Month: April 2024

Language

Ignoring observations of flood features, and population growth, and DNA complexity, and the myriad of other science that can easily be interpreted to point to created complexity, we can take a brief aside, and consider language for a moment. The spoken word, beautiful in its complexity, freedom, and innovation, allows mankind an additional unique place above the animal kingdom.

As a Christian who believes in the authority of scripture, it is simple enough to consider man created in God’s image on day 6, and immediately engaging the Lord in conversation. The animals were named, the creation account was communicated, in order to be passed down, whether verbally, or in writing. We even see phrasing from Adam that he is utilizing language far beyond simple communication, and adding flair and poetry to his thoughts:

Gen 2:23 Then the man said,

“This at last is bone of my bones

and flesh of my flesh;

she shall be called Woman,

because she was taken out of Man.”

Evolutionists, of course, must take the unenviable position that somehow animalistic grunts and noises, grew in complexity and became language, the record of which goes back the expected 5000 years of a biblical world view. Furthermore, the evolutionist must contend with the fact that it seems language is MORE complex the farther back you go, rather than less. In English, we can easily point to the 1600’s writing of Shakespeare, a study deemed so difficult that it has been all but abandoned by public schools, and is not even required reading for some English Literature majors in college. Even going back a century or two, and cracking open some classic literature, realizing they did not have google, or dictionaries, or thesauruses, and to witness the colorful and beautiful command of language that is being written, even an intelligent person of today can appreciate how elevated it used to be.

Beyond this though, language experts concede that Sanskrit, and other ancient languages, are more complex in their grammar, than our modern ones, though this fact is hardly publicized. The Société de Linguistique de Paris literally banned discussion on language origin, which lasted more than a century, because it conflicted with Darwin’s gradual processes, and was so filled with speculation.

The evolution of linguistics is an idea only, and has no evidence. And to further complicate matters, linguistic experts concede that multiple ancient languages arose unrelated to each other. Akkadian, Semitic, Sanskrit, Sumerian, and others; regardless of how you break it down, not only are they severely different, but they are all complex, and complete.

So the evolutionist, while denying that a creator had split tribes through language, must concede that multiple and different complex languages emerged within different people groups all over the world. This is to say nothing of the fact that within the ancient people groups, similar flood stories exist, indicating they all share the same history. There are over 270 ancient flood legends and traditions recorded in ancient history, 80% of them mention a large vessel saving the human race. 88% involve a favored family. In 70%, survival was due to the boat. In 95%, the flood was responsible for the death of mankind.

Again, I find myself in the pleasurable comfort of knowing the authority of God’s word matches easily with what I observe. Hopefully, this is a small building block of support and faith for you as well.

Stegosaurus

Let us consider the Stegosaurus.

This 8 to 10 ton reptile is worth considering as a fascinating piece of biological history, unique and fantastic. With two sets of bone plates extending vertically along the ridge of the backbone, and 4 large tail spikes, it possesses features no other creature has. Aside from how neat the reality of these are, we can also consider the implications in the fossil record.

Of course, evolutionists fully expected that some transitional forms would be found showing the gradual development of plates, and spikes. But like the dismal truth of all specialized creatures in the fossil record, no such transitions exist. After over a century of searching, in every case the animals appear abruptly, and in perfect form. We know this instinctively, of course, and yet are forced to continue considering the unfounded assertion of molecules to man evolution despite no evidence.

The absence of transitional fossils the world over was a problem for Darwin, and continues to be a problem for paleontologists today. But to add to the Stegosaurus observations, we will take a brief look at the magnificent jungle temples of Cambodia, produced by the Khmer civilization. Beginning as early as the eighth and extending through the fourteenth century A.D. one of, if not the greatest monarch and monument builder of this empire was Jayavarman VII, from 1181.

The relief carvings along the temple wall show various animals.

https://www.bible.ca/tracks/tracks-cambodia.htm

A monkey, parrot, lizard, water buffalo, swan, and of course this famous picture of the stegosaurus. Is it though?

Well, that would be the obvious conclusion from anyone who knew what a stegosaurus looked like, and happened upon the temple. Clearly this is a large lizard with plates along its back, and clearly there would not be many animals to choose from. Furthermore, none of the relief carvings are made up animals. But the temple was built in the 12th century, we are certainly not allowed to conclude that they actually saw one.

This is one of many ancient examples around the world of dinosaurs being depicted on pottery, tapestries, coffins, and walls all over the globe, all of which must somehow be dismissed and explained away. This one of course is no different, and the Smithsonian takes their shot at it in the 2009 article Stegosaurus, Rhinoceros, or Hoax?

In the article that can only be described as dripping with animosity against creationists, the author asserts that it cannot be a stegosaurus, and is more likely an animal surrounded by leaves, like it is in a jungle. Either that, or it must have been added later as a hoax. And to further back their claim that it MUST be something other than what it looks like, Creationists are described as those who “twist Biblical passages to support their view,” and “distort nature to fit a narrow theological view.” But calling it a bear with leaves, or saying it was carved as a joke with no evidence doesn’t sound like the creationist twisting and distorting to me.

To further back their disparagement of concluding the obvious, they invoke the evolutionary champion, Carl Sagan, and his quote: “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence,” then further claim that evidence of dinosaurs living with man just doesn’t exist. Again I would reiterate that this is just one example of many all over the globe of every dinosaur we have a classification for being depicted in ancient art. But it is certainly ironic that they used Sagan, because the very same late evolutionist, Dr Carl Sagan, famous host of the Cosmos TV series, squarely faced the conundrum that dragon stories/art pose for evolutionists. Namely, that such stories and artifacts are found in cultures all across the globe (the strikingly realistic-looking brass behemoths adorning a 15th century cleric’s tomb in a UK cathedral, Icca stones T-Rex, and others), and that they are amazingly like several types of dinosaurs—which no one is supposed to have seen! Recognizing it quite properly as a puzzle to be solved for long-agers, he wrote a book about it, The Dragons of Eden. In this he proposed that somehow one part of our brain (the one that was inherited from whichever of our alleged reptile ancestors, in the evolutionist scenario, were living at the same time as dinosaurs) had retained its memories of what those ancestors had seen.

Did you catch that? The great Carl Sagan said that the art appears because our brains inherited the memories and images through our DNA through millions and millions of years and countless generations, from when we were just animals living alongside such creatures. So picture it now… as you are carving your wall, and forming a monkey, a parrot, a water buffalo, things you see each day, you add the exact form of one of the most unique animals known to man, with some of the most striking features along its back imaginable, because deep in your mind you were once a reptile that saw one. This passes for science? This evolutionist is held in high esteem while at every turn, the Christian who stands on the foundation of the word of God, and who can easily observe the evidence of its truth throughout nature, is being told that we are twisting and distorting facts?!

No where in the article is there any reasonable allowance whatsoever for the obvious reality, that it is what it looks like. Occam’s Razor, attributed to William of Ockham, is a principle that suggests the simplest explanation is often the correct one. The simplest, and most direct conclusion, based on observation, is that it is what it looks like. And so are the sauropods on the coffin in England. And so are the dinosaurs on the pottery in Peru. And on the Sant Jordi Tapestry, Plaza Sant Jaume, in Spain. And what’s more, Sagan knew this, and knew it so well that he felt compelled to address it. If the Smithsonian was being intellectually honest, it would acknowledge that, and perhaps spend its time coming up with a better explanation than us having the memories of when we were reptiles 60 million years ago, rather than berating Christians for accepting obvious observable data.