On page 234 of his book The Biblical Basis for Modern Science (Baker Book House, 1984), Henry Morris shares the following statement made by scientist Fred Hoyle:
“Precious little in the way of biochemical evolution could have happened on earth. If one counts the number of trial assemblies of amino acids that are needed to give rise to the enzymes, the probability of their discovery by random shufflings turns out to be less than 1 in 1040,000.”
On page 432 of his book The Case for a Creator (Thorndike Press, 2004), Lee Strobel makes the following statement about DNA:
“DNA serves as the information storehouse for a finely choreographed manufacturing process in which the right amino acids are linked together with the right bonds in the right sequence to produce the right kind of proteins that fold in the right way to build biological systems.”
During the interview Strobel conducted with Stephen C. Meyer about biological information, Meyer stated that “Proteins, of course, are the key functional molecule in the cell; you can’t have life without them.” (p. 441) On page 451 of his book, Strobel writes that the probability of forming a short protein that is functional at random is 1 in 10125.
In Strobel’s interview with Robin Collins on the topic of the fine-tuning of the universe in terms of physics for the same book mentioned above, Collins stated that if the mass of the neutron was increased by 0.14%, then nuclear fusion in the stars would stop and there would not be an energy source for life. (p. 262)
Finally, in Strobel’s interview with Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay Wesley Richards on the topic of the fine-tuning of the universe in terms of astronomy, Gonzalez and/or Richards shared the following information:
Earth is located in the Milky Way galaxy in a sliver of space that affords it safe haven from the hostile conditions in other parts of the Milky Way. (p. 333)
Earth’s circular orbit helps maintain a relatively steady temperature. (p. 340)
Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus protect Earth from too many comets, and Mars protects Earth from asteroids. (p. 340, 341)
Earth gets the right amount of light from the sun so that it can have liquid surface water. If the distance from the sun were changed by 5% in either direction, then animal life would not exist on Earth. (p. 341, 342)
The sun is the right mass and provides the right colors of light (red and blue). The sun’s light only varies by 0.1% over a sunspot cycle, which is about 11 years in duration. (p. 347, 348)
The moon stabilizes the tilt of Earth at 23.5 degrees, gives us mild seasons, increases tides that flush nutrients from land to oceans, and is instrumental in the tides that keep ocean circulation going. (p. 351, 352)
Earth is the right size to retain an atmosphere, which provides free exchange of the chemicals of life and protects us from cosmic radiation, right size to keep internal heat from escaping too fast, not too big which would cause a smooth surface due to gravity, and has radioactive elements and plate tectonics that produce mountains that are essential to a thriving biosphere. (p. 355, 356)
Some people believe that Earth may be billions of years old. However, in his book Thousands … Not Billions (Master Books, 2005), Don De Young brings up a number of discrepancies that raise questions about the validity of radioactive dating methods.
“Radiocarbon dating method was first introduced by scientist William Libby in the 1940s while he worked at the University of Chicago.” (p. 46) The half-life of C-14 is 5370 years, so after 10 half-lives only 0.1% should remain of the original C-14, and after 17 – 18 half-lives the remaining C-14 should not be detectable. (p. 48, 49) However, C-14 is being detected in samples such as diamonds when it should not be detected if Earth is as old as scientists have claimed in the past and even in the present. (p. 56)
Similarly, Be-10, with a half-life of 1.52 million years, has been detected in deep rocks (Faure and Mensing, 2005) which is evidence, too, of a younger Earth. (p. 61, 62)
Lastly, according to research by Russell Humphries, helium has been detected in zircon crystals found in rock at a New Mexico drilling site, which according to the lead-lead dating method is about 1.5 billion years old. (p. 66-68) The hypothesis detailed in De Young’s book is that the presence of helium in the zircons might be the result of accelerated nuclear decay that occurred thousands of years ago instead of billions of years ago. (p. 71) “Based on the measured helium retention, statistical analysis gives an estimated age for the zircons of 6000 +/- 2000 years.” (p. 76)
Evolution and uniformitarianism are associated viewpoints. As defined in the book The Genesis Flood (Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1961) by John C. Whitcomb and Henry M. Morris, the doctrine of uniformitarianism “maintains that natural laws and processes have never been interrupted (or newer and higher laws introduced) so as to bring about a total destruction of human civilization through the direct intervention of God. And since this has never been the case in past history, there should be no cause to fear that it will ever occur in the future!” (p. 14)
Nevertheless, in opposition to the uniformitarianism viewpoint and the local-Flood concept, the Biblical description in Genesis 6 – 9 is one where water covered the highest mountains under all of heaven for a period of five months. The authors point out that “the expression “fountains of the great deep were broken up” points unmistakably to vast geological disturbances that are incompatible with the local-Flood concept, especially when these disturbances are said to have continued for five months.” The authors mentioned that “if the Flood had been limited in extent, there would have been no need for an ark at all.” (p. 33, 34)
The authors support a literal interpretation of Genesis 6 – 9 because “(1) in most cases the Bible uses such terms in a literal sense; (2) the context of Genesis 6 – 9, including the tenor of the entire Flood narrative, demands a literal interpretation of the universal terms; and (3) the physical phenomena described in these chapters would be meaningless if the universal terms were not taken in the literal sense.” (p. 86)
“Throughout the eighteenth century, and well into the nineteenth, most theologians and scientists of the western world believed that the Deluge was responsible for the major fossiliferous strata of the earth. But the rise of Cuvier’s theory of successive catastrophes, which assigned most of the fossil strata to ages long before the creation of man, caused many to abandon the older Flood theory of geology.” (p. 113)
The authors state that “it is the fossils which are the basis of historical geology and the geological time scale! It is the fossils which are considered to be the one sure proof of organic evolution, regardless of how they came to be buried. Nevertheless uniformity – modern processes – cannot legitimately account for the fossil deposits.” (p. 203) “And yet we have seen that not only must most of the fossiliferous rocks have been deposited under conditions inconsistent with the principle of uniformity but that the strata as dated by the fossils are filled with numerous anomalies and contradictions.” (p. 205)
“In the light of such frequent flagrant contradictions to the established geologic time sequences, in addition to the arbitrary methods and circular reasoning by which the scale itself has been established, and also in addition to the innumerable evidences of catastrophe, rather than uniformity, as the basic principle in the deposition and modification of the geologic strata, the writers feel warranted in contending that the data of geology do not provide valid evidence against the historicity of the universal Deluge as recorded in the book of Genesis.” (p. 209)