14-Year-Old Lands Article in Science Journal

Who ever said that science journals are just for highly trained Ph.D. scientists? That’s certainly not the case with TJ—the in-depth Journal of Creation.

Among TJ’s avid readers is a 14-year-old freshman in high school, C.W. Nelson of Michigan, USA, who recently submitted a paper of his own … and was accepted.

TJ receives submissions from literally hundreds of experienced scientists and experts all over the world. No matter what the author’s age or position, all submissions receive a fair opportunity to be rigorously “peer reviewed” by a diverse group of highly qualified scientists.1 And Warren’s submission “made the grade.”

Ever heard of “population bottlenecks’?

The topic of Warren’s paper: “Does the recently mapped human genome offer evidence for population bottlenecks found in the Bible, such as Noah’s Flood and the Tower of Babel?”

Sound interesting? Well, it is, and it joins a growing body of solid research that is helping to flesh out a Bible-based Creation model of origins science.

In spite of his young age, Warren’s article shows that he’s been reading the latest literature on genetics. Not only does he understand the evolutionary arguments, but he also displays a remarkable ability to evaluate the latest science from a creationist perspective.

Warren says he became interested in the creation/evolution issue as a nine-year-old, when he attended a lecture by Ken Ham. “Ever since, I have had a real zeal to defend the Book of Genesis in the face of both evolution and compromising theology.” Now he actively stands up for God’s Creation in class, as well. He says,

“The most powerful aspect of Ken Ham’s lecture was the importance of the creation/evolution issue—how vital it was to my everyday life. In school, we’d learned all about dinosaurs, and one of my teachers used a rope to show how long the Earth had been in existence, and the insignificance of man’s time here—a blue speck at the end of the rope! After the lecture, I felt quite indignant—cheated and lied to, really—because of all that I’d been taught and had taken no time to think about myself.

“In this way, I became interested in the creation/evolution controversy. I simply wanted to re-examine everything I was taught in school with both science and the Bible. Initially, I used the Bible alone as the basis of all my arguments. However, I discovered that people didn’t respect what the Bible had to say like I expected them to. So I began to be very interested in science as well, and began reading all I could get my hands on.

“I discovered that true science supported the Bible, and that also, if you assume that the Bible’s history is right, then all of the evidence we observe today fits perfectly with that framework—like the genetic evidence discussed in my TJ article. And this is especially significant because the Bible predicts its existence, while evolution requires the invention of theories to explain it. Evolution really is quite malleable and can be shaped to fit almost any evidence. It is often said that theories should be tested by their predictions. Well, the Bible certainly passes that test!”

Just a regular guy?

When Warren submitted his research paper, he humbly added the words, “I am currently fourteen, and so really have no significant scientific qualifications. I hope that my writing ability has developed well enough to be suitable for the TJ.”

Warren’s humility is delightful. The Bible teaches that both virtue and Biblical/scientific wisdom are open to young people (Matthew 21:16).

It turns out that Warren is a straight A student, and he has big dreams for the future: “I would love to get a Ph.D. in some field within molecular biology—perhaps biochemistry, genetics, genomics, bioinformatics or something of that nature. What’s for sure is that it is my dream to teach science, at either the high school or college level. I’d also like to do some laboratory research, possibly in the field of chemical evolution or some autoimmune diseases.”

Although Warren’s mother is uncomfortable with calling her son a “genius” or “prodigy” (“Warren has not taken any kind of IQ test,” she said), it’s safe to say that he’s “precocious.”

But his nose isn’t always in a book—Warren loves the saxophone, for example, and plays in two school bands. “I’d love to become a jazz band director,” he says with a smile.

You can read Warren’s three-page article “Genetics and Biblical Demographic Events” in the June 2003 issue of TJ. Don’t miss this and other cutting-edge articles, which will encourage your faith and help you to present the life-changing truths of the Gospel to adults and young people alike.

TJ has often been called the creationist world’s premier scientific publication. It is peer reviewed by highly qualified academics, mostly Ph.D. scientists. Because of mainstream censorship of their ideas, creationists need a forum where their models can be openly debated with honesty and integrity. Such careful scrutiny is essential to good science. The mainstream censorship makes it easy for critics to misrepresent creationist ideas, but there is a place where people can go to see the latest in the real debate—TJ.