Galápagos Island—A Different View

Although Charles Darwin’s visit on the HMS Beagle made the Galápagos Islands famous, his interpretations missed the boat. What if you examined the same things but with a biblical framework? The beautifully illustrated Galápagos Islands—A Different View does that and much more.

It is evident that the Galápagos Islands were formed by volcanic activity, but how did they appear so quickly in the biblical timeframe? This new book provides intriguing, easy-to-understand answers.

Volcanoes form over stationary “hot spots” of molten rock under the earth’s crust. As the earth’s crust moves over these hot spots, they can erupt and produce a series of volcanoes. If the “conveyor belt” moves quickly, then a chain of islands forms quickly.

In the latter stages of Noah’s Flood, the earth’s plates were moving rapidly, so the Galápagos volcanoes did not have time to grow above sea level—as a result, at the southeast end of the island chain, we find seamounts (underwater volcanoes). To the north we find larger volcanoes, with the largest, still volcanically active, islands at the northwest end (see “Instant Paradise” on page 56 for a more detailed explanation of this process). As the book explains, the biblically based scientific model of rapid plate movement effectively explains the size and types of the islands, even better than secular geology.

The geology and location of the islands make them a perfect environment for observing the adaptability of different kinds of animals, but molecules-to-man evolution has never been observed there. God equipped the finches, tortoises, blue-footed boobies, iguanas and many unique plant species on the islands to adapt to changing conditions of weather and food supply. This ability demonstrates speciation, which is simply variation within created kinds (such as finches), not evolution from one “kind” to another completely different kind, as is usually claimed.

For example, when larger seeds are abundant, finches with larger beaks thrive, but the beaks remain beaks, and the finches remain finches!

While the islands provide a spectacular place to observe God’s brilliant designs for life, they also exhibit the sad reality that Adam’s sin introduced death into the world. Dr. Georgia Purdom, the book’s editor, tells of watching a mockingbird scratch the sand on top of a green sea turtle nest so it could eat the baby turtles as they emerged. Evolutionists view death as useful and good—the driving force behind evolution—but people know in their hearts that death is not good. The Bible says death is the enemy, introduced into the world because of man’s sin (1 Corinthians 15:26). Thankfully, the Bible also gives the solution to this terrible problem. Jesus, our Savior, overcame death (2 Timothy 1:10), and He promises to give new life to those who trust in Him (2 Corinthians 5:17).

This beautiful, unique new coffee-table book is chock full of vibrant photographs and brief, easy-to-read essays that show that the history declared in the Bible is the best foundation for understanding the origin and history of the Galápagos Islands. The essays cover almost every aspect of the islands, including the volcanoes, weather, plants, animals, history, and human impact—all from a biblical perspective.