This is a discussion of the value of forensic science versus empirical science taken from Michigan history, my family history and how it applies to the creation-evolution question. I found an old ledger in a trunk of books in my grandmother’s attic that came from an old house in Lewiston Michigan that my family owned. It had been left to my grandmother and her sister by her uncle Elmer Thompson. The house is no longer there, but the property is on the grounds of the museum at the Lewiston Historical Society, where we help support. They have a Timber Fest every August. This year it is on August 7-8. There were about 30 books in the old trunk, dating from that time up through the early 1900’s. One of them was an original edition of Longfellow’s Wayside Inn published in 1863. Another was an old remedy and recipe book written by a doctor between 1844 and 1863. The object of our discussion today, though, is this old ledger from the town of Summitville that had entries dated from 1839 to 1859 and drawings, newspaper clippings, and poetry dating about 1872. Now here is where we discuss Forensic Science. We are going to gather clues about Edward Randall and his grandfather Samuel G. Randall. As you can see, there was not much evidence we could obtain from digging around the remains of Summitville. But we did find the graves of Samuel G. Randall and Edwin Randall in the Cherry Valley cemetery nearby. We were shocked to find that Edwin Randall didn’t live that long. He died at 18 years old. But if you read his poetry, you can find out that he wrote from the depths of his soul. His poem about the Indian’s Adieu speaks of the agony of the trail of tears, and of his Christian faith. He was a hopeless romantic, as you can see from his Dreamland and Dreams of Youth poems. He wrote about his loneliness after his mother’s death. He also wrote about the grief of being estranged from his girlfriend. We have no clue why he died so early. He was the brother of Minnie Randall, my great-grandmother’s cousin, who was married to Elmer Thompson, my grandmother’s uncle, who owned the Lewiston house. Edward Randall’s artwork was masterful and gives clues about life in Summitville. We find Summitville mentioned in old letters and Brookside, another ghost town near Reed City. It is likely he worked for Jay Bronson, who had an office in Detroit and in Big Rapids. There was an invitation to a social dance at the Chase Hotel. There was a letter written by his aunt Elizabeth Zollinger, whose daughter Gulielma published several books, and whose name was in several of the books in the trunk. There was an old newspaper in the ledger dated October 13, 1830. It was the Norwich Journal from New York, and it had the signature of Green Randall on it, who was Samuel G. Randall’s father. Researching this on Ancestry, the Randall family figured prominently in the founding of Norwich, New York, and this newspaper gives a snippet of history of that time. There was an article about the politics of the time. Andrew Jackson was president and there was a political party called the Anti-masonry Party led by Henry Clay opposing him. There was also an article about the execution of John Knapp, a famous case where two brothers arranged the murder of their father. Daniel Webster argued the case and established a precedent that arranging a murder through a hitman doesn’t shield one from prosecution of that murder. Ancestry.com also reveals that Green Randall had quite a family with 11 siblings. His father Arunah Randall came from New London, Connecticut, as well as his grandfather Benjamin Randall. His great grandfather John Randall was born in Westerly, Rhode Island. John Randall was born in 1666. He would have been my seventh great grandfather. My great-great grandfather John Randall could have been named for him. We have his photograph. I don’t know much about him except my grandmother Thelma Sharp spoke about him, and I have some photographs of her as a little girl with her sister next to him. He was divorced and we don’t know exactly where he ended up or what happened. Apparently, from death records on Ancestry. he died in 1910 in Paris, Michigan near Big Rapids. Ultimately, forensic science depends upon written records from people who were there. The only details we know are what they recorded. Empirical science deals with experimental science using evidence found in the present and truth is established by repeating experiments. We can’t do that with forensic science, and the picture we get from fragments of the past left to us by our ancestors is partial. We must not make up speculations beyond what we are told. That is why we must rely upon the Bible as the forensic evidence from people who wrote down what happened.

One of the biggest reasons people give why they believe in evolution are the evidence from fossil man. Dr. John Sanford takes on this problem in his new book Contested Bones. He shows that the fossils purported to be ape-men are either inbred degenerative humans, mixtures of ape and human bones, or extinct apes.

Could numerical structures in the Bible correspond to the ordering of the chemical elements? In this recorded lecture from the West Michigan Creation Fellowship, researcher Derek Marshall explores three biblical structures that appear to align with the numerical order of the periodic table under specific constraints. The presentation examines: The Creation Function - a spiral mathematical model derived from harmonic-series growth that produces periodic table structure. The Daniel Image - a constrained numerical interpretation of the metal statue and its dimensions described in Daniel 2 and 3. Solomon’s Molten Sea - a geometric architectural model that mirrors orbital capacities of the periodic table. Using statistical methods, including Monte Carlo null testing, the talk investigates whether these correspondences arise by coincidence or reflect deeper numerical order.

To gain any credibility, evolutionists need to explain how feathers in birds evolved from reptilian scales. Rather than lining up a handful of fossil impressions such as archaeopteryx, they need to do an analysis of the DNA that produces scales and the DNA that produces feathers. These are totally different designs that won’t convert from one to another, one point mutation at a time. Each mutation must be either viable or neutral, contributing to the health of the organism. According to Dr. Jerry Bergman, the complex anatomy of a feather varies, depending on the feather’s function. For example, the ‘complex morphology’ of the flight or contour feather includes a long shaft (usually hollow, always strong) and the web that flares out from the shaft in the form of roughly planar vanes on either side. The shaft consists of a hollow, stiff structure (often called a quill or vein) termed the rachis that serves as a solid-but-flexible support for branches called barbs. The rachis and barbs are analogous to tree trunks and tree branches. Each parallel barb slants diagonally from the shaft and has numerous smaller side branches or barbules (or webs) of different types that overlap those of the neighboring barbs in a herringbone pattern resembling a miniature replica of the whole feather. The flight feather of a large bird can have as many as a million barbules. The barbules in flying birds are held firmly to the next web by ‘hooklets’ called hamuli that function much like Velcro®. These branches and hamuli form a web sufficiently flexible, yet also stiff and dense enough so that when the bird flies, very little air or water can seep through the spaces. The branches and hooklets, in turn, contain barbicles. The feather barbules also must be strong, yet flexible enough so that they will not break in the wind. Their design enables birds to ride air currents more gracefully than the best glider human engineers have ever designed. If the hooklets are lacking, such as in the plumes of the ostrich, the bird cannot fly. Hooklets are designed so that they can separate under certain conditions, preventing wind damage to the wing and feathers, but can be easily reattached when the bird preens its feathers (ruffled feathers normally prompt preening behavior). Humans can repair a ruffled feather simply by drawing it between their fingers. Preening behavior is part of the irreducible complexity of the total feather design. https://answersingenesis.org/birds/the-evolution-of-feathers-a-major-problem-for-darwinism/