Creationism: What are the most convincing arguments for the idea that the universe had a creator?

This was originally published as an answer by Dan given to the following question on Quora: What are some of the most convincing arguments for creationism? He gave me permission to reproduce it here as I felt he showed that within the scientific community (as opposed to a faith community) there are significant figures who do not accept the current evolutionary paradigm that we virtually never hear about.

Please note I do not necessarily endorse all the views expressed here or the quality of the linked material but I feel Dan has more than adequately backed up his assertions with an appeal to evidence. I believe it is a thought-provoking piece.

Here are some arguments for Creation or against Evolution.

The glaring lack of transitional fossils has been noted by the evolutionists themselves

  1. Famous paleontologist and evolutionist George G. Simpson; quote: "The regular lack of transitional fossils is not confined to primates alone, but is an almost universal phenomenon."
  2. "The lack of transitional series cannot be explained as being due to the scarcity of material. The deficiencies are real; they will never be filled" (Nilsson, N. Heribert).
  3. "To the unprejudiced, the fossil record of plants is in favor of special creation" (Corner, E.J.H., Contemporary Botanical Thought).

Instances of falsifying of evidence by evolutionists, such as Haeckel's drawings, Archaeoraptor, the Cardiff "specimen," and Piltdown Man.

  1. "Haeckel exaggerated the similarities [between embryos of different species] by idealizations and omissions, in a procedure that can only be called fraudulent. His drawings never fooled embryologists, who recognized his fudgings right from the start. The drawings, despite their noted inaccuracies, entered into the standard student textbooks of biology. Once ensconced in textbooks, misinformation becomes cocooned and effectively permanent, because textbooks copy from previous texts. We do, I think, have the right to be both astonished and ashamed by the century of mindless recycling that has led to the persistence of these drawings in a large number, if not a majority, of modern textbooks (Stephen Gould).
  2. Dr. Jonathan Wells published a book in 2002 entitled Icons of Evolution. Dr. Wells states that the book shows that "the best-known 'evidences' for Darwin's theory have been exaggerated, distorted or even faked."

Creationists see the "survival of the fittest" and the dating of rock layers by fossils as being perfect tautologies.

The fact that some qualified, educated, normal scientists do not believe in evolution. Or at least question it, even if they still preach evolution.

  1. "Nine-tenths of the talk of evolutionists is sheer nonsense, not founded on observation and wholly unsupported by facts. This museum is full of proofs of the utter falsity of their views. In all this great museum, there is not a particle of evidence of the transmutation of species" (Dr. Etheridge, Paleontologist of the British Museum).
  2. "To postulate that the development and survival of the fittest is entirely a consequence of chance mutations seems to me a hypothesis based on no evidence and irreconcilable with the facts. It amazes me that this is swallowed so uncritically and readily, and for such a long time, by so many scientists without murmur of protest" (Sir Ernest Chain, Nobel Prize winner).

The fact that there is a shared, worldwide tradition among every ancient society that the world was created.

Evolving of new organs or species has not been witnessed during known history.

Mutations are harmful, not beneficial.

Mutations, even if beneficial, do not create new organs or even organelles.

The fact that a great number of fossils have been found in the "wrong" rock-layers according to what evolutionary paleontology would require.

The fact that you need DNA to make DNA.

  1. No genetic code can be demonstrated to have arisen by chance, together with the ability to read that code and carry out its instructions.
  2. Information does not arise spontaneously; and there is an incredible amount of information in even the tiniest cell.
  3. "A living cell is so awesomely complex that its interdependent components stagger the imagination and defy evolutionary explanations" (Michael Denton, author).
  4. "The astounding structural complexity of a cell" (U.S. National Library of Medicine).
  5. Concerning a single structure within a cell: "Without the motor protein, the microtubules don't slide and the cilium simply stands rigid. Without nexin, the tubules will slide against each other until they completely move past each other and the cilium disintegrates. Without the tubulin, there are no microtubules and no motion. The cilium is irreducibly complex. Like a mousetrap, it has all the properties of design and none of the properties of natural selection" (Michael Behe, prof. of biophysics).

The problem of the impossibility of abiogenesis in general.

The fact that evolution was once used as support for the belief that Blacks (or others) are less than highly-evolved humans.

  1. "Darwin was also convinced that the Europeans were evolutionarily more advanced than the black races" (Steven Rose, author).
  2. He also "reasoned that males are more evolutionarily advanced than females" (B. Kevics, author)

Age of the Earth

  1. At current rates of erosion the amount and content of sea-floor sediments actually found do not support a "billions of years" age for the Earth.
  2. The amount of Sodium Chloride in the sea, also, is a small fraction of what the "old Earth" theory would postulate.
  3. The Earth's magnetic field is decaying too fast to extrapolate a long age for the Earth.
  4. The rate of accumulation of Moon-dust has been measured; and the amount of dust on the Moon was found to be vastly less than what scientists had predicted before the Moon-landings.
  5. "Radiometric techniques may not be the absolute dating methods that they are claimed to be. Age-estimates on a given geological stratum by different radiometric methods are often very different. There is no absolutely reliable long-term radiological clock. The uncertainties inherent in radiometric dating are disturbing to geologists and evolutionists." William D. Stansfield, Ph.D., Instructor of Biology, California Polytechnic State University.
  6. "Even total rock systems may be open during metamorphism and may have their isotopic systems changed, making it impossible to determine their geologic age." Prof. Gunter Faure (Department of Geology, The Ohio State University, Columbus.)
  7. Helium is generated by radioactive elements as they decay. The escape of this helium into the atmosphere can be measured. According to the Evolutionary age of the Earth there should be much more helium in the atmosphere, instead of the 0.05% that is actually there. The only way around this is to assume that helium is escaping into space. But for this to happen, the helium atoms must be moving at above the escape velocity, of 24,200 miles per hour. The usual speed of helium atoms is only 5,630 mph. A few atoms travel much faster than the average, but still the amount of helium escaping into space is only about 1/40th the amount entering the atmosphere.

    This is an unsolved problem, concerning which the atmospheric physicist C.G. Walker stated: "There appears to be a problem with the helium budget of the atmosphere." Another scientist, J.W. Chamberlain, said that this helium accumulation problem "… will not go away, and it is unsolved."