I found this interesting:
Questions from Young People
March, 2007
The following questions are a composite from about ninety that two junior high school (7-8 grades) students from a local school’s science classes submitted to Barry for answering. Because there was no way he could respond to all the questions in the hour allotted, we responded in writing and then he was able to spend class time with the subjects they wanted to continue to ask about. But the questions are interesting and we thought others might enjoy them, too. They ended up being grouped into five categories: personal, creation, Bible, evolution, and science.
Personal
1. Who influenced you? What got you into this field of study?
I was always interested in astronomy and rocks. My third word, when I was learning to speak, was ‘moon’ (the first two words were ‘Mummy’ and ‘Daddy’). As far as influences go, I was given a book in 1979 on astronomical anomalies – that means things we see up there in space that don’t fit with the theories we have about what we should be seeing. There was some information there about the speed of light not being constant which fascinated me, and I started looking into it. That began the last 28 years of research, and it has led me into a number of other areas.
2. Do you get your beliefs from the Bible?
Yes, I get my beliefs from the Bible, but I also gather information from the facts – the data we have in the created order around us. God has given us two ‘books’ to read: the Bible and His creation. One does not contradict the other.
3. How long have you been studying this stuff?
I’ve been studying in this particular set of fields since 1979, but there was a whole background of study before that. In University I majored in geology and physics. Later I lectured for six years to the Astronomical Society of South Australia. Because I have always been interested in astronomy and rocks, and since I will be 65 in a few weeks, I guess you could say I have been studying this stuff for about sixty years.
4. Why do you enjoy it? What’s your favorite part?
I love studying the way things work. I love seeing how God did things. My favorite part? Possibly astronomy.
5. It is hard?
Anything worthwhile is going to be hard sometimes. But if you enjoy the subject and have learned the basics well, it is a lot of fun, too. There can be heartaches if you find out things that other people don’t agree with and they will sometimes insult you or ignore what you have discovered.
6. Do you like looking at different types of creation, such as space and rocks?
Yes! That’s what I do!
7. What kind of relationship do you have with God?
I look upon God as my best Friend, someone I can take any problem to. He is someone I can ask for wisdom in difficult circumstances. He is someone I have come to trust and love completely. The more I have walked on with the Lord, the more I have found He is interested in even the smallest details of my life, and wants me to share them with Him.
8. If you didn’t believe in Jesus, could you still go to heaven?
A lot of people argue about this. Jesus said in John 14 that no one could go to the Father except through Him, Jesus. So what happened to the people who lived before Jesus was incarnated? We can read in Job, who lived LONG before Jesus was born, “I know my Redeemer lives.” How did he know this? Before Jesus was born to Mary, He sometimes appeared to people in the Old Testament. He walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden. He spoke with Noah. He talked with Abraham and Moses and others. How do we know this was Jesus? Because Jesus Himself told us that no man has seen the Father!
Remember that Adam and Eve, and then Noah and his wife, were the parents of us all. So what they knew, they passed down to their children, and this was passed down through the generations. This is why even the hidden tribes and cultures through all time knew something about creation and the Promise God made to Adam and Eve about a Redeemer, or Savior, or Messiah, who was to come. Before Jesus was born to Mary, people only knew that God had made a Promise. If they believed on that Promise, they were believing in Jesus, even though they didn’t know His name yet.
So, to answer your question, if a person believed in God’s Promise, it was the same as believing in Jesus and yes, that person would then go to heaven. He was trusting God completely. However, if a person refused to trust God’s Promise or refused to trust Jesus, then no, that person would not go to Heaven.
9. Do you have to go to college to teach this?
No. I did go to University for three years, but I was never able to graduate due to ill health and family problems. But the Lord has led me through many, many years of research and work. I would suggest, however, that anyone who wants to go into science should go to college and learn everything he or she can.
10. Why did you get into astronomy?
That was my original interest. I loved what was happening in the sky.
Creation
1. Why is it believed?
There are three reasons why many people believe creation is true. First is common sense: we don’t see anything changing into anything else and we can see that things are pretty complicated. There are some changes, but that is like changes in spots and colors and some sizes. We don’t see anything happen the way evolution says it should. We can look at the painting of a rose and know that the paint did not splash itself on the canvas in that way. An artist did it. How, then, can we look at the real rose in real life and not know that a rather incredible Artist did that?
The second reason is science itself: there is evidence in genetics and biology that evolution is impossible. We are not saying that variation is impossible. We can see all the different kinds of dogs we have and they all come from an original canine population of some kind. So we know that kind of variation exists. But there is nothing in genetics or biology to indicate any process by which the sorts of changes are possible which could turn bacteria into a bear – no matter how many millions or billions of years are available.
And the third reason is simply because God told us how He created in Genesis, and it was by special creation, not by evolution. Many people believe in creation simply because the Bible says so, and that is fine. But if you are going to discuss evolution and creation, you need to know some science, too. The actual facts point toward a special, recent creation. God not only told us what He did in the Bible, but He demonstrated the truth of His Word in nature.
2. What is the basis for it? Did someone invent this idea?
No one had to invent the idea of creation. As I just mentioned, common sense, science, and the Bible all tell us the truth that it happened.
3. How many people believe this?
Many of the people in education and other positions of influence would like us to think that only a few crazy people believe that this earth and the universe and life itself are the result of special creation. However the truth is that many, many people believe in special creation. Not all of these people believe it was a recent creation, but more and more people, and scientists, too, are starting to doubt the truth of evolution.
4. How did God come to life?
God didn’t come to life. God is life. We cannot understand that there could be something which had no beginning, but God is like that. He invented time and we live in time. Someday we will be outside of time, and then perhaps we will understand more about how God had no beginning and will have no end.
5. Where is heaven?
Heaven is being with God. That is why Jesus said that for those of us who are believers, the Kingdom of Heaven starts within us. However we also know that there is some kind of place we don’t understand that is also heaven, where God’s throne is. After this creation is finished, I think we will understand more about heaven, because that is where our home will be if we are believers and followers of Jesus Christ.
6. Do you disagree with anything the Bible says about creation?
No. The more information science gives us, the more the Bible is shown to be correct and the more we understand it.
7. Do you believe God created the earth?
Yes. And the rest of the universe, too.
8. Where did the Flood water come from?
When the earth was first created, there was a lot of water locked into the minerals and rocks. When radioactive decay started, and it started immediately, this heated up the minerals and rocks and the water was driven out. We can see in Genesis 2 that water was coming up from the ground to water everything. That means that even in the very beginning, the underground water was under pressure from the heat – because water naturally does down; it doesn’t naturally flow upward. As the heating continued under the crust of the earth, more and more scalding hot water was building up in great reservoirs until finally, as we read in Genesis 7:11, all the great fountains of the deep exploded, or burst forth, at the same time. These were the flood waters of Noah. They were scalding hot and exploded upwards with much more force than we see even in our worst volcanoes.
Note: This question and answer generated some class discussion afterwards. Then the Flood waters were hot? Yes, they were, and a number of ancient memories from other cultures record that in their histories and legends.What about the ‘vapor canopy’? We don’t know if it existed, but if it did, then it was probably much higher than the clouds we see today. The bursting waters of the Flood may have triggered water from it to also fall as part of the continual rain, but, again, we don’t know about this.
9. What do you like best about creation?
As I look at the stars and galaxies, I see how everything is so ordered and beautiful. When I look at rocks and crystals, I see order and beauty. When I look at the petal of a rose, I again see order and beauty. I love the order and beauty, and this tells me that God is a God of order and beauty and that He is a very wise and understanding Creator. In all of creation I see that which brings me closer to God and helps me understand Him more.
10. What is the hardest thing you have been asked about creation?
There is a type of star called a pulsar and we could not figure out how they worked, either in evolution or creation. I think we have found the answer now, but that was one of the hardest questions evolutionists used to throw at me.
11. How does creation have a relationship with science?
Science is the study of creation. Science means ‘knowledge’ and the more knowledge we have, the more we realize that everything around us points to the reality of God as Creator.
12. Is there any other way the earth could have been formed?
The standard explanation in science is that a lot of space matter came together to form the planets and stars. Some people who believe in creation believe that everything was created completely whole and functioning immediately. Personally, I think there is evidence in science itself how God formed all the objects we see in space, including our own earth, very rapidly – in a few days – using processes we are already familiar with. This is a field of study of mine right now. But, you see, there are already three ideas of how the earth could have been formed just in this paragraph, and there are more ideas out there in the minds of other people.
13. Do you think China was created in the beginning?
None of the countries as we know them now were created in the beginning. In the beginning there was one giant land mass. The part that would become China later was part of this one giant continent.
14. How do you explain to people how we are made?
The Bible tells us that God used the same elements that He used for everything else that is physical to make our bodies. He did is fresh, and did not use other animals to make us through evolution. He then breathed life into us and created us with spirits, too, so we would be just enough like Him to be able to love Him and have a relationship with Him.
15. Why did God send the Flood?
The Bible tells us in Genesis 6 that people had become so evil and violent that they had corrupted the entire earth. This angered God tremendously and so He destroyed the world that was then, and a new one was formed. We can see that it did not stop the evil and violence, but if you check the ages of the people who lived before the Flood, you will see how God used the Flood. It did not simply make a fresh new world, but it caused something to happen when stopped men from living very long lives. They used to live for 8 or 9 hundred years. Now very few people make it to one hundred years old before they die. So there is a lot less time for people to get more and more evil, if that is the path they have chosen to follow in life.
16. Do you think dinosaurs lived with Adam and Eve?
I’m not sure as pets, but I am sure Adam and Eve knew about them and saw them.
17. How much has creation degenerated since the beginning?
Personally, I think quite a bit. Nothing is perfect anymore. People are born with defects, and so are animals. We see a lot of things that just don’t seem right. In the beginning, everything was right and perfect.
18. How can creation be degeneration?
Creation itself is not degeneration. But the idea of creation is that God created everything perfectly and then gave us people the earth to be in charge of. But then we sinned and everything in creation reacted to our rebellion against God. Things started to change. Genetic damage started. People discovered evil and violence. Animals became afraid of people. The whole created order has been slowly falling apart.
19. How many theories are there against creation?
There are only two basic possibilities. The first is that matter, or stuff, has existed forever and that it slowly came together through a lot of coincidences and got more and more organized until people resulted and then we made up the idea of God.
The second possibility is that God has existed forever and that He made matter – stuff. This matter, or stuff, was formed by God to be incredibly organized and complex and creation has been going downhill since then.
So there are really only two basic ideas. There are lots of variations within each idea, but the foundational issue is that either matter is eternal and ended up ‘creating’ God, or that God is eternal and created matter. The first is evolution. The second is creation.
The Bible
1. What is the literalist theory?
There are several versions of this. Basically, it is the idea that the Bible is true, start to finish, exactly how it is written and we don’t need to ‘interpret’ various passages to fit other ideas. Some people believe every single word in the Bible is correct. This is a problem, because some words were put in by translators to make sense in English. Other people, and I am one, believe the Bible can be read in a straightforward sense and it is saying what it means and meaning what it says. This very much includes the account of creation in six days. Yes, some other parts of the Bible are poetry, but the way the language is used makes that very clear. In the Hebrew especially, they used a different grammar form for poetry so that it would not be confused with history. Parts that are parables and allegories are indicated as being parables and allegories. So a literalist believes the Bible is telling history where is claims to be telling history, such as in Genesis.
2. What is the Gap theory?
The Gap theory is an effort to try to make the long ages the evolutionists claim are true fit in with Genesis. To do this, people who believe the Gap theory believe that there is a very long period between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. They believe that the world was inhabited and then destroyed and that the re-creation of the world is what is talked about in Genesis 1. The Bible denies this in Exodus 20:11 and Exodus 31:14-17.
3. What is the Day-Age theory?
The Day-Age theory is another attempt to fit long ages into the creation account of Genesis 1. Those who believe in this theory believe each day of creation week was actually a very long era, or age. Again, this is done to try to fit the long ages claimed by evolution into the creation account of Genesis 1. There are many problems with this theory. For instance, on Day 3 of Creation Week in Genesis, we find flowering and fruiting trees. Was this two days before insects came along to pollinate them or two full eras?
4. Why do people not believe in the Bible?
There are many reasons people prefer not to believe the Bible. Sometimes they have been taught certain things, and they find out the Bible says something different, so they figure the Bible is wrong. Sometimes they don’t want to believe in God because they don’t want Him to boss their lives or judge them. Sometimes people don’t believe the Bible because they have not read it. Instead they have only heard other people talk badly about it. Some people don’t believe the Bible because they refuse to believe there is a God. Some people have been raised in other religions and so they figure the Bible must be false because they have been raised to believe their religion is true.
5. Since God isn’t bound by time, how long was each of the seven days of Creation?
God invented time, so you are right; He is not bound by it. But God knows about time, certainly! In Genesis 1, He tells us that there were evening and morning for each day. That means the earth was rotating and there was a light source to make days and nights. So the days and nights are what we know now – 12 hours for each. If the earth spun faster or slower there would be some very big problems with trying to keep anything alive on it. The fact that the days are mentioned as being connected with morning and evening tells us that they were the sort of days we are familiar with and not something else. This is emphasized twice later in the Bible. First we find it in Exodus 20:11, in the commandment about the Sabbath day. Later we find it stated even more emphatically when God is talking directly to the Hebrews in Exodus 31. Start reading at verse 14 and you will see what I mean.
6. Do you think Adam and Eve were twelve feet tall?
I don’t know how tall they were, but twelve feet would probably be too tall because of the sorts of bones and muscles we have – they are good for supporting a maximum of about nine feet tall, or a little more. But twelve feet tall would not work for the kind of bodies God made for us.
7. How long do you think Adam was around before Eve was made?
Not long. If you look at Genesis 1:28, you will find that God blessed THEM on the sixth day of creation. So Adam was alive only a few hours before Eve was created – long enough to name the basic kinds of land animals and birds and realize that he was very different from them and needed something else.
8. What language do you think Adam and Eve spoke?
Because I believe that Genesis is a series of eyewitness accounts made by the people who lived during those times, I also think that the earliest language was some form of early Hebrew. It would have had to be something like that for the people after the Flood and later to be able to understand the written tablets.
9. Do you think Adam and Eve could make animals the way God could?
No. God is the Creator. We are created beings and we do not have His powers.
10. How long do you think Adam and Eve lived before they sinned? How long were they in Eden?
This is hard to say. We have a clue that it might not have been very long because in Genesis 1:28, God tells them to be fruitful and multiply. But they had not had any children and Eve was not yet pregnant before they sinned. Because they were totally obedient before they sinned, they would not have refused to try to have children. So it is probable that they were not in Eden for more than a few months to a year before they sinned.
11. Do you think Adam and Eve could bake cookies with their heat vision?
I think maybe you are getting Adam and Eve mixed up with comic book heroes! They were just people like you and me, not super human. They were perfect, though, until they sinned. But that still did not give them superhuman powers.
12. Could animals reproduce before Adam and Eve sinned?
Yes. Sex was a part of life from the beginning. It is only sex outside of marriage which is a sin for people. Animals can reproduce by instinct and there is nothing to do with sin for them in that.
13. Would fruit be larger than the normal size of fruit now?
That’s very possible. It will be fun to find out in heaven. We do find some very large plants, flowers, and insects in the fossil column, and these tell us that there were some very large varieties of many things long ago.
14. Was Satan a unicorn before he told Eve she could eat?
I’m not sure where you got this idea, but the Bible tells us that Satan was evidently using a serpent’s body to communicate with Eve. In Ezekiel 28, there is an indication that Satan was originally a guardian cherub, or type of angel, and it may have been of Eden. If so, this may have been the reason Eve was willing to listen to him.
15. Does anyone know what a snake looked like before it was cursed?
No, not really. But you sure are going to hear lots of ideas through your life.
16. How long ago was the Flood?
About five and a half thousand years ago. When we go back to the oldest texts we can find, we learn that the earth is closer to eight thousand years old than six thousand.
Evolution
1. What are your thoughts on evolution?
The word ‘evolution’ means ‘change.’ Things do change. We see different types of dogs, different types of horses, different types of ferns. We can see that children do not look exactly like their parents. To the best of my knowledge, no one is arguing about this sort of change, which is called variation. However evolution states that variation can lead to massive changes in body type and function. This is the ‘evolution’ which is argued about.
I know that the idea that little cells like bacteria evolving into bears and butterflies and bananas is impossible. I’m sorry that it is being taught in schools instead of teaching students to love the truth and look for the truth. You will hear a lot of confusing and contradictory things in your life. Be willing to dig for the truth. If people did that, they would know that the sort of evolution which is being taught in schools is simply wrong.
2. Why do people believe in evolution? Why do so many believe it when there is no proof?
The main reason people believe evolution is true is because that is what they have been taught is true. When you have been taught something is true every year of school from kindergarten through college, you don’t question it. Instead, you believe it. Some people, however, believe evolution is true because they want it to be true. You see, if evolution is true, then the Bible is wrong, and there are a lot of people in rebellion against God, people who want to show the Bible is false.
3. How did the idea of evolution start? When did it start?
In some ways, evolution has been around at least two and a half thousand years, since the Greeks. But evolution as we know it today started with Charles Darwin’s grandfather in the early 1800s, and was made famous by Charles Darwin himself with a book he published. The idea appears to have come from the fact that we see changes in animals. For instance, we can see that if we breed pigeons or dogs with selected parents, we can get special markings or temperaments. This is called variation. Evolutionists say that variation can lead to much bigger changes, and that even men were once fish.
4. Have you met anyone who believed in evolution?
All the time.
5. If an evolutionist talked to you, would you believe him?
Well, it depends on what he was talking about! But if the subject is evolution and creation, I have been in the field long enough and talked with enough evolutionists to know where the truth is. So while some of the information an evolutionist has may well be good information and true (and we have to be careful not to call them liars), his conclusions about that information are probably wrong, and I have learned enough to know that.
6. Which theory do you think is the most believable?
I am a creationist because the information – the data – in science and in nature all point to that conclusion. The Bible also states creation in six literal days is true, and I have learned that God’s Word, the Bible, knows what it is talking about.
7. How do you prove an evolutionist wrong?
How do you prove anyone wrong about anything? You will find that if a person really wants to believe in something, there is nothing you can say or show them which will cause them to change their minds. It is easy enough to show evolution is wrong in the fields of both biology and genetics, but to actually prove it to someone who believes in it means you want to convince them of the truth of what you are saying and get them to admit that they have not believed the truth, and the chances of that happening are pretty small. In the long run, it really depends on how much a person wants the truth instead of just getting support for what he already believes. To change your beliefs is a very, very hard thing to do, and it takes a person who is humble and really wants the truth to be able to do that.
Science
1. Who invented the laws of thermodynamics?
No one invents the laws of science. They are discovered. The laws of thermodynamics have to do with heat energy. For instance the Second Law of Thermodynamics deals with how heat will distribute in a closed container. If the container contains something cold and something warmer, gradually the heat will distribute until it is all the same temperature. No one has to invent something like this; it is the result of careful observation and experimentation. Two of the men who are credited with discovering a lot about heat energy are Kelvin, who was a Christian and, later, Max Planck.
2. What is entropy?
Entropy is the tendency of things to become more disorganized and less complex. Bicycles rust, wood rots – that sort of thing. These are very simple examples, but we find the same thing holds true in space: stars can only burn for so long and then they collapse or explode. You can demonstrate entropy yourself very easily. Put together a jigsaw puzzle and then shake the table it is on until it falls to the floor. The puzzle obeyed the law of gravity, but in the meantime, it fell apart and became disorganized. Entropy is things running down, giving out, falling apart.
3. Do you think dinosaurs were once on the earth?
Yes. I have no doubt they existed.
4. Do you think dinosaurs ate people?
I doubt that. From what we have seen and deduced from what we have found of their remains, it seems the dinosaurs that were large enough to have been a danger to people were either plant eaters or scavengers.
5. Do you think dinosaurs could breathe fire?
There are some interesting things in nature that we would not have expected. Fireflies light up, and so do some fish. The bombardier beetle can propel noxious and explosive gases out of its rear end. We do find that some dinosaurs seemed to have some rather large and hollow appendages on their heads which may have been chambers for mixtures which would ignite when exposed together in the air. There are enough ancient stories about fire-breathing dragons to make me wonder if they are all made up.
6. Do you think dinosaurs still exist today? If not, what happened to them?
Most people don’t realize that most dinosaurs were relatively small animals. When we say ‘dinosaur,’ we tend to think of the giant sort, but there were actually not many large kinds. I think your question may be not if there are dinosaurs today, for we do have such animals as the monitor lizard, which might well be a type of dinosaur, but I think you are asking if there are any of the giant dinosaurs still around. If there are, they are deep in the African jungles or other places we have not had a chance to explore well. There are stories that surface occasionally of monster animals, but nothing has actually been confirmed yet. We have found the sea holds some surprises in terms of some very large animals which live at great depths, but we have not found anything like that on land yet.
What happened to them? From what I have been able to put together, at the time of Peleg there was a massive series of asteroid hits on earth, and a resulting change of our axis tilt. This initiated a great ice age over part of the earth and very pronounced seasonal changes elsewhere. This would have been deadly to the large dinosaurs which needed the warm river valleys to support them and produce enough food for them. They would have died out within a few years – unless, of course, deep in some jungle there is still a small population struggling to survive.
7. How old do you think the earth is?
The entire creation, earth included, appears to be a little more than eight thousand years old.
8. What are comets made of?
The usual opinion is that comets are ‘dirty snowballs,’ and that, as they approach the sun, some of the ices of which they are made (not just water ice, but carbon dioxide ice and others) melt and vaporize, leaving a long tail which also includes some of the dust particles from the comet. However, some recent photographs of comets from spacecrafts seem to show that there is not much difference between them and some sorts of asteroids. If this is the case, we need to re-think exactly what is happening with comets.
9. Do you think the Big Bang theory is logical?
It depends on what you mean by the “Big Bang.” If you are talking about the whole thing, from the first moments of the universe to the formation of galaxies and stars and planets, there are a large number of problems, and some astronomers recognize this. If, however, you are thinking about the initial rapid expansion of the universe from nothing, this is largely in line with what God tells us twelve times in the Bible: that He stretched out the heavens. Sometimes ‘logical’ is only what fits our understanding at the moment. Something can seem illogical to us only because we don’t have enough information. That may be the case with a lot of the theories about how the universe was formed. In the long run, everything that really happened is logical, because God is a logical Creator.
10. How could energy be destroyed?
I don’t think that energy can be destroyed. It can change its form, but it can’t actually be destroyed.
11. Why are there other planets?
The short explanation is that that was what God chose to do. The long explanation has to do with how I think the planets were formed, but it is an explanation that would be very hard to make short enough for this.
[Note: the long explanation has to do with the plasma formation of planets and suns and is part of a paper that will be up on the net within a month or so. It is currently being published in Creation Matters.]
12. Do you think there is water on Mars?
Yes, we know there is water on Mars.
13. Could a planet get out of orbiting he sun?
Not unless another star came exceedingly close to the sun and pulled the planet away. If that happened, our whole solar system would be disrupted and we would probably be destroyed.
14. Where do meteors come from? Are they half ice or rock or dust smashed together?
Some meteors are leftovers from the explosions that formed the asteroid belt. The asteroid belt is between Mars and Jupiter and is itself the leftover bits of a planet and its moon that exploded. Some meteors are the debris left by comets in their orbits. Other meteors have come from the leftovers of impacts of asteroids on other solar system bodies. What they are depends on what they came from.
15. Why isn’t there life on other planets?
There may be bacterial life or other small life on other planets. However, the conditions for life as we know it are so many and so particular that so far there is no place we have seen in the heavens which even comes close to being able to support life as we know it here on earth.
16. Were platypuses created with a sixth sense?
Platypuses have an incredible sense of touch not only in their front feet, be even in their bills. They do not have to see to be able to know where they are going. This seems like a sixth sense, perhaps, but it is not. It is simply an extraordinary sense of touch and feeling.
17. Which is your favorite planet?
Earth. I have become rather attached to it.
18. Were there a lot of fires when the earth was created, because of all the oxygen?
There was not too much oxygen. Oxygen is actually a poison to us. It is the ‘garbage man’ of our systems and carries away waste in our breaths. But too much oxygen causes a lot of problems inside our bodies. When God finished His creation, it was perfect for men and animals, so we know there was not too much oxygen. Probably there were no wildfires at the time. The majority of our atmosphere is nitrogen, and it would have been that way then, too.
19. What is a black hole?
There are two types of black holes. One is the kind that results when a star explodes and the other is the kind that is at the centers of galaxies. There are two separate models of what black holes are, and in each model there is a different definition of a black hole. What we see is a disc of material orbiting very, very fast around a central object. There are polar jets of energy and matter coming up and down from this object.
Standard Model: the black hole is a super massive object which is pulling other things in gravitationally. For anything, even light, to escape, it would have to travel faster than the speed of light (this ability to escape is called the ‘escape velocity,’ and it means how fast something has to go to get away from an object’s gravitational field – for the earth it is seven miles a second.).
Plasma Model: The central object does not have to be super massive. It is simply a star with a very strong magnetic field and a disc of debris spinning around it very rapidly. The spinning in the magnetic field creates an electric current which forces the jets of energy and matter out at the poles.
20. What is at the center of our Galaxy?
At the center of our galaxy there is an extremely large black hole, no matter your interpretation of what a black hole is. We can see the spinning disc and we can see the jets occasionally. Our spinning disc is extremely large.
21. Do you think the snake was once a lizard?
No. They are two very different types of animals.
22. Do you think unicorns existed? Were some in Eden?
I am not aware of any evidence that unicorns ever existed. I’m not sure where the stories of them came from. I know that the translators of the King James Bible decided that the word that means ‘wild ox’ in the Hebrew should be translated ‘unicorn,’ but other than that, I have no idea if they actually existed or if people have just made up a lovely and fantastic animal.
Barry and Helen Setterfield
Please feel free to use this series of questions and answers without asking permission. We do request that you keep everything in context, however, and do not ‘quote mine’ to try to prove a point of your own. If you would like a printable Word file of this with numbered pages, please email us and we will be happy to send it to you. Thank you.
Questions from Young People
March, 2007
The following questions are a composite from about ninety that two junior high school (7-8 grades) students from a local school’s science classes submitted to Barry for answering. Because there was no way he could respond to all the questions in the hour allotted, we responded in writing and then he was able to spend class time with the subjects they wanted to continue to ask about. But the questions are interesting and we thought others might enjoy them, too. They ended up being grouped into five categories: personal, creation, Bible, evolution, and science.
Personal
1. Who influenced you? What got you into this field of study?
I was always interested in astronomy and rocks. My third word, when I was learning to speak, was ‘moon’ (the first two words were ‘Mummy’ and ‘Daddy’). As far as influences go, I was given a book in 1979 on astronomical anomalies – that means things we see up there in space that don’t fit with the theories we have about what we should be seeing. There was some information there about the speed of light not being constant which fascinated me, and I started looking into it. That began the last 28 years of research, and it has led me into a number of other areas.
2. Do you get your beliefs from the Bible?
Yes, I get my beliefs from the Bible, but I also gather information from the facts – the data we have in the created order around us. God has given us two ‘books’ to read: the Bible and His creation. One does not contradict the other.
3. How long have you been studying this stuff?
I’ve been studying in this particular set of fields since 1979, but there was a whole background of study before that. In University I majored in geology and physics. Later I lectured for six years to the Astronomical Society of South Australia. Because I have always been interested in astronomy and rocks, and since I will be 65 in a few weeks, I guess you could say I have been studying this stuff for about sixty years.
4. Why do you enjoy it? What’s your favorite part?
I love studying the way things work. I love seeing how God did things. My favorite part? Possibly astronomy.
5. It is hard?
Anything worthwhile is going to be hard sometimes. But if you enjoy the subject and have learned the basics well, it is a lot of fun, too. There can be heartaches if you find out things that other people don’t agree with and they will sometimes insult you or ignore what you have discovered.
6. Do you like looking at different types of creation, such as space and rocks?
Yes! That’s what I do!
7. What kind of relationship do you have with God?
I look upon God as my best Friend, someone I can take any problem to. He is someone I can ask for wisdom in difficult circumstances. He is someone I have come to trust and love completely. The more I have walked on with the Lord, the more I have found He is interested in even the smallest details of my life, and wants me to share them with Him.
8. If you didn’t believe in Jesus, could you still go to heaven?
A lot of people argue about this. Jesus said in John 14 that no one could go to the Father except through Him, Jesus. So what happened to the people who lived before Jesus was incarnated? We can read in Job, who lived LONG before Jesus was born, “I know my Redeemer lives.” How did he know this? Before Jesus was born to Mary, He sometimes appeared to people in the Old Testament. He walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden. He spoke with Noah. He talked with Abraham and Moses and others. How do we know this was Jesus? Because Jesus Himself told us that no man has seen the Father!
Remember that Adam and Eve, and then Noah and his wife, were the parents of us all. So what they knew, they passed down to their children, and this was passed down through the generations. This is why even the hidden tribes and cultures through all time knew something about creation and the Promise God made to Adam and Eve about a Redeemer, or Savior, or Messiah, who was to come. Before Jesus was born to Mary, people only knew that God had made a Promise. If they believed on that Promise, they were believing in Jesus, even though they didn’t know His name yet.
So, to answer your question, if a person believed in God’s Promise, it was the same as believing in Jesus and yes, that person would then go to heaven. He was trusting God completely. However, if a person refused to trust God’s Promise or refused to trust Jesus, then no, that person would not go to Heaven.
9. Do you have to go to college to teach this?
No. I did go to University for three years, but I was never able to graduate due to ill health and family problems. But the Lord has led me through many, many years of research and work. I would suggest, however, that anyone who wants to go into science should go to college and learn everything he or she can.
10. Why did you get into astronomy?
That was my original interest. I loved what was happening in the sky.
Creation
1. Why is it believed?
There are three reasons why many people believe creation is true. First is common sense: we don’t see anything changing into anything else and we can see that things are pretty complicated. There are some changes, but that is like changes in spots and colors and some sizes. We don’t see anything happen the way evolution says it should. We can look at the painting of a rose and know that the paint did not splash itself on the canvas in that way. An artist did it. How, then, can we look at the real rose in real life and not know that a rather incredible Artist did that?
The second reason is science itself: there is evidence in genetics and biology that evolution is impossible. We are not saying that variation is impossible. We can see all the different kinds of dogs we have and they all come from an original canine population of some kind. So we know that kind of variation exists. But there is nothing in genetics or biology to indicate any process by which the sorts of changes are possible which could turn bacteria into a bear – no matter how many millions or billions of years are available.
And the third reason is simply because God told us how He created in Genesis, and it was by special creation, not by evolution. Many people believe in creation simply because the Bible says so, and that is fine. But if you are going to discuss evolution and creation, you need to know some science, too. The actual facts point toward a special, recent creation. God not only told us what He did in the Bible, but He demonstrated the truth of His Word in nature.
2. What is the basis for it? Did someone invent this idea?
No one had to invent the idea of creation. As I just mentioned, common sense, science, and the Bible all tell us the truth that it happened.
3. How many people believe this?
Many of the people in education and other positions of influence would like us to think that only a few crazy people believe that this earth and the universe and life itself are the result of special creation. However the truth is that many, many people believe in special creation. Not all of these people believe it was a recent creation, but more and more people, and scientists, too, are starting to doubt the truth of evolution.
4. How did God come to life?
God didn’t come to life. God is life. We cannot understand that there could be something which had no beginning, but God is like that. He invented time and we live in time. Someday we will be outside of time, and then perhaps we will understand more about how God had no beginning and will have no end.
5. Where is heaven?
Heaven is being with God. That is why Jesus said that for those of us who are believers, the Kingdom of Heaven starts within us. However we also know that there is some kind of place we don’t understand that is also heaven, where God’s throne is. After this creation is finished, I think we will understand more about heaven, because that is where our home will be if we are believers and followers of Jesus Christ.
6. Do you disagree with anything the Bible says about creation?
No. The more information science gives us, the more the Bible is shown to be correct and the more we understand it.
7. Do you believe God created the earth?
Yes. And the rest of the universe, too.
8. Where did the Flood water come from?
When the earth was first created, there was a lot of water locked into the minerals and rocks. When radioactive decay started, and it started immediately, this heated up the minerals and rocks and the water was driven out. We can see in Genesis 2 that water was coming up from the ground to water everything. That means that even in the very beginning, the underground water was under pressure from the heat – because water naturally does down; it doesn’t naturally flow upward. As the heating continued under the crust of the earth, more and more scalding hot water was building up in great reservoirs until finally, as we read in Genesis 7:11, all the great fountains of the deep exploded, or burst forth, at the same time. These were the flood waters of Noah. They were scalding hot and exploded upwards with much more force than we see even in our worst volcanoes.
Note: This question and answer generated some class discussion afterwards. Then the Flood waters were hot? Yes, they were, and a number of ancient memories from other cultures record that in their histories and legends.What about the ‘vapor canopy’? We don’t know if it existed, but if it did, then it was probably much higher than the clouds we see today. The bursting waters of the Flood may have triggered water from it to also fall as part of the continual rain, but, again, we don’t know about this.
9. What do you like best about creation?
As I look at the stars and galaxies, I see how everything is so ordered and beautiful. When I look at rocks and crystals, I see order and beauty. When I look at the petal of a rose, I again see order and beauty. I love the order and beauty, and this tells me that God is a God of order and beauty and that He is a very wise and understanding Creator. In all of creation I see that which brings me closer to God and helps me understand Him more.
10. What is the hardest thing you have been asked about creation?
There is a type of star called a pulsar and we could not figure out how they worked, either in evolution or creation. I think we have found the answer now, but that was one of the hardest questions evolutionists used to throw at me.
11. How does creation have a relationship with science?
Science is the study of creation. Science means ‘knowledge’ and the more knowledge we have, the more we realize that everything around us points to the reality of God as Creator.
12. Is there any other way the earth could have been formed?
The standard explanation in science is that a lot of space matter came together to form the planets and stars. Some people who believe in creation believe that everything was created completely whole and functioning immediately. Personally, I think there is evidence in science itself how God formed all the objects we see in space, including our own earth, very rapidly – in a few days – using processes we are already familiar with. This is a field of study of mine right now. But, you see, there are already three ideas of how the earth could have been formed just in this paragraph, and there are more ideas out there in the minds of other people.
13. Do you think China was created in the beginning?
None of the countries as we know them now were created in the beginning. In the beginning there was one giant land mass. The part that would become China later was part of this one giant continent.
14. How do you explain to people how we are made?
The Bible tells us that God used the same elements that He used for everything else that is physical to make our bodies. He did is fresh, and did not use other animals to make us through evolution. He then breathed life into us and created us with spirits, too, so we would be just enough like Him to be able to love Him and have a relationship with Him.
15. Why did God send the Flood?
The Bible tells us in Genesis 6 that people had become so evil and violent that they had corrupted the entire earth. This angered God tremendously and so He destroyed the world that was then, and a new one was formed. We can see that it did not stop the evil and violence, but if you check the ages of the people who lived before the Flood, you will see how God used the Flood. It did not simply make a fresh new world, but it caused something to happen when stopped men from living very long lives. They used to live for 8 or 9 hundred years. Now very few people make it to one hundred years old before they die. So there is a lot less time for people to get more and more evil, if that is the path they have chosen to follow in life.
16. Do you think dinosaurs lived with Adam and Eve?
I’m not sure as pets, but I am sure Adam and Eve knew about them and saw them.
17. How much has creation degenerated since the beginning?
Personally, I think quite a bit. Nothing is perfect anymore. People are born with defects, and so are animals. We see a lot of things that just don’t seem right. In the beginning, everything was right and perfect.
18. How can creation be degeneration?
Creation itself is not degeneration. But the idea of creation is that God created everything perfectly and then gave us people the earth to be in charge of. But then we sinned and everything in creation reacted to our rebellion against God. Things started to change. Genetic damage started. People discovered evil and violence. Animals became afraid of people. The whole created order has been slowly falling apart.
19. How many theories are there against creation?
There are only two basic possibilities. The first is that matter, or stuff, has existed forever and that it slowly came together through a lot of coincidences and got more and more organized until people resulted and then we made up the idea of God.
The second possibility is that God has existed forever and that He made matter – stuff. This matter, or stuff, was formed by God to be incredibly organized and complex and creation has been going downhill since then.
So there are really only two basic ideas. There are lots of variations within each idea, but the foundational issue is that either matter is eternal and ended up ‘creating’ God, or that God is eternal and created matter. The first is evolution. The second is creation.
The Bible
1. What is the literalist theory?
There are several versions of this. Basically, it is the idea that the Bible is true, start to finish, exactly how it is written and we don’t need to ‘interpret’ various passages to fit other ideas. Some people believe every single word in the Bible is correct. This is a problem, because some words were put in by translators to make sense in English. Other people, and I am one, believe the Bible can be read in a straightforward sense and it is saying what it means and meaning what it says. This very much includes the account of creation in six days. Yes, some other parts of the Bible are poetry, but the way the language is used makes that very clear. In the Hebrew especially, they used a different grammar form for poetry so that it would not be confused with history. Parts that are parables and allegories are indicated as being parables and allegories. So a literalist believes the Bible is telling history where is claims to be telling history, such as in Genesis.
2. What is the Gap theory?
The Gap theory is an effort to try to make the long ages the evolutionists claim are true fit in with Genesis. To do this, people who believe the Gap theory believe that there is a very long period between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. They believe that the world was inhabited and then destroyed and that the re-creation of the world is what is talked about in Genesis 1. The Bible denies this in Exodus 20:11 and Exodus 31:14-17.
3. What is the Day-Age theory?
The Day-Age theory is another attempt to fit long ages into the creation account of Genesis 1. Those who believe in this theory believe each day of creation week was actually a very long era, or age. Again, this is done to try to fit the long ages claimed by evolution into the creation account of Genesis 1. There are many problems with this theory. For instance, on Day 3 of Creation Week in Genesis, we find flowering and fruiting trees. Was this two days before insects came along to pollinate them or two full eras?
4. Why do people not believe in the Bible?
There are many reasons people prefer not to believe the Bible. Sometimes they have been taught certain things, and they find out the Bible says something different, so they figure the Bible is wrong. Sometimes they don’t want to believe in God because they don’t want Him to boss their lives or judge them. Sometimes people don’t believe the Bible because they have not read it. Instead they have only heard other people talk badly about it. Some people don’t believe the Bible because they refuse to believe there is a God. Some people have been raised in other religions and so they figure the Bible must be false because they have been raised to believe their religion is true.
5. Since God isn’t bound by time, how long was each of the seven days of Creation?
God invented time, so you are right; He is not bound by it. But God knows about time, certainly! In Genesis 1, He tells us that there were evening and morning for each day. That means the earth was rotating and there was a light source to make days and nights. So the days and nights are what we know now – 12 hours for each. If the earth spun faster or slower there would be some very big problems with trying to keep anything alive on it. The fact that the days are mentioned as being connected with morning and evening tells us that they were the sort of days we are familiar with and not something else. This is emphasized twice later in the Bible. First we find it in Exodus 20:11, in the commandment about the Sabbath day. Later we find it stated even more emphatically when God is talking directly to the Hebrews in Exodus 31. Start reading at verse 14 and you will see what I mean.
6. Do you think Adam and Eve were twelve feet tall?
I don’t know how tall they were, but twelve feet would probably be too tall because of the sorts of bones and muscles we have – they are good for supporting a maximum of about nine feet tall, or a little more. But twelve feet tall would not work for the kind of bodies God made for us.
7. How long do you think Adam was around before Eve was made?
Not long. If you look at Genesis 1:28, you will find that God blessed THEM on the sixth day of creation. So Adam was alive only a few hours before Eve was created – long enough to name the basic kinds of land animals and birds and realize that he was very different from them and needed something else.
8. What language do you think Adam and Eve spoke?
Because I believe that Genesis is a series of eyewitness accounts made by the people who lived during those times, I also think that the earliest language was some form of early Hebrew. It would have had to be something like that for the people after the Flood and later to be able to understand the written tablets.
9. Do you think Adam and Eve could make animals the way God could?
No. God is the Creator. We are created beings and we do not have His powers.
10. How long do you think Adam and Eve lived before they sinned? How long were they in Eden?
This is hard to say. We have a clue that it might not have been very long because in Genesis 1:28, God tells them to be fruitful and multiply. But they had not had any children and Eve was not yet pregnant before they sinned. Because they were totally obedient before they sinned, they would not have refused to try to have children. So it is probable that they were not in Eden for more than a few months to a year before they sinned.
11. Do you think Adam and Eve could bake cookies with their heat vision?
I think maybe you are getting Adam and Eve mixed up with comic book heroes! They were just people like you and me, not super human. They were perfect, though, until they sinned. But that still did not give them superhuman powers.
12. Could animals reproduce before Adam and Eve sinned?
Yes. Sex was a part of life from the beginning. It is only sex outside of marriage which is a sin for people. Animals can reproduce by instinct and there is nothing to do with sin for them in that.
13. Would fruit be larger than the normal size of fruit now?
That’s very possible. It will be fun to find out in heaven. We do find some very large plants, flowers, and insects in the fossil column, and these tell us that there were some very large varieties of many things long ago.
14. Was Satan a unicorn before he told Eve she could eat?
I’m not sure where you got this idea, but the Bible tells us that Satan was evidently using a serpent’s body to communicate with Eve. In Ezekiel 28, there is an indication that Satan was originally a guardian cherub, or type of angel, and it may have been of Eden. If so, this may have been the reason Eve was willing to listen to him.
15. Does anyone know what a snake looked like before it was cursed?
No, not really. But you sure are going to hear lots of ideas through your life.
16. How long ago was the Flood?
About five and a half thousand years ago. When we go back to the oldest texts we can find, we learn that the earth is closer to eight thousand years old than six thousand.
Evolution
1. What are your thoughts on evolution?
The word ‘evolution’ means ‘change.’ Things do change. We see different types of dogs, different types of horses, different types of ferns. We can see that children do not look exactly like their parents. To the best of my knowledge, no one is arguing about this sort of change, which is called variation. However evolution states that variation can lead to massive changes in body type and function. This is the ‘evolution’ which is argued about.
I know that the idea that little cells like bacteria evolving into bears and butterflies and bananas is impossible. I’m sorry that it is being taught in schools instead of teaching students to love the truth and look for the truth. You will hear a lot of confusing and contradictory things in your life. Be willing to dig for the truth. If people did that, they would know that the sort of evolution which is being taught in schools is simply wrong.
2. Why do people believe in evolution? Why do so many believe it when there is no proof?
The main reason people believe evolution is true is because that is what they have been taught is true. When you have been taught something is true every year of school from kindergarten through college, you don’t question it. Instead, you believe it. Some people, however, believe evolution is true because they want it to be true. You see, if evolution is true, then the Bible is wrong, and there are a lot of people in rebellion against God, people who want to show the Bible is false.
3. How did the idea of evolution start? When did it start?
In some ways, evolution has been around at least two and a half thousand years, since the Greeks. But evolution as we know it today started with Charles Darwin’s grandfather in the early 1800s, and was made famous by Charles Darwin himself with a book he published. The idea appears to have come from the fact that we see changes in animals. For instance, we can see that if we breed pigeons or dogs with selected parents, we can get special markings or temperaments. This is called variation. Evolutionists say that variation can lead to much bigger changes, and that even men were once fish.
4. Have you met anyone who believed in evolution?
All the time.
5. If an evolutionist talked to you, would you believe him?
Well, it depends on what he was talking about! But if the subject is evolution and creation, I have been in the field long enough and talked with enough evolutionists to know where the truth is. So while some of the information an evolutionist has may well be good information and true (and we have to be careful not to call them liars), his conclusions about that information are probably wrong, and I have learned enough to know that.
6. Which theory do you think is the most believable?
I am a creationist because the information – the data – in science and in nature all point to that conclusion. The Bible also states creation in six literal days is true, and I have learned that God’s Word, the Bible, knows what it is talking about.
7. How do you prove an evolutionist wrong?
How do you prove anyone wrong about anything? You will find that if a person really wants to believe in something, there is nothing you can say or show them which will cause them to change their minds. It is easy enough to show evolution is wrong in the fields of both biology and genetics, but to actually prove it to someone who believes in it means you want to convince them of the truth of what you are saying and get them to admit that they have not believed the truth, and the chances of that happening are pretty small. In the long run, it really depends on how much a person wants the truth instead of just getting support for what he already believes. To change your beliefs is a very, very hard thing to do, and it takes a person who is humble and really wants the truth to be able to do that.
Science
1. Who invented the laws of thermodynamics?
No one invents the laws of science. They are discovered. The laws of thermodynamics have to do with heat energy. For instance the Second Law of Thermodynamics deals with how heat will distribute in a closed container. If the container contains something cold and something warmer, gradually the heat will distribute until it is all the same temperature. No one has to invent something like this; it is the result of careful observation and experimentation. Two of the men who are credited with discovering a lot about heat energy are Kelvin, who was a Christian and, later, Max Planck.
2. What is entropy?
Entropy is the tendency of things to become more disorganized and less complex. Bicycles rust, wood rots – that sort of thing. These are very simple examples, but we find the same thing holds true in space: stars can only burn for so long and then they collapse or explode. You can demonstrate entropy yourself very easily. Put together a jigsaw puzzle and then shake the table it is on until it falls to the floor. The puzzle obeyed the law of gravity, but in the meantime, it fell apart and became disorganized. Entropy is things running down, giving out, falling apart.
3. Do you think dinosaurs were once on the earth?
Yes. I have no doubt they existed.
4. Do you think dinosaurs ate people?
I doubt that. From what we have seen and deduced from what we have found of their remains, it seems the dinosaurs that were large enough to have been a danger to people were either plant eaters or scavengers.
5. Do you think dinosaurs could breathe fire?
There are some interesting things in nature that we would not have expected. Fireflies light up, and so do some fish. The bombardier beetle can propel noxious and explosive gases out of its rear end. We do find that some dinosaurs seemed to have some rather large and hollow appendages on their heads which may have been chambers for mixtures which would ignite when exposed together in the air. There are enough ancient stories about fire-breathing dragons to make me wonder if they are all made up.
6. Do you think dinosaurs still exist today? If not, what happened to them?
Most people don’t realize that most dinosaurs were relatively small animals. When we say ‘dinosaur,’ we tend to think of the giant sort, but there were actually not many large kinds. I think your question may be not if there are dinosaurs today, for we do have such animals as the monitor lizard, which might well be a type of dinosaur, but I think you are asking if there are any of the giant dinosaurs still around. If there are, they are deep in the African jungles or other places we have not had a chance to explore well. There are stories that surface occasionally of monster animals, but nothing has actually been confirmed yet. We have found the sea holds some surprises in terms of some very large animals which live at great depths, but we have not found anything like that on land yet.
What happened to them? From what I have been able to put together, at the time of Peleg there was a massive series of asteroid hits on earth, and a resulting change of our axis tilt. This initiated a great ice age over part of the earth and very pronounced seasonal changes elsewhere. This would have been deadly to the large dinosaurs which needed the warm river valleys to support them and produce enough food for them. They would have died out within a few years – unless, of course, deep in some jungle there is still a small population struggling to survive.
7. How old do you think the earth is?
The entire creation, earth included, appears to be a little more than eight thousand years old.
8. What are comets made of?
The usual opinion is that comets are ‘dirty snowballs,’ and that, as they approach the sun, some of the ices of which they are made (not just water ice, but carbon dioxide ice and others) melt and vaporize, leaving a long tail which also includes some of the dust particles from the comet. However, some recent photographs of comets from spacecrafts seem to show that there is not much difference between them and some sorts of asteroids. If this is the case, we need to re-think exactly what is happening with comets.
9. Do you think the Big Bang theory is logical?
It depends on what you mean by the “Big Bang.” If you are talking about the whole thing, from the first moments of the universe to the formation of galaxies and stars and planets, there are a large number of problems, and some astronomers recognize this. If, however, you are thinking about the initial rapid expansion of the universe from nothing, this is largely in line with what God tells us twelve times in the Bible: that He stretched out the heavens. Sometimes ‘logical’ is only what fits our understanding at the moment. Something can seem illogical to us only because we don’t have enough information. That may be the case with a lot of the theories about how the universe was formed. In the long run, everything that really happened is logical, because God is a logical Creator.
10. How could energy be destroyed?
I don’t think that energy can be destroyed. It can change its form, but it can’t actually be destroyed.
11. Why are there other planets?
The short explanation is that that was what God chose to do. The long explanation has to do with how I think the planets were formed, but it is an explanation that would be very hard to make short enough for this.
[Note: the long explanation has to do with the plasma formation of planets and suns and is part of a paper that will be up on the net within a month or so. It is currently being published in Creation Matters.]
12. Do you think there is water on Mars?
Yes, we know there is water on Mars.
13. Could a planet get out of orbiting he sun?
Not unless another star came exceedingly close to the sun and pulled the planet away. If that happened, our whole solar system would be disrupted and we would probably be destroyed.
14. Where do meteors come from? Are they half ice or rock or dust smashed together?
Some meteors are leftovers from the explosions that formed the asteroid belt. The asteroid belt is between Mars and Jupiter and is itself the leftover bits of a planet and its moon that exploded. Some meteors are the debris left by comets in their orbits. Other meteors have come from the leftovers of impacts of asteroids on other solar system bodies. What they are depends on what they came from.
15. Why isn’t there life on other planets?
There may be bacterial life or other small life on other planets. However, the conditions for life as we know it are so many and so particular that so far there is no place we have seen in the heavens which even comes close to being able to support life as we know it here on earth.
16. Were platypuses created with a sixth sense?
Platypuses have an incredible sense of touch not only in their front feet, be even in their bills. They do not have to see to be able to know where they are going. This seems like a sixth sense, perhaps, but it is not. It is simply an extraordinary sense of touch and feeling.
17. Which is your favorite planet?
Earth. I have become rather attached to it.
18. Were there a lot of fires when the earth was created, because of all the oxygen?
There was not too much oxygen. Oxygen is actually a poison to us. It is the ‘garbage man’ of our systems and carries away waste in our breaths. But too much oxygen causes a lot of problems inside our bodies. When God finished His creation, it was perfect for men and animals, so we know there was not too much oxygen. Probably there were no wildfires at the time. The majority of our atmosphere is nitrogen, and it would have been that way then, too.
19. What is a black hole?
There are two types of black holes. One is the kind that results when a star explodes and the other is the kind that is at the centers of galaxies. There are two separate models of what black holes are, and in each model there is a different definition of a black hole. What we see is a disc of material orbiting very, very fast around a central object. There are polar jets of energy and matter coming up and down from this object.
Standard Model: the black hole is a super massive object which is pulling other things in gravitationally. For anything, even light, to escape, it would have to travel faster than the speed of light (this ability to escape is called the ‘escape velocity,’ and it means how fast something has to go to get away from an object’s gravitational field – for the earth it is seven miles a second.).
Plasma Model: The central object does not have to be super massive. It is simply a star with a very strong magnetic field and a disc of debris spinning around it very rapidly. The spinning in the magnetic field creates an electric current which forces the jets of energy and matter out at the poles.
20. What is at the center of our Galaxy?
At the center of our galaxy there is an extremely large black hole, no matter your interpretation of what a black hole is. We can see the spinning disc and we can see the jets occasionally. Our spinning disc is extremely large.
21. Do you think the snake was once a lizard?
No. They are two very different types of animals.
22. Do you think unicorns existed? Were some in Eden?
I am not aware of any evidence that unicorns ever existed. I’m not sure where the stories of them came from. I know that the translators of the King James Bible decided that the word that means ‘wild ox’ in the Hebrew should be translated ‘unicorn,’ but other than that, I have no idea if they actually existed or if people have just made up a lovely and fantastic animal.
Barry and Helen Setterfield
Please feel free to use this series of questions and answers without asking permission. We do request that you keep everything in context, however, and do not ‘quote mine’ to try to prove a point of your own. If you would like a printable Word file of this with numbered pages, please email us and we will be happy to send it to you. Thank you.
