Vol. 34 No. 1 January 2005

As the year 2004 comes toa close, and the year 2005brings new opportunities, wecan only say with the psalm-ist, “This is the LORD’S doing;it is marvellous in our eyes”(Psalm 118:23). For all these34 years of ICR’s existence,He has supplied every needand given such victories thatwe can only stand in awe ofHim, and express our thankfulness andpraise. Let me recap some of what Hehas done this year.

His financial supply has been consis-tent and sufficient. ICR has no endow-ments sitting in the bank, or major donorsunderwriting salaries and expenses, buteach month He provides through the sac-rificial giving of His children. This yearhas been a financial adventure, especiallyas we have added staff and increased re-search, but we are not now nor have weever been in debt. With year-end givingHe graciously allowed ICR to finish theyear with all bills paid, “This is the LORD’Sdoing; it is marvellous in our eyes.”

Strategies to communicate creationtruth have shifted recently as Americahas changed. Large area-wide seminarsare rare now, but opportunities to speakin churches, on university campuses, atconventions, on television and radio,

and a variety of venues haveperhaps increased. Totalnumbers are estimates only,but we have probably ad-dressed over 50,000 peoplethis year. The message hasgone to numerous countriesas well.

ICR’s constant communi-cation tool, Acts & Facts, isnow more popular than ever.

In spite of regular purgings, it reaches130,000 homes, Days of Praise read-ers twice that many. The radio outreachhas continued to expand, with our vari-ous programs aired on approximately2750 outlets—maybe many more inSpanish-speaking countries.

A major overhaul of our website hasbegun which should significantly increasetraffic. At present an estimated 7500 visi-tors click in each day on average, down-loading a vast array of information. Wesponsored two field-study tours this year,to Mount St. Helen’s and Grand Canyon,respectively. Some of the 222 participantshelped facilitate ICR’s ongoing researchprojects. Three books were published,including The Ocean Book by FrankSherwin; Miracles and For Time and For-ever, by Henry Morris. Seems like there’san insatiable appetite for creation truth.“This is the LORD’S doing.”

RECAPPING 2004 AT ICR

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PUBLISHED BY

INSTITUTE FOR CREATION RESEARCH

P.O. BOX 2667, EL CAJON, CA 92021619/448-0900 WEBSITE: WWW.icr.orgTo disseminate articles and information ofcurrent interest dealing with creation,evolution, and related topics. Sent free uponrequest.Editor: John D. MorrisCo-Editor: Henry M. MorrisManaging Editor: Donald H. RohrerAssistant Editor: Kelly GriffinNo articles may be reprinted in whole or inpart without obtaining permission from ICR.

The ICR Graduate School received a5-year extension of its accreditation in2004. Two students completed degree re-quirements this year, Peter Duncanson andGreg Copeland, each furthering creationknowledge with his research and writing.

On the scholarly side, ICR researchenjoyed its best year ever. The RATE re-search on radioisotope dating achievedstunning victories, and several of the find-ings were presented in professional meet-ings. The nautiloid research has also con-tinued. A technical paper on it has clearedpeer review and should be printed withina few months. Plans to begin a new re-search initiative into the human genomeare taking shape and should yield strongresults. This is “marvellous in our eyes.”

Another way in which God has blessedis the unity of staff and consistency ofmessage. Every one here is a committedChristian and considers their job theirChristian ministry. Each serves ICR as ifthey were serving God, as indeed they are.There have been no outbreaks of heresyor sinful failure. Corporate and personalprayer has been answered.

Finally, we recognize the larger fam-ily of financial and prayer supporters. Weknow you make the ministry happen. Wethank you, but most of all we thank ourCreator, for, “This is the LORD’S doing;it is marvellous in our eyes.”

Phoenix and Tucson, ArizonaDr. Larry Vardiman traveled to Phoenix andTucson, Arizona, in October to speak tomeetings of the Arizona Origin Science As-sociation and the Raytheon Bible Club. Hegave three talks about “Radioisotopes andthe Age of the Earth” and two talks on “TheBig Freeze: A Biblical Ice Age.” Approxi-mately 500 people attended the meetings.

The lectures in Tucson were held atChrist Community Church, Palo Verde

Baptist Church, and the Raytheon Cor-poration. Those in Phoenix were givenat Northwest Community Church andChandler Bible Church. Audience re-sponse was supportive and questionswere enthusiastic.

Dr. Vardiman was able to renew manyold friendships while in Arizona and makeseveral other new ones. He also visitedwith his sister, Ann Kurtz and her husband,who live in Tucson and attend Christ Com-munity Church. Thanks to Joe Sabeny ofTucson and Roger Heyen of Phoenix whodid most of the transportation and setup.Monrovia, CaliforniaDr. Henry Morris was the key speaker ata meeting of the pastors of the churchesof the Baptist Bible Fellowship of Cali-fornia on October 7–8. Because of thegrowing influence of so-called progres-sive creationism in the churches (as pro-moted especially by Dr. Hugh Ross), hewas asked to speak on “The Importanceof Teaching Six-Day Creation” on theevening of October 7, with a question-and-answer session the next morning. Inaddition to over 30 pastors plus three col-lege presidents who attended, there wasa capacity crowd of lay church memberspresent in the 300-seat auditorium of theCalvary Road Baptist Church.Riverside and Lancaster, CaliforniaIn early November ICR zoologist FrankSherwin spoke at Crest Community

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ICR SCIENTIST CARRIESCREATION MESSAGE TO PERU

From ArkansasYour teachings are having a profound ef-fect on our congregation. . . . I’ve beenusing your materials for well over tenyears now and cannot thank you enoughfor your pioneering work. You’re in myprayers every day.

Church in Riverside (Eric Sythoff, pas-tor) on the 1980 eruptions of Mount St.Helens. Attendees were fascinated asclear evidence for rapid, catastrophicsedimentation was presented, validatingportions of the catastrophic Flood model.

On November 13 Mr. Sherwin spokeat the Antelope Valley Creation ScienceAssociation (Scott Rea and Don Kennedy,coordinators) in Lancaster, California, re-garding the consequences of one’s world-view. Among those present was a collegeprofessor, raised in a Christian home, butsadly become an atheist while attending asecular college. A spirited one-on-one dis-cussion followed for 45 minutes after thepresentation.

El Cajon, CaliforniaFor three weeks beginning on October 21,ICR’s Dr. John Morris taught a specialtopic Sunday school class at the large anddynamic Shadow Mountain CommunityChurch, Dr. David Jeremiah, pastor. Un-der the leadership of Associate PastorDavid St. John, the class convenes irregu-larly and covers subjects primarily of anapologetic nature. This is the fourth timean ICR speaker has been invited to speakon creation.

Shadow Mountain Community Churchis the “mother” church of ICR. Underthen Pastor Dr. Tim LaHaye, it spon-sored the founding of Christian HeritageCollege and ICR in 1970, and has re-mained a good friend of the ministryever since.

Dr. Duane Gish continues his role of in-ternational ambassador for ICR. Hespoke in seven universities (some mul-tiple times) and in five churches (threetimes in two) during his visit to Limaand Cuzco in Peru, October 5–16. Thevisit was off to a bad start when a thiefshattered the window of the shuttle vanand stole the purse of Mrs. Gish as theydrove from the airport to their residence.

The Peruvian people were very gra-cious and hospitable, and the presidentsand other high officials at each of the uni-versities warmly welcomed Dr. Gish andothers in his party and spent time learn-ing about ICR and the local creationorganization.

The visit had been arranged by Creousand Elizabeth Ramdath. Creous, a nativeof Trinidad, and Elizabeth, a native ofPeru, who, working under the auspicesof the Iglesia Biblica Cristiana de LaMolina, have established the creationistorganization, Centro CreacionistaLatinoamericano Canopy. Christians inLima are thrilled by this effort to equipthem with the Biblical and scientific evi-dence for creation and are eagerly look-ing forward to future visits by creationscientists.

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POST-FLOOD GLACIERSIN YOSEMITE

One of Dr. Larry Vardiman’s ongoing re-search projects at ICR is studying evi-dence for a short-term Ice Age followingthe Genesis Flood. He recently returned

to Yosemite National Park with Drs. SteveAustin, Kenneth Cumming, and JohnBaumgardner to design a new ICR tour,spanning the biologic and geologic evi-dences from Death Valley to MammothLake to Yosemite. While on the trip hecollected photographs and documenta-tion for the coverage and movement ofglaciers in the Park.

The picture of Lembert Dome shownabove looking eastward with MountDana in the background, provides evi-dence for estimating the depth and di-rection of the ice flow in TuolumneMeadows five miles west of Tioga Passnear the crest of the Sierra Nevada.Lembert Dome is a geological featurecalled a Roche Moutonnée. It is a pro-truding knob of bedrock, in this case—granite—glacially eroded to have a gen-tly inclined, striated upstream slope and

a steep, rough, and hackly downstreamside. Ice moved from right to left in thepicture smoothing the upstream surfaceand plucking blocks of granite from theleeside. It is believed that the glacier wasabout 2,000 feet thick in TuolumneMeadows and moved toward the north-west at this location. The primary sourceof ice is believed to have been from thesoutheast near the high terrain of Mt.Lyell and the Lyell Fork of the TuolumneValley.

The main glacial flow out of Tuol-umne Meadows was through the GrandCanyon of the Tuolumne into what isnow called the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.The water from this drainage provides amain source of fresh water for the cityof San Francisco. A secondary channelfor the glacier was directly westwarddown Tenaya Creek past Half Dome andinto the Merced River and throughYosemite Valley. The entire YosemiteValley was filled with the glacier so thatonly the upper part of Half Dome andthe other peaks surrounding the Valleyprotruded from the ice. The glacier ex-tended westward to El Portal outside thePark. Upon deglaciation it left largeblocks of debris and end moraines nearthe entrance.

Dr. Vardiman plans to model the pre-cipitation patterns over Yosemite and theSierra Nevada as he’s done for Greenland,Yellowstone National Park, and Antarc-tica to validate a recent, catastrophic, IceAge. He anticipates beginning these stud-ies in 2006.

Check the web for:• Previous Acts & Facts and

Days of Praise

• List of creation scientists• Coming events• Online store for your purchases• Research articles

www.icr.org

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“GENE MUTATION MAKES TOT STRONGER”Because mutations are random relative to need and because organisms gen-erally fit well into their environments, mutations normally are either neutralor harmful; only very rarely are they helpful—just as a random change madeby poking a screwdriver into the guts of your computer will rarely improveits performance.1

This is a rather graphic description of the alleged beneficial work genetic mistakesperform. Therefore, whenever reports surface of a favorable mutation, it is followedwith keen interest.

Almost five years ago a baby was born in Berlin with bulging thighs and bicepsthat were credited to a unique beneficial genetic event (the story may be read inthe New England Journal of Medicine vol. 350:2642–44, June 24, 2004 “Powerfulgenes—myostatin regulation of human muscle mass,” E.M. McNally, M.D., Ph.D.).But just how “beneficial” is this mutation? It seems to be advantageous in theshort run with the child able to lift seven-pound dumbbells with arms extended—but who knows what will transpire in the ensuing years? Dr. McNally was quotedas saying “the boy is still very young and that problems could occur later in hislife.”2 Scientists knowledgeable with mutations and diseases caused by them arecautious, expressing hope that as time goes on the child will be fine. But wouldany geneticist on this planet—given the choice—say yes to this particular muta-tion for their next child?

It was discovered the child has a mutation in the gene that produces a protein calledmyostatin. Some researchers are concerned that the child’s heart muscle could be dam-aged by an abnormal amount of this protein, although his cardiovascular system ap-pears to be normal at present. Such apprehension is hardly what we should expectfrom a “beneficial” mutation.

How does this event relate to evolutionary theory? Let’s extrapolate. Is there anyreason to think that after many generations, the progeny of this muscular child will pro-duce a “new species” of person? No. His children (if he lives to bear any) may be moremuscular—but then again, maybe not. With research experience biologists have hadwith mutations, there could be unseen genetic problems lurking within this child. In-deed, geneticists have found that people have much fewer—not more—genes than wassuggested a decade ago. This means that single genes may have multiple functions ormay interact with numerous other genes within the individual. Such a condition is calledpleiotropy—a single mutated gene causing multiple phenotypic (physical) changes. Evenif mutations could have beneficial outcomes, this “pleiotropic effect” would remove theadvantage by damaging other organs and systems.

This brings us to a larger question: Is the evolutionary idea that “beneficial muta-tions” could somehow work their way in transforming one kind of animal, plant, orperson into another, scientifically valid?

1. Ehrlich, P., Human Natures, Island Press, 2000, p. 21.2. Gordon, S., June 23, 2004 [see www.healthfinder.gov/news].

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This month on “Science, Scripture, &Salvation”:

Weekend of: Title/Topic:

Jan. 1 Exploiting the RockAges Jurassic, Devonian, Cambrian.What do these all mean? Even ifyou’re a geology major, you maynot know that these terms and therest of the geologic record havebeen radically altered to fitevolutionary philosophy. How didthis happen?

Jan. 8 Stem CellsWhen we consider stem cells andthe seemingly powerful potentialthey have in becoming medicalmiracles, we’re reminded of thegreatness of God’s creation. So,why all the controversy surroundingstem cell research? Tune in!

Jan. 15 Sanctity of LifePerhaps there’s nothing moreprecious in life than a newbornbaby. Life is sacred and should beprotected. But, what about legalizedabortion and the so-called mercykilling of the sick and elderly? Is itacceptable to take a life that’sjudged unwanted or hopeless?

Jan. 22 The Case of Roe v. WadeThis weekend marks the anniver-sary of the 1973 U.S. SupremeCourt decision that legalizedabortion on demand. Why did sevenof nine justices pronounce a deathsentence on millions of unbornchildren? Was this history repeatingitself? Stay tuned!

Jan. 29 Migrating Birds and ButterfliesGod provides for all of His creationin many different ways. Migration isa way certain animals survive andreproduce. Some of the mostfascinating migratory creatures arebirds and butterflies. But how dothey know where they’re going?

Former ICR graduate student, Mr. TomDraves, chaired the committee whichsponsored a dynamic “Back to Genesis”Seminar on the campus of ConcordiaUniversity in Ann Arbor, Michigan, onOctober 22 and 23. Adjunct ProfessorDoug Phillips joined ICR’s Dr. JohnMorris for the weekend.

It all started with Dr. Morris’s present-ing “Dinosaurs and the Bible” to gradeschool students including a showing ofthe popular ICR film, Marty’s Fossil Ad-venture. Imagine the students’ delightwhen “Marty” himself (Mr. Kim Elmore)showed up. That afternoon Mr. Phillipschallenged local high school students tostand firm on the Word of God, especiallyas it relates to creation. In all, over 2000students were present.

The Friday evening and Saturday adultseminar was likewise well received. Anumber of students from both ConcordiaUniversity (a Missouri Lutheran, mostlycreationist school), and the University ofMichigan were present, leading to a widevariety of discussions.

One long-time supporter of ICRwrote: “After being brainwashed at uni-versity, it took me thirty years to walkout of the atheist woods. ICR was instru-mental in destroying my belief in thematerialistic creation myth, evolution. Asa result, I came back to the faith and serveGod with total devotion.”

On Sunday morning, Dr. Morris spoketo three services at the St. Paul LutheranChurch, and in the evening to the SouthGate Baptist Church. In-between meetingsDr. Morris and his wife were able to spendtime with their daughter, son-in-law, andsix-month-old granddaughter. There re-mains good reason for him to return toMichigan.

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Dr. Henry Morris III, ICR Executive Vice President for Strategic Ministries.P.O. Box 2667, El Cajon, CA 92021; Phone 619/448-0900; E-mail: hmorrisiii@icr.org

Donations can be made online at www.icr.org/contribute.html

OPPOSITION TO RIGHTEOUSNESS

“For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate theehave lifted up the head” (Psalm 83:2).

It would be hard to miss the increase in vitriolic recriminations amongthe many news and pundit presentations these past few weeks. Althoughthe political campaign stirred up personal hatred against the President,the rather surprising election majority—especially participation by the“religious right,” has opened up a fountain of hate mongering that hasnot been publicly aired for several decades.

EXPECT OPPORTUNITIES TO BLOSSOMYet during the most intense pressures to yield, God’s witness and HisChurch has thrived and grown. The light of the “glorious gospel ofChrist” (II Corinthians 4:4) shines all the more brightly in the dark.Expect great doors to open up this year.

PRAY FOR STRENGTH AND BOLDNESSHistory is replete with “seasons” of oppression and persecution of God’speople—all the way from the slavery of Israel in Egypt through thehorrid bloodshed of the Middle Ages to the atrocities against Chris-tians in the Middle East today. Paul admonishes us to don the “wholearmour” (Ephesians 6:11) to protect us and David calls God to “Filltheir faces with shame” (Psalm 83:16). Our aim is ever to win the lostand turn them to the “light” (Acts 26:18). But in doing so, we canexpect opposition from those that hate the light (John 3:20).

HELP US FIGHT BEHIND THE ENEMY’S LINESICR’s unique battle position is an assignment behind the “front lines”in the very heart of the enemy stronghold. Surely it is clear that the“intelligence” of the enemy in our Western culture is founded on natu-ralism and evolutionary humanism. ICR’s job is to expose that awful“darkness” by turning on the “light” of a creationist worldview. Weneed God’s help. Pray for us. We need your help. Support us. Togetherwe can “turn many away from iniquity” (Malachi 2:6).