The Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Creationism (2018)

Whitmore, J.H. 2018. Preface. In Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Creationism , ed. J.H. Whitmore, pp. v-vi. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Creation Science Fellowship. PREFACE Copyright 2018 Creation Science Fellowship, Inc., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA www.creationicc.org v The International Conference on Creationism has been taking place every four or five years since the first conference was held in 1986; this is the eighth installment of the ICC. It is sponsored by the Creation Science Fellowship of Pittsburgh and has become known as the premier young earth Creation science conference in the world. Beginning with proposals that were submitted in 2016, Area Editors and peer-reviewers have worked with the authors and have selected the papers that appear in this volume. The most rewarding thing for me as a scientist is when I discover or realize something really cool about this world that God has created. It causes me as an individual to give praise to our Creator right there on the spot. I clearly remember being on the South Kaibab Trail in the Grand Canyon (alone) looking at the contact between the Hermit Formation and the Coconino Sandstone and realizing the short time implications of the sand injectites found there; or the hot afternoon on a mountainside in Sedona (with Guy Forsythe) when I realized how the soft sediment deformation we were examining (parabolic recumbent folds) could only be explained by strong water currents; or the email that I opened from Ray Strom which contained thin section photos of dolomite ooids from the Coconino Sandstone samples that we had collected earlier that summer. All of these experiences were significant for me not only because of their scientific implications for a young earth and global Flood, but because they caused me to bow and worship my Creator. I am sure many of the papers that you will read in this volume began with similar discoveries because the authors in this volume have a desire to better understand God and his Creation. As scholars, we have a common goal of further developing the Creation model of origins as understood from a young earth perspective. In this volume you will find papers that challenge and build upon currently understood ideas in Creation science. You will find papers dealing with starlight and time, the geological column, the amount of time within the genealogies of Genesis, the genome of Adam and Eve, the original created kinds, design, coal, dinosaurs, stromatolites, tree-rings, radiohalos, the Ice Age, the mechanics of the Flood and many more topics (including, of course, the Coconino Sandstone!). Many of the papers are truly “cutting-edge” and will shape the history of creationism for many years to come. Preparing papers for a volume of this type is not an easy task. Many of the authors have spent hundreds of hours studying, thinking, researching, collecting data and preparing and editing numerous versions of their manuscripts. Some of the papers are the summation of life-long endeavors. All of the first drafts of the manuscripts were peer-reviewed and many of the authors had to follow-up with major revisions to satisfy the reviewers and editors. We appreciate the many hours of time contributed not only by the authors but by the peer-reviewers who carefully read and critiqued various versions of the manuscripts. This is often a thankless and difficult job. In many cases the authors and peer-reviewers are never known to each other, as the process is kept as “blind” as possible. So “thank you” to all who were involved in this process. I want to personally thank the Area Editors who agreed to help me by managing manuscripts in their particular fields of study. Their task was to garner peer-review for any proposal or manuscript that I sent their way and then to make final decisions on whether those documents should eventually become part of the Proceedings. Helping authors revise manuscripts was one of their primary tasks. Assisting me in this effort were Dr. Danny Faulkner (Astronomer at Answers in Genesis and Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of South Carolina, Lancaster), Dr. Joseph W. Francis (Chair and Professor of Biology at The Master’s University), Dr. Steven M. Gollmer (Professor of Physics at Cedarville University), Dr. Aaron R. Huthchison (Associate Professor of Chemistry at Cedarville University), Dr. Andy C. McIntosh (Visiting Professor of Thermodynamics and Combustion Theory at University of Leeds and Adjunct Professor at Mississippi State University), Dr. Matthew A. McLain (Assistant Professor of Biology and Geology at The Master’s University) and Dr. Dennis M. Sullivan (Professor of Biology, Professor Pharmacy Practice and Director of the Center for Bioethics at Cedarville University). I want to give special recognition to my wife Jamie and my six children. They have been extremely patient with me as I have had to spend many hours in the evenings and weekends holed up in my small, windowless upstairs office in my 1850’s brick farm house preparing the Proceedings. My wife and children have managed many of the farm responsibilities while I was at work. Dr. Andrew Snelling also deserves special mention. Not only a good friend, but he has given me expert advice and encouragement in typesetting the papers for the Proceedings and how to proceed as an editor. He was very patient as I was learning Adobe InDesign and using his papers as a “guinea pig” in the process. The volunteer members of the Creation Science Fellowship are to be commended for their service, for now more than three decades. The Proceedings are well-used in my office and I suspect in many others around the world. My freshman geology students are introduced to the Proceedings almost immediately as a generally reliable and trustworthy source for Creation science. It is noteworthy that a small organization like CSF has been able to make such a large impact. Their vision has helped to significantly improve the quality and caliber of Creation science. Clear memories of the first ICC in 1986 at Duquesne University, now 32 years ago, are beginning to fade for me. But, one thing I do remember, as a young graduate student at the time, is being