Too Many Questions, No Answers!

by Calvin Smith

Recently, on a trip down to the Niagara Escarpment (collecting information for an article for Creation Ministries), I met a young man on vacation. He asked me the whereabouts of something he was looking for and we struck up a conversation.

Photo by Birgit G. Moscinski

We began to discuss some of the interpretive plaques on display nearby and the evolution-based thinking they presented. He seemed interested so I mentioned some of the problems with the explanations.

There were three plaques telling how the Niagara Escarpment formed, all presenting the typical evolutionary storylines. Remarkably, the first board actually began ‘In the Beginning…430 Million Years Ago’!

I mentioned to my friend that, as a Christian, I was familiar with a famous book that also began ‘In the beginning’, but that it [the Bible!] told a story far different from the one on the plaque!

I asked if he had been taught that rock layers formed slowly over millions of years.

‘Yes’, he replied.

I asked if he had been taught that fossils formed when sediment covered plants and animals, slowly and gradually.

‘Yes.’

I pointed to the center plaque, which said that the Niagara Escarpment had formed over 50 million years.

We then did a quick calculation. It was easy to see that the Escarpment was roughly 100 meters thick. We divided the two figures and discovered that it took 5,000 years to deposit one centimeter of the sediment of the Escarpment!

‘Do you think it is possible to bury a plant or animal and form a fossil at that rate?’ I asked.

He looked puzzled and said ‘That doesn’t make any sense!’

I agreed.

I asked him why he thought information like this would be presented openly to the public when it is obviously ridiculous (how could you even measure deposition at the rate of one centimeter per 5,000 years!).

He replied ‘I guess they just don’t expect anyone to read it carefully.’

I then asked him if he went to church. He said that his parents took him to church when he was younger but they ‘weren’t really serious about it’.

When I asked why he stopped going he said ‘Too many questions, no answers’!

I then asked ‘What do you think happens when you check out (die)?’

He said he just thought it was all over, there was nothing, and it was like a deep sleep.

I encouraged him to consider the question as he would be dead much longer than he would be alive!

For the next 20 minutes we talked about how only one of two explanations for life (creation and evolution) could be right. I explained that there is evidence for a Creator and that there are ways to discover who the Creator is. He was absorbed in the entire conversation and said ‘Wow! You’ve really thought a lot about this’. I gave him my card and encouraged him to check out our website and think a lot about it too!

I was thrilled. To me, this illustrated how we as Christians can engage our culture. It was an easy jump from the physical to the spiritual. We discussed issues with eternal consequences! I have and will continue to pray for this young man that he will seek and find his Creator and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Calvin Smith

Note

We were standing in Dundas On (near Hamilton) on Rock Chapel Rd. For a virtual tour of the area, offered by McMaster University’s School of Geography and Geology, see—http://www.science.mcmaster.ca/geo/outreach/road_trips/Rock_Chapel.pdf.