Talk Titles by Michael Oard
(all talks about one hour)
1. Is Genesis Important for Today?
This talk delves into the numerous harms caused by belief in evolution, which has undermined the authority of God’s word. If the clear words of Genesis 1-11 can be distorted, then any clear passage in the Bible can be made to say anything. Biblical chaos has resulted with millions loosing their “faith.” Great harm has occurred within the Church as a whole and continues. Barna reports that 70% of young church-goers leave the church after graduating from high school, mainly because of all the misinformation on evolution and the age of the earth they learn in the culture.
There also has been many cultural harms as a result of imbibing evolution. Christians do not have to believe in evolution, local floods, and old age since these are speculations of the past, based on the atheistic, Enlightenment worldview that pervades the culture. There is plenty of objective scientific evidence that supports the truth of Genesis. Both adults and young people need to learn this evidence so that they can stand in a culture that is pushing evolution more and more.
2. Is Evolution a Fact? (versions for adult and children grades 3 to 12)
Although the culture claims evolution is a fact, this talk goes into three main reasons why it cannot be a fact. First, evolution cannot be a fact by the definitions of evolution and science. Macroevolution is not observed going on today, so it is not science. Proofs of evolution are in the area of “microevolution,” which is really the diversification of the genetic material already created in the organisms and is not real evolution. Macroevolution is simply the history (or religion as some call it) of the atheistic worldview.
Second, evolution cannot be a fact because modern biology shows that every organism is vastly too complex to have evolved by chance, even with the pathetic mechanisms of mutations and natural selection. Furthermore, macroevolution is not seen in the fossil record because complexity is tremendous, right from the “oldest” organisms and the lack of the millions of transitional fossils required by macroevolution. Closed shelled mollusks also show that the rocks containing the fossils were deposited rapidly and worldwide.
Third, evolution cannot be a fact because it is contradicted in the Bible. Genesis 1 states that organisms were created by kinds and to reproduce within their own kinds and not into some other kind, which is evolution. Plus the order of creation contradicts the evolutionary order twelve times. The Bible also teaches and summarized in Rom 5:12 that there was no death of man or the animals until man sinned, while evolution states that there has been mass death, survival of the fittest, etc. hundreds of millions of years before man supposedly evolved at the very end.
3. Is Evolution Probable?
We are told by evolutionists that given gobs of time, what seems impossible becomes virtually certain, making evolution seem plausible. This talk provides a quantitative estimate of such an assertion, which goes against the second law of thermodynamics that states order goes to disorder with time in an isolated system. I use a very simple probability equation to show that not even one simple step in the supposed evolution of life from non-life can occur in the supposed age of the universe.
4. Flood talks
I have one to four Flood talks based on time and interest. Any number less than four are summaries of the four main Flood talks, which are summarized.
A) Noah’s Flood: What Does the Bible Say?
This talk lists the many reasons why Scripture clearly says the Genesis Flood was global, and that Jesus believed in a global Flood. It talks about details of the ark, such as whether it was roomy enough for all the animals. What we know about the pre-Flood environment is discussed as well as the controversial suggested mechanisms for the Flood.
B) Worldwide Evidence for Noah’s Flood
The evidence for the global Genesis Flood is provided by all the hundreds of flood traditions from all over the world. Evidence for the Flood is found in sedimentary rocks that commonly cover huge distances and show little or no erosion between layers—unlike how mainstream geologist interpret the rocks based on small events over millions of years. Trillions of fossils in the sedimentary rocks provide powerful evidence for a global Flood, since fossilization today is rare (remember that mainstream scientists rely on present processes to explain the past). Moreover, the fossil record does not show evolution because of the gaps in the fossil record. Mollusks that make up 95% of fossils are predominantly closed shelled, strongly indicating that they were buried and fossilized rapidly all over the earth. This points to a global catastrophe and not small events over millions of years, the alternative mainstream view. Lastly, the talk delves into what we learned about the Flood from the eruption of Mount St. Helens.
C) Earth’s Surface Shaped by Receding Floodwater: First as Sheet Flow
The talk first discusses what the Bible says about how the Floodwater drained from off the continents. Then geological evidence for parts of the Earth’s crust rising and parts descending to drain the Floodwater is presented. Geological evidence of sheet currents flowing off the continents is shown in the form of huge erosion of domes and the erosional remnants left behind. All the eroded sediment is deposited at the margin of the continents forming the continental shelf and slope. As the water is moving off the continents, sometimes at high speed, a rough surface is planed smooth by the debris being carried along by the Floodwater. These surfaces are called planation surfaces, if they are flat, and erosion surfaces, if they are rolling. A veneer of the debris is commonly left on top of the planation or erosion surfaces as a thin layer of cobbles and boulders. These rounded rocks from water action sometimes contain percussion marks caused by all the intense turbulence of the draining Floodwater. At the same time, resistant rocks are carried long distances from their sources, documented from the northwest states and adjacent Canada for transport distances of up to 800 miles. All these features are difficult if not impossible to explain by the alternative ideas of mainstream geologists.
D. Earth’s Surface Shaped by Receding Floodwater: Last by Channelized Flow
After sheet flow continued for many days, more and more mountains and plateaus extend above the draining Floodwater, forcing the water to channelized around these objects. Channelized flow, therefore, carves valleys and canyons rapidly, and creates many other features that are difficult if not impossible to explain by mainstream geologists. Such features include water and wind gaps, which are perpendicular cuts through mountains, ridges, or plateaus; pediments, which are planation surfaces at the foots of mountains or ridges; and submarine canyons that are cut perpendicular to the shoreline through the continental shelf and slope.
5. What is the Origin of the Grand Canyon?
The origin of the Grand Canyon has been a huge mystery for mainstream scientists for over 150 years. This is demonstrated right away in this talk. Then the talk goes into the two creationists hypotheses for the origin of the Grand Canyon. It shows that the post-Flood dam-breach hypothesis, supposedly caused when 2 to 3 lakes ponded east of Grand Canyon by the draining Flood waters, breached several hundreds years after the Flood. There are many problems with this hypothesis, two of which seem fatal. The second creationist hypothesis is more likely and that is the Grand Canyon was carved late in the Flood by rapid channelized erosion. Evidence for this is presented as well as how each segment of the Grand Canyon can be carved by the draining, channelized Floodwater.
6. Whatever Happened to the Dinosaurs? (versions for adult and children grades 3 to 12)
This is a fun talk with lots of cartoons. It goes into the types of dinosaurs, which is important for how many dinosaurs were needed on the ark, a subject discussed later in the talk. Evolutionists have many problems with dinosaurs, such as what animal did they evolve from and why they went extinct. Other problems include dinosaurs living at polar latitudes, dinosaur living in the “desert,” and unfossilized dinosaurs with soft tissue that is supposed to have survived in the ground for over 65 million years. The last topic is whether dinosaurs were on the ark. If they were then there were post-Flood dinosaurs, which explain a host of mysteries, such as dragon legends all over the Earth, pictographs and other artwork depicting dinosaurs, and the likelihood that Job saw dinosaurs, such as Behemoth and Leviathan.
7. The Ice Age: Only the Bible Can Explain It!
The Ice Age is a major mystery of mainstream Earth science, the difficulty of which is analyzed in the talk. The evidence indicates that the Ice Age occurred after the Flood, so the Flood must have caused a climate change right afterwards that resulted in a rapid Ice Age. Many details of the Ice Age have been worked out from over 30 years of research, such as it was only about 700 years long, there was only one ice age, the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheet mostly built up during this time, animals of the Ice Age were a mix of warmth-loving and cold-loving types, the existence of big lakes in now dry areas of the Earth, and the mass extinction at the end of the Ice Age.
8. Whatever Happened to the Woolly Mammoths?
This talk shows that the woolly mammoth lived during the Ice Age; they did not die early in the Flood by a quick freeze. It focuses on the mammoths in Siberia and answers many mysteries of why they would live in Siberia, what they would eat, and how they died. Many other mammoth mysteries are also answered by the post-Flood rapid Ice Age, such as why the lowlands of Siberia, Alaska, and the Yukon were not glaciated; why there were so many large animals so far north; why some mammoth carcasses are found in a generally standing position, having suffocated; and why some have broken bones.
9. What Does the Lake Missoula Flood Teach Us?
This talk describes the abundant evidence for the existence of glacial Lake Missoula at the peak of the Ice Age and its bursting forth creating the Channeled Scabland of eastern Washington in a matter of days. It focuses on the question of why practically every mainstream earth scientists rejected the Lake Missoula flood for 40 years, despite a overwhelming amount of evidence. The reason shows their bias against big events and shows why they will never see evidence for the Genesis Flood that stares them in the face. Now that mainstream scientists have accepted the Lake Missoula flood, they have gone on to postulate anywhere from 40 to 100 at the peak of the last ice age, not to speak of there other 30 supposed ice ages in the past 2.5 million years. Obvious evidence is presented that there really was only one large Lake Missoula flood. The features left behind from the Lake Missoula flood are then used to show that similar features all over the Earth were caused by a global Flood.
10. Is Man the Cause of Global Warming?
Global warming seems to be the major topic of concern by many environmentalists, the media, and politicians. There is a huge amount of hysterical sounding statements made by many, and there are many contradictory statements floating around in the culture. This talk goes first into the facts and second what are likely facts, based on the scientific literature. From this data analysis, we can clear away much of the fog on this issue. We can understand what is going on with this hot button topic.
