On Sunday evening 5 June 2011, I was on a panel at a church north of Brisbane answering questions on evolution and the age of the earth.
I represented the biblical young-earth position.
The three other scientists on the panel held to various old-earth views, and were:
- Jonathon Cramb, who is completing a PhD in palaeontology.
- Dr Trevor Meers, who is involved in research into ecological and environmental issues with government, and
- Dr Scott Hermann, who is researching plant diseases with BSES, a research organization for the sugar industry.
A 59-minute recording of the discussion is available as a mp3 from the church’s website.
- 0:00 mins: Introductory talk by church pastor, Rev Alan Hermann.
- 9:00 mins: Panel introduction by Rev Alan Hermann.
- 11:08 mins: First question: About radioactive dating methods.
- 18:00 mins: Second question: About natural selection, death, fossils and Adam and Eve.
- 26:30 mins: Questions from the floor.
- 59:00 mins: End of recording.
Enjoy.
Email friend
That was very interesting. Tas answered questions from the audience patiently, courteously and with rational and irrefutable explanations, although there were a few times when another member of the panel said something (e.g., about various dating methods being consistent) that simply wasn’t true but which was allowed, presumably by the moderator, to go unchallenged.
Why natural selection is not evolution was well explained by Tas as were other issues such as the genealogies going right back to Adam, a real person. His conclusion explaining how absolutely foundational Genesis is to Christian doctrine and the Gospel was excellent.
tjguy
Dr. Walker,
I listened to your panel discussion and I thought you did an excellent job presenting the creationist position and making the point that it is a worldview issue rather than an evidence issue. If we start with evolutionary scientific conclusions as truth, then we get all these other views, but if we start with the Bible as revealed truth, then we get the creationist position. I’m glad the pastor allowed a creationist representative to be a part of the group. He made it sound like any of the views represented are an option for believers. I think that is a strange understanding of Scripture, but at least he let the creationists have a say.
I did have one question though. One of the other guys made a statement about dinosaur track fossils as evidence against a worldwide flood. He seemed to think the tracks would be on top of the rock layers or something. I’m sure there are a lot of anomalies that the worldwide flood idea has difficulty explaining, but I didn’t understand this guy’s point. You didn’t get a chance to respond either. I wonder if you could explain what he meant and give an answer to that. Thanks.
tj
Tas Walker responds,
Hi tj, His point about trackways on multiple bedding planes has been discussed in a number of articles on creation.com, including here and here.
tjguy
Thanks. I read the articles. I can see how some could think that there are some rare instances of dinosaur tracks and/or eggs that could be viewed as evidence against the flood. But there are a lot of other fossil tracks that are best explained by the flood. So, it seems to me that it would be better to go with the Bible, since we know that is true, and then try and explain the difficult fossils rather than taking those few fossils and using them to negate the Bible and all the other fossils that are better explained by a flood.