Creation Science Rebuttals

Review by Greg Neyman

© Old Earth Ministries

    This question was published in Dr. John's Q&A by John Morris in September 1991.  The reason that Morris asks this question is because of Dr. Hugh Ross.  In proving his point that there was death prior to Adam's sin, Ross says that plants died.

     In addressing this issue, Morris uses a strawman-like tactic.  He uses the entire first page to set up his argument on the second page.  He says that many Christians have adopted a naturalistic world view, which leads to many errors in Morris' mind.

     Plant death is one of the claims by Ross that shows death before sin.  He claims that young earth creationists believe that there was no plant and animal death prior to sin (A Matter of Days, p. 98).  However, most young earth creationists do not believe this.  They recognize, as Morris points out, that God told Adam he could eat the plants of the garden.  Therefore, this whole subject is a moot point. 

     Morris' argument against the general idea that plants "died" is that plants are never referred to as living in the Bible.  He says that plants in the Bible are said to "wither" or "fade," but not die.  Such a claim is silly, as a plant that withers is obviously dying...Morris is simply playing a game of semantics.  The verse he is referring to is a common one, "The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever" (Isaiah 40:8).  If this grass withering is not death, then the grass can renew itself by being watered, and could live on forever, just like the Word!  I'm certain grass death is the intent of Isaiah.

     Although I agree with Ross that plants are indeed alive, I disagree in that we should not use this argument.  We don't need plant death prior to sin in order to prove that there was death before sin, when there is so much more evidence in favor of death prior to Adam.  In essence, I think Ross is "barking up the wrong tree."

     What Ross is probably doing is addressing that small portion of the young earth community that would believe that plants did not die prior to Adam's sin.

Dr. John's Q&A #33, published on the web at https://www.icr.org/article/are-plants-alive

     If you are not a Christian, and you have been holding out on making a decision for Christ because the Church always preached a message that was contrary to what you saw in the scientific world, then rest assured that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, and you can believe in Christ and receive salvation, while still believing in an old earth.  Click here for more.

    Are you a Christian who believes in young earth creationism?  Now that we have shown the many difficulties of the young earth creation science model in this and many other articles, how does this impact your Christian life?  If you are a young-earth creationism believer, click here.