Creation geologists meet at Cedarville

Cedarville University recently played host to the First Conference on Creation Geology. The theme for the gathering of creation geologists from around the world was “Geology Education for the Future.” The first two days of meetings involved presentations by scientists. This was a forum for presenting new models and ideas to peers to foster communication among different disciplines and to receive feedback on the scientific and scriptural validity of the ideas being presented. Presenters included Dr. John Baumgardner from the Institute for Creation Research, Dr. John Whitmore from Cedarville University, Dr. Andrew Snelling (who will be writing a more detailed semi-technical report on the conference, highlighting the significant technical contributions, for this website soon) from Answers in Genesis, Mike Oard, John Woodmorappe, and many others.

Topics covered during the technical presentations included: advances in radiohalo studies, a new model for explaining rapid reef growth after the Flood, identifying the post-Flood boundary in the rock record, the presence of carbon–14 and xenon–129 in deep gas wells, a model for explaining magnetic reversals, developing a degree program to train creation geologists, and other ideas related to creation geology. After each presentation questions were taken from the audience of about 50. The questions and comments will now be used to refine the models as each researcher continues to understand different aspects of the geologic record and how they are related to the history revealed in Scripture.

This [conference] will aid geologists to shift from attacking uniformitarian and evolutionary claims to providing biblical explanations for the sequence and structure of the rocks and fossils found across the globe.

Creationist geologists have developed a big-picture view of how the rock record correlates to the Flood, but there are still many points on which they disagree. Meetings such as this one can only help to build lines of communication and cooperation in constructively critiquing ideas and models. This will aid geologists to shift from attacking uniformitarian and evolutionary claims to providing biblical explanations for the sequence and structure of the rocks and fossils found across the globe. The shift has already been seen in the recent RATE research and models like Catastrophic Plate Tectonics that present an alternative to the billions-of-years models proposed by secular science.

The session conducted on the third day of the conference allowed speakers to present information to the general public. The attendees heard of new mapping programs that allow detailed analysis of bone beds, an explanation of the Ice Age and global warming, new explanations for formations found in the Grand Canyon, caring for animals on the Ark, and several other topics. Abstracts from the conference can be viewed on Cedarville’s website [PDF].

As scientists who honor God and Scripture through their work continue to research the geologic record, we see more evidence that confirms the truth found in Scripture. Organizers of the conference are already working on the next meeting where the details of creation models can be refined in the fire, and iron can sharpen iron (Proverbs 27:17). Please pray for the researchers as they continue their work.