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Student challenges evolution in classroom18 October 2006
Feeling compelled to challenge the beliefs of his grade seven classmates and the public school curriculum of evolution and millions-of-years, Lyndon Hayhoe of Barrie (just north of Toronto), Ontario, Canada, just had to respond. His science class this past spring was studying fossil formation, the age of the earth and the timeline of dinosaurs. Having briefly commented on the long-age teaching in his science class, Lyndon knew he needed to explain his creationist position in greater detail. He had mentioned that fossils do not need long periods of time to form; they just need the right conditions. He had also told the class that paleontologists had discovered red blood cells in T-Rex bones thought to be about 65 million years old. As would be expected, the class thought Lyndon’s ideas were comical! This motivated him to ask the school principal for permission to respond with a twenty-minute PowerPoint presentation. One week later, on June 19, 2006, Lyndon gave his presentation. He began by asking his class what they thought science actually was. He clarified the difference between experimental (or operational) science and historical (or origins) science. Lyndon explained that the great majority of the science done every day has nothing to do with origins, and that when we actually try to reconstruct the past, we all have the same facts, such as rocks, fossils, stars, animals, etc. The different conclusions come from the scientist’s starting assumptions and interpretations. In other words, dinosaur bones don’t come with tags attached to them indicating their age! Lyndon next contrasted his school’s explanation as to how fossils form according to the secular worldview with the biblical position of a global, catastrophic Flood just thousands of years ago. Drawing on resources obtained from Creation Ministries International (www.creationontheweb.org), Lyndon displayed evidence of fossils forming from rapid burial during the Flood, including an ichthyosaur caught in the act of giving birth, a fish with another fish half-way into its mouth, jelly fish fossils, and the students’ favourite—dinosaur dung (coprolite)!
After dealing with fossils, Lyndon moved onto the age of the geological layers. He showed a picture of a canyon (at left) formed during the eruptions and subsequent erosion at Mt. St. Helens, Washington from 1980 to 1982 . Purposely not informing them about the location or origin of these deposits, he asked the class how old they thought these deposits were. Classmates confidently asserted that the deposits were more than one million years old. They were very surprised when Lyndon explained that each of the main deposits was laid down in just hours! Lyndon went on to explain further problems with long age beliefs. He showed slides of polystrate fossils, which are fossil trees extending through multiple geological strata, mountains with tight folding of sedimentary layers without evidence of cracking (see figure), and the fact that carbon-14 can be found in ‘old’ coal seams all over the world (carbon-14 should be undetectable if the once-living material was more than 100,000 years old). Lyndon also showed how geological layers are often piled one on top of the other like pancakes, devoid of any evidence of the erosion expected if the deposits were truly separated by millions of years (i.e., so-called paraconformities). The class was amazed at examples of ‘living fossils’, i.e. fossils that are supposedly tens of millions of years old, yet identical to their living counterparts—examples such as the Wollemi Pine and the coelacanth fish. Lyndon explained how evolutionists attempt to explain away the lack of change over the vast time periods with the oxymoronic phrase, ‘evolutionary stasis’. To wrap up his presentation, Lyndon explained the idea of a hostile witness, and then showed quotes from prominent evolutionary paleontologists, doctors Philip Currie (Royal Tyrell Museum in Alberta, Canada) and Stephen J. Gould (formerly of Harvard University), who readily admitted the almost total lack of evidence of ‘step-by-step’ evolution in the fossil record. He also included pictures and testimonies from Dr. Mary Schweitzer (North Carolina State University) regarding the discovery of the red dinosaur blood cells and ‘stretchy’ soft tissue in ‘old’ dinosaur bones, as well as the dilemma that this presents to evolutionists. Dr Schweitzer’s work on dinosaur soft tissue was considered the sixth most important science story of 2005.1 These scientists are certainly not friendly to the creationist position but their honest testimonies admit the vast problems with these naturalistic theories. Finally, Lyndon challenged the class, ‘I have showed you that we all have the same evidence, but that according to our beliefs about how our earth got here and when it began, we will come to different interpretations. I challenge you to remember that evolution is not a fact, nor is it true science, but it is man’s way of piecing together his past on his own. Is it reliable?’ The reaction
How did his class react? Lyndon said they asked ‘a ton of questions’. One student said, ‘If you managed to get my attention, you got everybody’s!’ His teacher, who had graciously allowed Lyndon to present the different view, told Lyndon that his PowerPoint talk was well presented and that he kept his cool through the questions—despite his anxiety with public speaking. It is refreshing to have teachers like Lyndon’s who desire their class to think critically about difficult issues and to work through them in a balanced and logical fashion. On the other hand, many public school boards and teachers have dogmatically taught the standard evolutionary belief, preventing any attempt to academically challenge those embedded presuppositions. We hope that this is just the beginning of opportunities for Lyndon to share his faith in the all-sufficient, trustworthy and relevant Word of God. ReferenceScott Hanson has a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, and is enthusiastically involved in teaching the biblical worldview regarding origins within churches and homeschool groups. Scott's vision is that churches become equipped to defend the authority of God's Word in a rampantly secular culture, especially in the issue of world views in origins. Return to Top |
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It is refreshing to have teachers like Lyndon’s who desire their class to think critically about difficult issues and to work through them in a balanced and logical fashion. 