldest layers lying beneath younger layers. In fact, the river runs some 4,600 feet below the canyon rim. That is nearly one mile! According to scientists, geologic strata correspond to two eons of prehistoric time: the Precambrian Eon and the Phanerozoic Eon. Each eon is further divided into eras, which are in turn divided into periods spanning 40–60 million years of geologic history. For example, the Jurassic period of the Mesozoic Era occurred about 180 million years ago.
Some layers of strata from later periods are teeming with fossilized life forms, while other older strata show virtually no fossilized species at all. The layer in which a fossil is found determines, in large part, how long ago the creature lived. For example, a fossil found in the Cambrian period would be about 500 million years old.
According to Darwin’s theory, evolution occurs in small incremental steps over long periods. In other words, it took millions of generations for reptiles to develop wings in order to evolve into birds and fly about. All along the way, random genetic mutations were selected for that took, perhaps, a bone spur in each shoulder area, and over thousands of generations, the bone spur grew larger and larger into a crude stump appendage. Another ten thousand generations and several other bones develop from the original bone spurs, allowingtheappendagetoarticulate. Then, after another million generations, the appendage develops the necessary muscle mass, followed by several thousand more generations for feathers to develop. Then, one day, after millions and millions of years, the former tortoise takes flight. But there is much more to it than that. The evolution of a feather is no easy feat, not to mention the loss of the tortoise’s shell and the hollowing of its bones to reduce unnecessary weight.Nottomentionthe massive amount of new DNA code that is required for even the smallest of modifications, and the evolution of wings on a reptile requires an unbelievable amount of code that must be produced “just so” by random genetic mutation and natural selection over millions of years.
The geologic record is chock-full of fossilized tortoises covering millions upon millions of years. And, while they appear later in the fossil record, the same holds true for birds. But something is missing. In fact, we might even call it a type of missing link. There is no known fossilized tortoise with a bone spur on each shoulder, much less a crude stumpofanappendagecomingoffhis shoulders, let alone a fully articulate vestige of a wing, nor feathers, nor hollow bones—none. There are no transitional species existing between reptiles and birds. After all, that is the definition of evolution. It is not just a metaphorical “missing link” between reptiles and birds; there are thousands of missing links up and down the hierarchy of creatures that have existed, ever. Professor John Ashton writes, “The fossil record shows new organisms containing massive amounts of new genetic code just suddenly appearing in the geological strata without apparent gradual changing ancestors. Then these fully formed creatures stay the same in the fossil record until they disappear from the record and either become extinct like the dinosaurs or are still surviving today, like crocodiles.” The story told by the fossil record is that reptiles stay reptiles, birds stay birds, primates stay primates, and humans stay human. Exactly what you would expect to find if creation is true.
In fact, the sudden appearance of new species in the fossil record sounds more like an act of creation than gradual genetic mutation and natural selection over millions of years. Rather than a record of evolution, the fossil record is an incredible record of extinction. For it to be a credible record of evolution, many transitional species must be represented. Instead, all we have are thousands of gaps in the record. But there is still more. Since the fossil record is a record of extinction, it records the loss of genetic code through extinction, and lots of it, over time. The loss of genetic code through extinction and the absence of new genetic code that might be found if there were transitional species signal one thing: De-evolution. From the fossil record, it seems the theory of evolution has some significant problems.
Join us again next time as we continue to pursue an answer to the age-old question: Is God dead?
Gloria in excelsis Deo! Ty B. Kerley, DMin., is an ordained minister who teaches Christian apologetics, and relief preaches in Southern Oklahoma. Dr. Kerley and his wife Vicki are members of the Waurika church of Christ, and live in Ardmore. You can contact him at: dr.kerley@isGoddead.com.