Creationists
say fossil discoveries back their theories
By Jim Stratton
THE ORLANDO SENTINEL
Most paleontologists look into the mouth of an allosaurus and see a
prehistoric eating machine with a jaw full of flesh-tearing
teeth.
Peter DeRosa peers into that mouth and sees the hand of God.
Working from a business park about 80 miles north of Tampa, Fla.,
DeRosa and his family are hammering away at two bedrock principles
of modern science: evolution and the notion that Earth is about 4
billion years old.
The DeRosas are part of a small but growing band of creationists
using dinosaurs - the icons of an ancient Earth - to argue that the
world is only 6,000 years old.
The DeRosas' tool of choice? The fossilized bones of Ebenezer the
allosaurus and other creatures cramming their makeshift
laboratory.
"It's very clear in Scripture. God's word is true," said DeRosa,
22. "Everything we've found supports that."
The DeRosas run Creation Expeditions, a ministry that relies on
dinosaurs to spread what they say is the infallible word of the
Bible. The family operation includes Peter, his brother Mark,
sister Leah, and parents Pete and Linda.
The DeRosas have no formal training but have studied dinosaurs and
fossils for more than a decade.
They lecture at private schools, churches and anywhere else that
will have them. Several times a year, they conduct digs in Florida
and out West, serving as guides for others - usually Christians -
interested in dinosaurs. They charge $500 per person for five-day
excavations. They also take in contributions from religious groups
and other sponsors.
The DeRosas' digs have produced impressive results. They have
uncovered a 22-foot-long allosaurus - a smaller relative of the T.
rex - and a 15-foot-tall edmontosaurus, a plant-eating, duck-billed
dinosaur.
The DeRosas and their movement, in essence, are trying to turn
science against itself. By digging up fossils and interpreting
their finds, some creationists hope to convince others that
evolution and a 4-billion-year-old Earth are nonsensical notions
unsupported by the data.
They maintain, for example, that they've found organic plant matter
buried with fossils indicating the animals died only a few thousand
years ago. Some say they've found human footprints next to dinosaur
tracks, a claim the vast majority of paleontologists consider
preposterous.
Organisms didn't evolve, they say - they were created by God
largely as they appear today.
The vast majority of scientists consider the movement badly
misguided, or worse, intellectually dishonest. Creationists,
scientists say, aren't doing real science.
They are starting with a conclusion - that the Bible is 100 percent
accurate - and gathering evidence to support that idea. True
science, they say, actively looks for problems with a hypothesis.
And over the years, a tremendous amount of research has been
conducted specifically to find major flaws in the theories about
evolution and the age of Earth. The fundamental principles of both
have held up.
"The evidence is overwhelming," said Skip Pierce, the chairman of
the biology department at the University of South Florida. "These
theories are essentially established fact."
Described most famously by Charles Darwin in 1859, the basics of
evolution are fairly simple. The theory holds that all life evolved
from earlier, generally more primitive forms.
Organisms survived based on how well-suited they were to their
environment. Beneficial traits passed on from parents - genetic
variations in speed, size or eyesight - gave some offspring an
advantage over competitors. Those offspring - with their unique
inherited traits - stood a better chance of surviving and
reproducing.
Darwin suggested that over millions of years those incremental
changes reach a point of no return. At some stage, the organism
changes so much, it can no longer breed within the species.
If its inherited differences are adaptive, it can evolve into a new
species.
"Its explanatory power is just incredible," said Peter Harries, a
USF professor who studies ancient marine animals. "And the data
that has been accumulated to support it is enormous."
Meanwhile, the DeRosas push ahead with their ministry, chipping at
evolution as patiently as they chip stone off the skull of Ezekiel,
the duck-billed dinosaur they uncovered out West.
There is no chance that any scientific find will sway their views,
they say, because the Bible's account of history is complete and
unerring. They even reject as "lightweight Christianity" the newer
notion of intelligent design, which holds that some higher power
created Earth and the universe but does not necessarily give credit
to the Christian God.
"We know who the creator is," said Pete DeRosa, brushing dust off
the massive skull. "It's the God of the Bible. It's Jesus Christ.
It's our Lord.
"We won't find anything contrary to that."
That line of thinking doesn't really bother biologist Skip Pierce.
He just doesn't think faith should pass for science.
"If it makes you happy, fine," Pierce said. "But calling it science
is just misleading."
