Today we have Mike Riddle and his wife Leslie with us from Answers in Genesis. Father we thank you for this time. We pray for Mike as he brings to us the word tonight that Lord you administer to us through him and that father your word would be powerful in our life to accomplish what you send it forth to do. Father we thank you that you promise us that your word will not return to you void and Lord we just hang on your word and we thank you for it in Jesus name. Amen. Well, thank you for coming out tonight. You know, it's great to be a Christian, whether it's warm weather or cold weather, isn't it? We'll take whatever we get and take it to our advantage. Tonight, we're doing two sessions with a short break in between. And I come to you from northern Kentucky. My wife and I, we travel together almost everywhere we go. And I work with two ministries. One is Answers in Genesis, located in North Kentucky. We're the ones who built the museum. 1.7 million visitors in about five and a half years. And I also work with another ministry we started about a year and a half ago called Creation Training Initiative. Both have websites. If you haven't been to the Answers in Genesis website, you will go there. Got that? It's called answersingenesis.org. There are thousands of articles you can download for free there. And many, many other resources that we did not bring with us that you can get. Then Creation Training Initiative, we have a website called creationtraining.org. Creationtraining.org. If you go to that website, you can see detailed outlines of the three different courses we teach. So if you want to have one of those courses, we taught the one this week, Saturday, on teacher training. We have one on basic creation training for high schoolers involved. Then if you want to take the next step in real evangelism, you take our course on called Advanced Creation Apologetics. It will train you on advanced evangelism tools. How to talk to any PhD scientist and not have to know anything about the science and win the discussion. That's the kind of training we're doing. And we want to get a lot of high schoolers in there because we want to equip them. And to talk tonight, I want you to take this information back with you and share it with as many junior highers and high schoolers as you can because this is the kind of information they need to know to give them confidence in God's Word and also how to challenge the non-believer and break down their strongholds. So let's go ahead and get started and we'll have time for some Q&A in between. I'll be available for any questions you might have. And afterwards, I'll be available for questions. So let's start here. Apologetics 101. Answering the challenges. What does the word apologetics mean? Apologize? No. It is Greek. Apologia, which means we have a verbal defense. In other words, we can answer the question, does God exist? Show me any evidence God exists. We can answer that. Because we have a lot of good evidence. Unfortunately, when that challenge comes, most Christians don't know how to answer it. But every one of our high schoolers should be trained how to answer that question. Every one of them. So that's our job. So, Christian apologetics. That branch of Christianity deals with answering any and all critics who oppose the Word of God. That's what it means. And here's one of our scriptures, 1 Peter 3, 15. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready, how often? Always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason for the hope that's in you with meekness and fear. That last part really means gentleness and respect. Isn't that sad that's in there? Gentleness and respect. If that wasn't in there, we could put them in a headlock, couldn't we? No, we don't do that. But we're to do it with gentleness and respect because we're there to be a witness for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter if they call you names or yell at you. You will still do it with meekness and respect because we're there to be a witness. I've been called more names and worse names doing this than I was in the Marine Corps. You can imagine what that was like. So let's get with challenge number one. Where did Cain get his wife? Well, what's so important about that? Well, I've seen that on the History Channel twice now. And both times for half an hour, they taught the Bible was an embarrassment. That means we better know how to answer that because millions of people watched that show and millions of people believed it. So, let's take on the History Channel because it's not that hard. They generally don't do their homework very well in this subject. So, we have Adam and Eve. Cain, Abel, and eventually Seth. If that's all we have, who did Cain marry? Was it some hairy ape woman? Because if we had eight men, that means we have hairy ape women and you had to shave also. Well, the first part of this answer comes in Genesis chapter 5, verse 4. In that verse, it teaches of Adam and Eve, they had other sons and daughters. That's plural. Sons and daughters. So are we suggesting there that Cain might have married his sister? Yes. Oh, folks, you can't do that. There are two reasons you're not allowed to marry your brother, sister, or close relation. The first reason is called mutations. We all have a genetic load of mutations in us. If both husband and wife have the same mutation, there's a good probability that children could be deformed. So we don't want you marrying your close relation to protect the children. The second reason you won't marry your brother or sister is because you probably don't like them that much. But I'm not going to talk about that. So, are we suggesting the Bible is teaching incest? Again, what is incest? Marry your close relation and it has to do with mutations. And we don't want you to marry your close relation to protect the children. But let's take a look at what the Bible teaches. This is what the History Channel did not do. When we look at God's creation, He pronounces it very good. Perfect. The Hebrew word very meaning seemingly. Meaning no mutations. Everything is perfect. Then comes the fall. And because of the fall, God places a curse on all of creation. And mutations start coming into the species. But it wasn't until the book of Leviticus, chapter 18, almost 2,500 years after the creation, that God made the rule, no longer can you marry your close relations. Why? Because after 2,500 years of accumulating mutations, it would be dangerous for the children. So was it incest at the beginning? Absolutely not, because we did not have the genetic load of mutations. You know, the geneticists also agree with that. How? Well, today, what they tell us is every new generation is getting about 50 to 100 more mutations. So, based on that, if we go back several generations, that means we have less mutations. Back a few more, less mutations. Back a few more, less mutations. So, that is exactly what the Bible teaches. We started with no mutations and we've been accumulating them ever since the fall. So, genetics here agrees with the Bible and what it teaches. It was not incest. So if I ask you the question, who became Mary, your answer most likely is, he married his sister. Was that incest? No, because we did not have the genetic load of mutations. I'm going to hold you all responsible for knowing how to answer that question. Well, how are you going to do that, Mike? Well, I'm here all day tomorrow, and if I happen to see you anywhere, walking around, driving a car, I might try and chase you down. sitting in a restaurant, I'm going to ask you that question, who became married? And if you cannot answer that question, you will immediately drop and do 20 push-ups. Fear and intimidation is a great way to remember things. So, we know how to answer that one. How about this one? The sun was not created until day four. Therefore, how could the first three days be literal days? Now, the way I like to answer this question is by asking questions. and let the other person discover the answer. That way they own the answer and they'll remember it better. So we'll start here. What is the definition of a year? Where do we get a year from? It's the rotation of the earth around the sun one time. The earth goes around the sun. We learn that by the fourth grade, don't we? So that's pretty easy astronomy there. So that's the definition of a year. The earth going around the sun. What is the definition of a month? That is the moon going around the earth. We learned that by the fourth grade. Now, what's the definition of a week? Where do we get that from? It is not an astronomical event. We get the seven-day week from the Bible. But how about this one? What is the definition of a day? Where do we get a day from? That is the rotation of the earth once on its axis. Do we need the sun for that? No, we don't. Therefore, the first three days can be literal days without the sun. Oh, but wait a minute, Mike. Where did the light come from then? Well, the Bible explicitly states that God created light. What that light was, we don't know. We weren't there. But the Bible teaches God created light. And we know we do not need the sun and the stars for light. Because there's many forms of light on that spectrum, such as electromagnetic waves. And we know that God is light. So the Bible says God created light, and He created the heavens and the earth. And we have to take some things by faith, don't we? Because the Bible does teach, without faith, it is impossible to please God. And there's nothing wrong with having faith. Did you know the evolutionists, their whole model is based on faith? And we're going to see that tonight. The whole model of evolution is solidly based on faith, not any empirical science. Well, let's get to the next one. Before I do this one, let's pick on this side over here. Let's pick on this side. Now, if I do not get an answer from somebody on this side, this whole side will do push-ups. Would you like to watch that over here? This whole side doing push-ups? Except those who feed me. They're exempt. Okay. Yours in the future. Where did Cain get his wife? Sister. That's incest. Can't do that. We didn't have what? We didn't have the genetic loading mutations. Right. He married his sister. We did not have the genetic loading mutations. That's what it sounded like to me when the sound waves got to me. The sound waves. Yes. He married his sister. Now isn't that sad? Now they all don't have to do push-ups. Wouldn't it be nice to see everybody over here do push-ups? These two gentlemen in front have already done push-ups for me today. Well, how about this challenge? Challenge number three. How could Adam have named all the animals in one day? I don't even like that question. You know why I don't like that question? It's too easy. It's one of those Navy questions. Why is it so easy? Well, Adam did not have a whole day to name all the animals. He had to name all the animals before Eve came on board. That's the kind of questions we want. We don't want the easy ones. We want the hard ones. So how could Adam have named all these creatures in just a portion of a day? Well, the first part of this answer, believe it or not, comes in the Bible. Genesis 2.19, God brings the creatures to Adam. Adam doesn't have to go out on some wild safari and round all these creatures up. God brings them to him and just parades them right on by and Adam just has to give them a name. And also it states that God created everything after its kind, so all Adam had to do was name the kinds. So all he had to say was chicken. That took care of all the flavors of chicken we'd ever have. Now we don't know what he originally called them, but that's all he had to say was chicken. All he had to say was dog. That took care of all the flavors of dogs we'd ever have. Did I say flavors? How many have been to Thailand? Tastes like chicken. No, no. Sorry. and then horse, chicken, dog, horse. This is not taking very long. And again, we don't know what original names he used, but this doesn't take very long at all. And he was not required to name any of the sea creatures, nor did he have to name any of the insects. See, that's the problem. People are making claims and challenges without reading the Bible. It says, only of the name were certain of the land-breathing creatures. Not the fish, nor the insects. And when you do your calculations, little genetics, Adam could have done all of this in well under nine hours. We're not talking millions of creatures, we're just talking a few thousand here. Remember, it's kinds, not varieties within kind. So we can answer that challenge now also. Well, how about this one then? How could Noah fit all the animals in the ark? See, the normal thing we think about is, how could He fit all those millions of creatures on the ark? The Bible doesn't say that. We need to go back and see, what does the Bible really teach here? Again, people are making challenges, thinking millions and millions of creatures have to go on there, therefore they can't fit. But they have not done their homework yet. And that's an illegitimate claim to make if you have not done the reading. So, first off, God brings the creatures to the ark. He doesn't have to go out and round them up. Secondly, only two of each kind had to go on there. Seven of some, but basically two of each kind. Sea creatures were not on the ark. The Bible never says sea creatures had to go on the ark. Nor were insects have to be on the ark. Because they do not have the breath of life. Nowhere in the Bible are they given the breath of life. And biologically, they don't have lungs like us either. So just the land-breathing creatures had to go on the ark. No sea creatures, no insects. But what about the large creatures like giraffes, elephants, and might I add, dinosaurs? Were dinosaurs on the ark? Yes, the Bible's very clear about that. Two of every land-breathing creature went on the ark. Didn't dinosaurs die out millions of years ago? No. We have overwhelming scientific evidence dinosaurs have not been dead that long. We went through that this morning. We find the petroglyphs, the canyon wall carvings and paintings dating before the 1800s. We find the soft tissue on dinosaur bones, proteins, red blood cells, which we know cannot exist for millions of years. All God had to do was bring the young creatures, the young elephants, the young dinosaurs. Yes? How far away was Noah from water? We don't know that for sure. But he didn't have to be too far. It wouldn't matter where he was because the water is going to come to him. But they wouldn't have to be in the ark anyway. Okay, yeah, that's a good point. Sure, that's a good question. We don't know how far away he was from any waters. Because after the flood, the world was completely changed. So we have no idea where the rivers really were. The Tigris and Euphrates are mentioned after the flood, but are they still the same river? No, probably not. They just remembered those names and used those names to name new rivers. But remember, the whole world was changed from that flood. So, we really don't know the answer to that one, how far away it was. God brings the young animals to the ark. Now, how many creatures were on that ark? When we do our studies, remember, we're only talking kinds. Less than 10,000 creatures went on that ark. That would fill the ark about halfway. Because the ark was about 450 feet long and three stories tall. Large vessel and incidentally the length to width ratio happens to be six to one on the arc which happened to be the perfect dimensions for floating Isn't that amazing we build a lot of our modern barges based on those dimensions Wow, how'd they know that back then because we have a God who knows everything Well, let's get to challenge five then the Bible is written by men and cannot be trusted as real history and Is that true? Well, it was written by men under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So let's look at this. How do you answer that challenge? Well, my first answer comes from the Bible. The Bible says all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. And it is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. All Scripture is God-breathed. And then in John 17, he says, Thy word is truth. So the Bible says God inspired this, and he says it is true. But Mike, the non-believer won't accept that. I know that. So why did you start with Scripture? Because it's my most powerful tool, folks. I'm not going to elevate anything in my life higher than God's word. See, if I start with archaeology and all those things, that means I'm elevating that and giving it more importance than God's word. Learn to start with God's words and do not be embarrassed if the other person doesn't like your answer. Or they might say, well, we're talking science here. We can't use the Bible. Well, if you agree with that, folks, you just lost the argument. You're trying to win this on your own wisdom and trying to keep God out of the decision. When they do that to me, I say, well, I happen to believe the Bible. I'm going to use it. And by the way, if we're going to use science, why don't we just stick to observational science and no assumptions, no theories and no hypotheses allowed. Only observational science that limits evolutionists to about zero evidence. They can't win the argument. You see, they're trying to be, they think they're going to be neutral. They're not being neutral at all, folks. Don't let them disarm you. Stick with the Word of God first. Then we can start talking about other things such as the accuracy of content. The Jewish scribes, when they copied down the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, they literally counted every word, every syllable, every letter to guarantee its accuracy. No other ancient text in history can make that claim. Today there are more than 24,000 partial and complete manuscript copies of the New Testament existence. More manuscript evidence for the Bible than any other ancient text in history. Well, Mike, that's only the New Testament. What about the Old Testament? Anybody here happen to believe the words of Jesus Christ? I do. Here's how I take care of that one. In the Bible, New Testament, Jesus makes this statement. Eleven times he says, Have ye not read? Thirty times he states, It is written. What is he referring to? The accurate history of the Old Testament. Jesus believed it was real, reliable history. And we should, too. Floyd Nolan Jones, in his book, Chronology of the Old Testament, the Dead Sea Scrolls of Isaiah agree with Hebrew Masoretic Texts. The earliest Masoretic Text we have is dated about 900 AD. Almost no change has occurred to the book of Isaiah. Isaiah 53, for example, contains Three letters, which are endowed after nearly 1,100 years of copying. That is amazing accuracy there. No other book can make that claim, folks. The Bible. Prophecy. Somewhere between 20 and 30 percent prophecy. Most other religion books don't even have any prophecy. But about 20 to 30 percent. Lee Strobel in his book, The Case for Christ, the odds alone say it would be impossible for anyone to fulfill the Old Testament prophecies. If you take a look at the probabilities of any of these prophecies occurring and just start adding these up, just eight of them is astronomical. Many of these prophecies are about Jesus Christ. Hundreds of prophecies about Jesus Christ. For all of those to become true, folks, would be beyond any laws of large numbers. Many about Jesus Christ, His life, His birth, His death, His resurrection, second coming. Every one of these prophecies has been fulfilled except which one? Second coming. And here's my prediction. It's going to happen. And that's as far as I'm going with that. Let's take a look at some of these prophecies. It was prophesied He would be born of a virgin. Now what's so important about that? It had never been done before. That's an amazing prophecy. It was prophesied he would come from the seed of Abraham. He would be betrayed by a friend, sold for 30 pieces of silver, accused by false witnesses, signed before his accusers, beaten and spit upon. He would be mocked. His garments would be divided, hands and feet pierced, crucified with thieves. Not a bone in his body would be broken. He would be raised from the dead. Every one of those prophecies was fulfilled. Look at the accuracy of these predictions, folks. You read things like Nostradamus. Most people don't see his real works. They are so general, such as it's going to rain in Seattle next year. We know that. These are very bold and accurate prophecies. Every one of them fulfilled. We look at archaeology. To date, over 25,000 sites in biblical lands have been discovered dating back to Old Testament times. 25,000. Many other religions talk about ancient times. And they talk about them in their books. But guess what? We can't find some of those artifacts. We can't find the coins. We can't find the cities. But when we turn to the Bible and we look at archaeology, we find the coins that they talk about. We find the weapons. We find the cities. And we find many clay tablets inscribed exactly with what the Bible teaches. For example, let's take the city of Jericho. For many years, these scholars are out there just scoffing at the Bible. You can't trust the Bible. You can't trust its history. No such city as Jericho ever really existed, until guess what? They found the city of Jericho. And this is what they discovered. The evidence supports the historical action of the Bible in every account, in every detail, including how the walls fell. The Bible was right, and all those amazing scholars were wrong. Did you know you can have two PhDs today and still be wrong? And we see it all the time. Today, 33 separate tablets have been discovered that talk about a gigantic flood. There's over 200 legends of a flood, but we've discovered 33 different tablets that talk about a gigantic flood. Of those 33 tablets, 30 mentioned there was an ark. 28 mention an ark came to rest on a mountain. 29 state that birds were sent out. 30 mention favor with the survivors. And most mention an act of worship as the survivors left the ark. There is external evidence agreeing with what the Bible teaches. These were not written by the apostles. These were written by the people. Let's take a couple. The Well Blundell Prism, found in 1923. Written about 100 years before Abraham. What was on that prism? It mentions a flood that swept over the earth. It doesn't say local Mesopotamia area. It talks about a flood that swept over the earth. It talks about ten kings who lived before the flood. And know what it says? These kings lived to be hundreds of years old. Isn't that exactly what we see in the Bible? Then it lists some kings who lived after the flood. Know what it says there? They didn't live as long. That is exactly what we see taught in the Bible. And then, The genealogies found on there exactly match what we find in Genesis chapter 5. Ebla tablets. Up through 1974, they discovered 17,000 clay tablets. Written around 2400 B.C., what did they find on those tablets? Both a creation account and a flood account that matched the Bible. And some are now saying it's mentioning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah on there, as we see in the Bible. This is just a very small example. There are books this thick out there with archaeological discoveries that exactly agree with what we have in the Bible. No other religion book in the world can make that claim. Nelson Gluck, in his book, It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted or contradicted a biblical reference. A lot of times when we make the initial discovery, the report comes out, oh, we've discredited the Bible. But when the real research finally happens, rather than just strict emotionalism, the real research happens just when we discover it agrees with what the Bible teaches. So is the Bible accurate history? My answer is this, John 17, 17, thy word is truth. We can trust it as real history. You know, the Smithsonian Institute, the only religion book they have ever used for historical research is the Bible. No other book have they ever used, no other religion book have they ever used. Only the Bible. And that's a secular organization. But they use the Bible to help them in their archaeological research. Isn't that amazing? That's how much they trust it. So, challenge six. Evolution is science. The Bible is just a book about religion. Now, is that true? No. First thing wrong. Evolution is not science. It cannot be supported scientifically. I've been in a number of debates. And never have they been able to support what they believe scientifically. Never. Not even at NASA could they do it. And how about the second part? The Bible is just a book about religion. No, it is not, folks. It is about Jesus Christ and our relationship to our Lord, Savior, and Creator, Jesus Christ. Can I give you a theme of the Bible? I like to do this because it always gets pastors, what's he going to say now? Let me give you a theme of the Bible. A theme of the Bible is this. Paradise created, paradise lost, paradise restored, and it all points to Jesus Christ. That's what the Bible's about. The very first statement, in the beginning God created. Know who the creator is? His name is Jesus Christ. He's the one who called it into existence. You know, the Bible does have a lot of science in it. A lot of science. But it is not a science textbook, and we're glad about that. Because what do we do to our science textbooks? Constantly change them. We have all sorts of science in the Bible. Astronomy, medical science, physics, biology, oceanography. All sorts of science we find in there. Let's take a look at some. Isaiah 40, verse 22. Is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth? That word circle can also mean sphere. What is the Bible saying here? Almost 3,000 years ago, the Bible taught the earth was round. And it's never had to change. Wow! So where did this idea of a flat earth come from? Man's wisdom, not God. Incidentally, this whole idea of a flat Earth, folks, is a myth that's been propagated through our public education system. People back then were not dumb. They did not believe in a flat Earth. All you have to do is go back and do your research. People did not believe in a flat Earth. They were smart. They could see the curvature of the Earth. They knew they weren't going to fall off the edge of the Earth. That's just one of our public education system teachings there. They were very smart. One of the studies I did in mathematics was ancient Egyptian mathematics. How many like to do that? Okay, good, good. I got somebody on my side. You know what those Egyptians were using? Calculus. They were very smart. Very smart people. So there's astronomy in the Bible. Here's another one. Jeremiah 33, verse 22. As the host of heaven cannot be numbered. There, almost 3,000 years ago, the Bible is teaching the stars are too numerous to count. Is that really true? I say, let's challenge the Bible on this one. And that's okay to do. We learn a lot that way. Let's challenge the Bible. Are the stars really too numerous to count? Can't we go out there on several clear nights and just count all those stars? Well, let's take up the challenge here. How many stars do the astrophysicists estimate are in this universe? How about quadrillions? That's just our best estimate. Quadrillions. That number, folks, for the time being, is bigger than our national debt. Well, I'm going to give you your first homework assignment for the evening. Homework assignment. Are you ready for this homework assignment? You ready for this homework assignment? It's going to take a long time to do this. Because what I want you to do for the next 100 years is count a star every second. We're challenging the Bible to see if the stars are too numerous to count. One star every second is what we're going to do. At the end of one hour, you will have counted 3,600 stars. At the end of one day, you will have counted 86,400 stars. We're doing pretty good. At the end of one year, you'll count a little bit over 31 million stars. At the end of 100 years, you'll count a little bit over 3 billion stars. Guess what? The Bible was right. They're too numerous to count. 3,000 years ago, long before we had modern astronomy, the Bible taught that, and it's been correct all these years. We can trust the science in the Bible. It's never had to change. Then we have medical science in the Bible. Medical cleanliness and sanitation. We had a terrible, tragic war in this country called the Civil War in the 1860s. Over 700,000 lost their lives. Many on the battlefield, but also many lost their lives in the hospitals. Sometimes they may have lost their lives because those doctors took that knife, that scalpel, and operated on one person, and the next, and the next, and the next, without ever washing it. If they had read the Bible, they could have learned something about medical cleanliness. It may have saved a few lives. We also have in the Bible, Leviticus 18, the law against marrying your close relation. If the people in the hills of Kentucky and Tennessee would have known that, we could have had a lot less problems with the children. Be careful going to the hills in Kentucky and Tennessee today. You may not come back. So medical science, right there in the Bible, never had to change. Then we have physics. Now, I got a question. Anybody here like physics? Well, you're going to have to do a little work here. How many like the Bible? Okay. Physics is in the Bible. How many like the Bible? Okay. See, it wasn't hard after all, was it? Where is physics in the Bible? Romans 8.22, For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth and pain together is enough. What does that say? What that is saying is the entire creation, folks, is in decay. It's wearing out. That is a general description of the second law of thermodynamics almost 2,000 years before we discovered it. Wow! Right there in the Bible. Everything is wearing down. Decay. There it is in the Bible. A general description of one of the most well-established laws of science we have. Then we have biology in the Bible. The Bible states that God created everything after its kind. He allows for variability within kind, but not one kind becoming another kind. But there's another story behind that one. The Bible teaches everything was created first kind. But the evolution story teaches that's not true. We all evolved from a common ancestor over millions and millions of years. Well, which one's true? Well, we can test that tonight. We can actually test that. And we're going to test it by the highest level of science we can use. We're only going to use observational science. We will not resort to assumptions or hypotheses. Just observational science. So, first question. Does anybody know what dogs produce? Dogs. Did that surprise anybody? Dogs always reproduce after their kind. I've never witnessed, and I don't think anybody else has ever witnessed, a dog producing a giraffe, an elephant, or a cat. They always do dogs. What do cows produce besides milk? Cows, no matter where you find cows, they always produce after their kind. That is not what we actually found on the moon. Now, what do cats produce? Now I know some people here may not like cats and you might say speed bumps, but I happen to like cats. What do cats produce? Always after their kind. Yes. Never anything else. Always after. Folks, this is the observational evidence. We're not talking about trying to piecemeal the fossil record together. The fossil record, that's things that happened in the past. We didn't see what happened there. And what we see in our textbooks about the fossil record is a lot of artists drawing pictures. Why don't we just stick to the fossils and observational evidence without adding our imagination in there, folks? We're not allowing for assumptions in this test. We're not allowing for theories or hypotheses, just observational science. And horses always produce after their kind. And the last one is a hard one. What do chimpanzees produce besides two-year-olds? Always after their kind. You see, when we look at the observational evidence, folks, it is the Bible that is true, not the evolution story. You see, the whole evolution story is based on faith and assumptions, not observational science. Now that we all like physics, we agreed with that, didn't we? Let's do a little more physics. Carbon-14 dating proves fossils are older than 6,000 years. Why don't we take on this challenge? That's an interesting challenge. It's one of my favorite areas. I've done a lot in the carbon-14 area. Let's take a look at carbon-14. Now, don't be afraid of this. I'm going to make this carbon-14 so easy that when I get done, some of you are going to want to go out of here and buy a physics book. Does that sound like a challenge? Okay. Some of you are going to want to buy that physics book because it's going to be so easy. Well, let's start here. Understanding atoms. Does anybody happen to know the three subatomic particles inside an atom? Protons, neutrons, and electrons. Very good. Thank you. Protons, neutrons, electrons. You won't even have to remember all that. Now, carbon-14 is an atom. We have other kinds of carbon. We have carbon-12, carbon-13, carbon-14, and we can make other kinds too. But all we're going to talk about here tonight is carbon-14. If you want to get more detail on the carbon-14, buy the Red Answers book. I wrote the whole chapter on carbon-14 dating. And I documented it with the evolutionists' own journals. And called up the labs, too. You'd be amazed what they had to say. So, carbon-14. Several years ago, a group of research scientists from the Institute for Creation Research, and that's who they are, and you can see their credentials, decided to challenge the dating methods. How did they challenge them? Well, they wanted to look at the assumptions all these dating methods are based upon. Yes, every one of these radiometric dating methods is based on an assumption. And here's the problem. Our education system doesn't want to talk about that, folks. That's not education anymore. If you're going to teach the dating methods, you need to teach how they really work. Don't try and force a belief system. But everyone's based on assumptions, and I'll give you a clue. We have discovered that those assumptions are false. that nullifies all the dating methods. That's why they don't want to talk about them. And one of the research projects they did was carbon-14, so let's talk about that. Carbon-14. Carbon is an atom. Now, carbon-14 is not natural to our atmosphere. Carbon-14 actually gets produced in the atmosphere. Now, the two most prominent gases in our atmosphere happen to be nitrogen and oxygen. Nitrogen and oxygen. And here's what happens. We have these things coming down from outer space called cosmic rays. Cosmic rays. And these cosmic rays are bombarding our upper atmosphere. And they come down with such force and intensity, the end result is some, not all, but some of the nitrogen atoms in our atmosphere get converted into carbon-14 atoms. What actually takes place is a proton-neutron change in there. So, we get our carbon-14 atoms. That's how they get produced in the atmosphere. Now, carbon likes to combine with oxygen. When we combine carbon and oxygen, we get something called carbon dioxide. So, that's where our carbon dioxide comes from. Now, carbon dioxide gets taken in by the plants, we eat it, and we breathe it. Therefore, we will all have carbon-14 in us. Now, I have a question. Does anybody want to answer it? Mike, you haven't asked the question. That's not how I do things. You volunteer first, then I'll give you the question. Okay. Now, we'll do this the military way. You moved, you volunteered. Okay. I'm going to show you how easy physics is. You're going to love physics. Do rocks eat or breathe? No, that's easy, wasn't it? Aren't you glad you volunteered now? That was so easy. Rocks do not need to breathe. Therefore, most all rocks will not have carbon-14 in them. Therefore, we cannot use carbon-14 for dating rocks. We can only use carbon-14 for dating organic material, once living things. So, if somebody says that carbon-14 dated a rock, you better be suspicious. Carbon-14. We have it in us. All living things. Now, carbon-14 is also what we call an unstable atom or isotope. Unstable. Now, I just said something very important for us. Very important. Carbon-14 is unstable. You have carbon-14 in you. So what does that make you? Unstable. Now you have a scientific reason for acting the way you do. It's your carbon-14 in you. How many are liking physics now? Yes. This is getting better. So now what are you? You're unstable, knock-kneed creatures. Yes. That's what you're going to remember about this whole weekend. He stood up there and called us names. But I do it in the name of science. Remember, being knock-kneed was a good thing. And unstable just means you have unstable isotopes in you. Now what do we mean by unstable? They're radioactive. Is that scary? No. Very little of this in you. Okay. Unstable, radioactive. What we mean is, over a period of time, that carbon-14 atom, because it is unstable, will change back into a nitrogen atom. So, the full life cycle, some of the nitrogen atoms in the atmosphere get changed into carbon-14 atoms. Then, over a period of time, the carbon-14 atom will change back into a nitrogen atom. That's called radioactive decay. Now the question is, how long does it take that last change to take place? How long does it take the carbon-14 atom to decay into a nitrogen atom? Well, we measure that in terms of half-lives. How long it takes half the remaining carbon-14 to change into nitrogen? And we estimate that to be about 5,730 years. It does not mean scientists sit there for 5,730 years and look at these atoms. No, they don't do that. They take a population of carbon-14 atoms, see how long it takes some of it to change, we do that experiment over and over and over again, and we get a consistent answer, then we extrapolate that back, how long would it take half of it? And that's how we do this research. And we believe we're quite accurate on that. So, carbon-14. Now, I have another question. Anybody want to answer this one? Everybody picked on this side. Let's wait for somebody to move over here. No movement whatsoever. I know you're moving. You're volunteering your parents, aren't you? Yes, you just volunteered. You'll take this one on. When we die, you're going to love physics. You like physics, don't you? When we die, do we continue to eat or breathe? No, it's easy, wasn't it? Thank you for volunteering there. No, right, that's a whole physics family there. Right, when we die, we no longer eat or breathe. Well, why is that important? Because once we die, we're no longer taking carbon-14 in, but the carbon-14 that was in our body continues to decay out. In other words, we estimate that after about 80,000 years, I'm being very generous there, 80,000 years, all the datable carbon-14 will have decayed out. So, the maximum possible dating range for carbon-14 would be 80,000 years. Now, we're not saying the Earth is that old. Again, what the scientists do, they take a population of carbon-14 atoms, see how long it takes some of it to decay, do the experiment over and over again, get a consistent answer, then we extrapolate that back. How long would it take all of it to decay out? So, that's how the process is done. So after about 80,000 years, there should be no datable carbon-14 in organic material. Therefore, if we were to find a fossil and it had no carbon-14 in it, we could assume it's older than 80,000 years. But if we were to find a fossil and it still had carbon-14 in it, we can assume it is younger than 80,000 years. Okay, what I've done so far is the background setup. Because what we're going to do now is take apart the entire evolutionary time scale. And we're going to do it using observational and repeatable science, not assumptions. There's our evolutionary time scale. Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic. Paleozoic, going back about 540 million years. That's the age of fish and invertebrate. We know what fish are. What are invertebrate? Those happen to be the people that live in Washington, D.C. I got a lot of agreement, yeah. We won't go any further with that one. Then we have the Mesozoic, age of dinosaurs, 245 million years. Then we have the Cenozoic, the age of mammals, which includes us, going back about 65 million years. Now, if we were to find the fossil in the Paleozoic time era, should it contain any carbon-14? Absolutely not. It's way too old. How about the Mesozoic? No. How about the Cenozoic? In most all cases, no. Remember, it has to be younger than 80,000 years to have any datable carbon-14 in it at all. So that group of research scientists I showed you earlier, from the Institute for Creation Research, took coal samples from around the country, all up and down this geologic timescale. Now, coal is organic material. It comes from once living things. And according to evolutionists, coal is up to millions of years old. Should coal have any carbon-14 in it? No. But they took these coal samples, and they took them to one of the most reputable evolutionist dating labs, and said, tell us what you find in this coal. And guess what they found in every coal sample? Measurable amounts of carbon-14. What have the evolutionists done about this? They've just said, it is bad science. Anything that goes against evolution is called bad science. And then they scream, oh, contamination. Well, folks, this is one of their best labs. If this is contamination, then every other date they've ever done is contamination, folks. In other words, they don't have a legitimate excuse. So what are they doing? Keeping it out of the textbooks. It's called censorship. The public education system is one of the primary places in this country that does censorship. This group did not stop there. Diamonds. Now, diamonds are a very special kind of stone. They are made up of pure carbon. Pure carbon. Diamonds, according to evolutionists, are hundreds of millions to billions of years old. Should any carbon-14 be in these? Absolutely not. But they took these diamond samples to the evolutionists' lab, and guess what they found in every diamond sample? Carbon-14 still remaining This is significant folks because diamonds hardest substance will not be contaminated You see these results clearly indicate exactly what the Bible teaches the earth is young Not millions You see we have nothing to fear from science as a Bible believing Christian God created all the scientific principles. True science will always agree with His Word. It is the evolution that does not agree with His Word. Isn't that good news? And think of this, the coal and those diamonds, where we found those in the geologic strata has to be the same age as the coal and diamonds. And if you perchance get that red answers book in there, I go through the whole dating process for carbon-14. And when you finish reading that and all the documentation I put in there, The real carbon-14 dating method shows the earth has to be much younger than 30,000 years. Wow. Not saying 30,000, but much younger than 30,000. See, when you look at the real dating methods, real radiometric dating methods, get rid of the assumptions, it does support God's Word. Well, let's do the last challenge. The Bible's outdated. Well, it certainly is an old book, isn't it? A couple thousand years old. It's an old book. But is it really outdated? Well, let's take a look at this. For many years, people have tried to burn it, ban it, and outlaw it. From the days of Diocletian, 300 A.D. Incidentally, he was worse than Nero. He tried to kill all the Christians and destroy all their books. Modern people, like Edward Hoyer, tried to make his state an atheistic state. People have tried to add books and subtract books from the Bible, the missing gospel, missing books. I even had a pastor once in a church service apologize for the book of John being in the Bible. Tried to witness to him, give him the gospel and he would have nothing to do with it. But there he is in front of a congregation teaching the church heresy, false doctrine. People have tried to tell us the Bible's not relevant today. There's Time magazine. Is the Bible fact or fiction? You read that article, they call it the Bible fiction. People have tried to compromise the Word of God by putting Big Bang cosmology in there, folks. Big Bang cosmology is terrible science. There's not one shred of science that actually supports it today. There's overwhelming scientific evidence that refutes the Big Bang. So why don't the evolutionists get rid of it? They don't have anything to take its place yet. So they continue to teach. False science. And then we've had people that have mocked God's Word, Da Vinci Code. Can I give you the track record here? The track record is this, folks. All those people that tried to burn it, ban it, outlaw it, compromise it, change it, add to it, they're all dead and God's Word remains unchanged. That's the track record. And all those people out there compromising God's Word and mocking it, they too will die And heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. That is the track record, folks. God will preserve his word unchanged and uncompromised. Now, to help you, we do bring these resources. The answers book. Answer over 80 different challenges. Each chapter is only about 10 pages long, written for the layperson. Many, many different answers in there. You don't have to read these books sequentially. Just open a chapter you're interested in and read through that. These are the books we should be using in our Sunday school classes for junior hires and high schoolers and college students. This will help prepare them. So we need to have these books. We have Discerning Truth book. Every high school Christian student must have this book and it should be taught in their school. It tells us how to defend what we believe by knowing logic and logical fallacies. And it is a thin book, that's what makes it a nice book, and it's chock full of examples so it's easy to read. And where did they get most of the examples of logical fallacies? School textbooks. Then we have Ask them why. Another apologetics book. This book, the first half of the book, trains you on what we call presuppositional apologetics at the lay level. The second half of the book takes you through simulated conversations with different types of people so you can actually see how it's done. Wonderful book for learning this. Then we have a new book called The Rights Fight. How to defend your Christian rights. We're talking about rights that come from God. that are gradually being taken away from us. How do you respond to the world? Powerful book. Then, for any Christian student getting ready to go to college, this book is a wake-up call. It's a survival manual of what's going to happen when you enter that secular university. Then here's a fairly new one, The Fall of Satan. When did Satan rebel? Why does God allow evil to continue? Who were the Nephilim? And again, this is another one of those thin books. This is one of the more scholarly books I've read on Satan. Why? Because it's not done with people's opinions. It's done using what the Bible teaches. And it's an easy to read book. Then, if you want DVDs, Here's three of my Apologetics DVDs. Apologetics 101, just what you saw tonight. If you want to share that with somebody, there it is, right there. Also on our website, creationtraining.org, I have the entire study guide, 26 pages long, for the Apologetics 101 DVD. You can download that for free. It has goals, objectives, has all the PowerPoint slides embedded into the text. It has a quiz and an answer key. So it's ready-made for education there. And then you can say, you came to this church tonight and bought a six-pack. Six of my, yeah, you're laughing, that's, you understand what six-pack means, okay. Six of my DVDs, The Origin of Life, Astronomy and the Bible, Dating Fossils and Rocks. Why does this issue matter? For $40, you get all six DVDs. And each DVD is two hours long. You get a one hour lecture and the second hour, my wife and I traveled all over this country and we interviewed scientists and theologians and asked them questions and you get to see how they answered them. Great learning tool. And then we even have answers books for children. How to answer our children's questions in a manner they can understand. So Answers in Genesis, we're an apologetics ministry. We've traveled around the world helping other people have these answers.