Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Atheism, Essentialism and Young Earth Science (YES)

Even non-theists can see that fish-to-Frank evolution does not work.  G.H. Harper is an atheist and holds to a steady state theory of species.  We propose the stasis of Essential Types of Life (ETL’s).  That is, what remains static in the living realm is at a higher level than species.  Horses trot out more ponies, pigs are pigs again and sharks have a hunger to reproduce more sharks.

Harper wrote “Darwinism and indoctrination” and “Alternatives to evolutionism” in the British education journal School Science Review in the late 1970’s. [1][2]  He proposed that there were special geological conditions during the Cambrian that favored the fossilization of trilobites for example.  A better explanation consistent with biological essentialism (basic types of life vary within limits) is that most of the fossil bearing rocks are part of a Singular Epoch of Rapid Geologic Activity (SERGA).   We detail this approach in our book YES: Young Earth Science.

J.R. Downie and N.J. Barron, writing in the Journalof Biological Education, note that, “Harper (1977; 1979) argues against the teaching of science by 'indoctrination' and suggests a number of alternatives to evolutionary explanations that could be used in discussion of species origins.”

Antony Flew (d. 2010) was a leading atheist for many years, but converted to Deism late in life.  Flew rejected evolution’s explanation regarding the Origin Of Life (OOL):  “How can a universe of mindless matter produce beings with intrinsic ends, self-replication capabilities, and ‘coded chemistry?’” [3]  If evolution is wrong about the start of life, maybe it is wrong about the Universal Common Ancestor (UCA) as well.



Notes:
1) Harper, G. H. (1977) “Darwinism and indoctrination” School Science Review, 59, 258-268.
2) Harper, G. H. (1979) “Alternatives to evolutionism” School Science Review, 61, 15-27.
3) There is a God by Antony Flew (HarperCollins, NYC, NY, 2007), p. 124.


Special thanks to Francis Schaeffer Hall for the second illustration.

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