Articles

As Christians, we understand that people from earliest times have made their living from farming. Cain and Abel, for example, had crops and herds. The patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had huge flocks of sheep, goats, cattle, donkeys and camels. Such flocks needed large areas of pasture for grazing. Also in Isaiah 28: 24-25 we read about farmers sowing crops of dill, cumin, barley and wheat. These farmers ploughed and sowed seeds. Nobody suggested that they should leave nature undisturbed. Farmers in New Testament times also ploughed the land and sowed seed. Agriculture has always been regarded as a good thing. At the present time however, agriculture has become somewhat controversial.

I started writing this on the Friday of the May long weekend. The wildfire smoke from northern Alberta was still reducing the visibility in Calgary, but I couldn’t smell it that morning. It wasn’t thick and dark like it was a couple of days earlier. On a clear day, I can see our 40 statutory miles (SM) visibility marker, the Rocky Mountains, but on that morning, the visibility was 5 SM. Weather observations are generally made in miles (for visibility) and feet (for cloud height) rather than metric. Visibility of 6 SM or less means I have to enter an obstruction to visibility in my observations (OBS) as well as put it in the weather duration in the Human Weather Observing System (HWOS). If the visibility drops below 3 SM, I have to send an extra OBS called a SPECI. The regular hourly OBS are called METARs. I called the obstruction, haze, that morning because I didn’t smell smoke.

Dr. Gordon Wilson featured speaker at Creation Weekend October 2023
October 27 and 28, 2023
Edmonton, Alberta
Meadowlands Baptist Church

Many people love The Riot and the Dance cinematic celebrations of the creation. Dr. Gordon Wilson is the biologist and narrator of these films. Naturally these wonderful programs call our attention to only a small number of interesting stories from nature. But Dr. Wilson has a great store of interesting discussions on the significance of what nature displays! In his presentations he provides insights on the life cycles, diversity, and relationships of living creatures while at the same time acknowledging the impact of natural evil, a result of God’s curse after the fall of man, which results in predators, parasites and disease impacting all creatures.

Creation with Confidence and Grace
Featuring Dr. Gordon Wilson

Friday, October 27 – Saturday, October 28

Location: Meadowlands Baptist Church
(2215 17 Street NW, Edmonton, Alberta)

Friday 8:00 p.m. Session – Young Earth Creation with Confidence and Grace
This presentation teaches our youth and young adults to be confident and bold, but also gracious about young earth creation. We are happy to be young earth creationists in our Christian/creationist bubble, but do we zip inside our turtle shell when we are around others who are likely to ridicule us? On the other extreme, some creationists are bold but also obnoxious and argumentative with atheistic or theistic evolutionists or old earth creationists. Neither extreme will do. We must be confident in what we believe, but also gracious, and, patient, and quick to listen while we present our reasons for the faith that is in us.

New Tour Guide – Available Now!

Since the early 1990s, CSAA has produced five editions of a Tour Guide to the Royal Tyrrell Museum. Unlike other guides to similar facilities, this guide includes discussion of most exhibits as they are encountered on a trip through the premises. The fifth and last edition was issued in 2014. It clearly is time for a new edition as there have been many changes since then.

Our guide typically begins with interpretive themes which apply to many of the exhibits. This feature will not change in the new edition. What has changed, is discussion of the preliminary exhibits which occupy about half the space available in the museum. The changes include displays up to the Burgess Shale on the mezzanine. 

Dinosaurs are such showy, dramatic creatures, and their fossils are found in such variety that they have naturally attracted a lot of attention from scientists and the public alike. The question “where did they come from?” has attracted a lot of attention from specialists who seek an evolutionary answer. Nevertheless, a recent article on the topic remarks that relationships (lines of evolutionary descent) between the major groups of dinosaurs have historically been uncertain.  Why would that be? Have we seen any improvement in this situation with new analyses? [David Cerny and Ashley L. Simonoff. 2023. Statistical evaluation of character support reveals the instability of higher-level dinosaur phylogeny. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-35784-3 (2023) 13:9273 open access]

It was like old times again! What a pleasure it was to hear our speaker, Dr. Gordon Wilson of New Saint Andrews College in Idaho, address us in person. And everyone appreciated the wonderful venue, Meadowlands Baptist Church, which provided excellent technical assistance as well as an attractive facility. The opportunity to chat with other people and to buy new book and DVD titles, were additional blessings.

“Strange is this little creature, because the whole organisation of his body is extraordinary and strange and because his external appearance, at the first sight, has the closest similarity to a little bear.  This also led me to give him the name little water bear” (cited in Greven 2015).

Review by Margaret Helder

A just-retired forensic scientist, Dr. Mark Sandercock, has written an amazing book on scripture, science and current attitudes and customs in our modern society and how these compare to biblical revelation. The book is written for all interested Christians, but especially for those who may have doubts about six-day creation and need a little encouragement.

This work is divided into three sections. The first deals with Genesis 1-11. The second section deals with the evolution paradigm and how this does not compare favourably with what we see in nature, or indeed in scripture. The third section deals with several popular practices which plague our society, and why these customs are allowed and encouraged today when former generations did not allow anything of the kind.

The objective of education, in general, is to equip upcoming generations to understand their place in society and how to contribute in a meaningful way to the well-being of that society. Christians go further. Each generation seeks to communicate with youngsters our relationship to God, and our relationship to people and the world in which we live. Christians therefore declare that an important part of our mandate as citizens and believers, is to make sure that we are informed about current events and issues such as science which can exert such a dramatic impact on society, especially today. Thus, we seek to acquiesce with, or speak out against, various important policies in government and society. Indeed, few issues today have fashioned the values of society as much as has scientific thinking and the philosophical implications thereof.

In recent years, people have become really interested in genetics.  They ask questions like “Who were my ancestors?  What can I learn about my family through our genes?  What mix of nationalities do I have?”  As the genomes of various species, including humans, have been mapped, scientists have reflected on many issues.  One of those issues is molecular clocks.

There is a reason why people walk down the street with their eyes glued to their cell phones. They want to find out the latest news! It is indeed true that everyone is curious and likes a good story, and especially the ending to a good story. Many stories however actually are never ending. They may start in a very simple fashion, but as time goes on, the details become more and more complicated.

Many stories or interpretations in science, for example, are like this. At first the idea is straightforward, but as more studies are conducted, the story becomes more difficult to follow. Consider, for example, Darwin’s proposals about evolution. He observed that individuals in a population of organisms differed in various small details. He then argued that those individuals which were better endowed, would be the ones to leave more offspring. This was the simple story that Darwin developed to explain evolution. There were many people who did not think that this scenario of changing proportions of traits in the population could explain the appearance of new body plans. The process might explain why there were more big or small individuals (or whatever) in the population, but it could not explain the appearance of new body plans (such as insect or fish) which require a lot of new information compared to that found in other kinds of creature. But no matter, Darwin’s scenario became the basis for evolution theory in the years to come.

Book Review by Margaret Helder

Dr. Gordon Wilson has written a nice new book, Darwin’s Sandcastle, for Christians who are not scientists but who desire to be informed, but not burdened with details concerning science and origins. Such people understand that they need to keep mentally alert concerning their worldview. This means not shutting themselves off from important topics like the foundations of Christian doctrine and history. The objective of many Christians therefore is to share their worldview with others and not become bowled over by contrary views. While most people do not specialize in science, they can at least familiarize themselves with the basic issues.

Our Required Response to the Awesome Creator!

Featuring: Dr. Kurt Wise, Director of Creation Research Center, Truett McConnell University, Cleveland, Georgia

Session 1 – Dinosaurs: Insight into Biblical History
Friday evening:
October 25, 2024, 8:00 p.m.
(excellent for youth and families)
Learn how dinosaurs’ designs teach us something about God’s nature, how the fossils of dinosaurs teach us about sin and its consequences in judgement, and the legends of dinosaurs teach us how people still need God’s love and salvation.

Now that the sixth edition of the Tour Guide to the Royall Tyrrell Museum has been published, readers have asked for some additional features. In response, we have produced a list of suggestions for ways to enhance one’s use of the guide. In addition, CSAA has prepared a custom map that identifies the location of certain specimens highlighted in the Tour Guide. As a result of recent changes to the floor plan in the museum, it is helpful to better understand how to find various displays. If you have already purchased tour guides, and wish for these new free features, simply let us know by email (books@create.ab.ca) or snail mail. From now on, those who purchase the Tour Guide, will automatically receive these two pages along with the booklet.

Paperback / $6.00 / 55 Pages
Shipping for one copy: $2.00