Robert V. Gentry
Reviewed by Robert L. Goette
[The review is given to call attention to the supplement to this issue of A&BR. ]
In the Forward to Creation’s Tiny Mystery, Dr. Scot Morrow, a chemistry professor, writes, “Robert V. Gentry writes lucidly of his meticulous experimentation with radioactive halos in ancient minerals. Many scientists with international reputations have commented favorably in regard to Gentry’s integrity and the professional quality of his data. A non-Darwinian evolutionist like me is struck by how often creationists and evolutionists look at the same information, e.g., the fossil record, and extract from it mutually exclusive interpretations… Creation’s Tiny Mystery can be profitably read by all scientists, regardless of their specific discipline, by evolutionists and non-evolutionists alike. Also, it is a challenge to students of government and philosophical thought. Gentry has called into question the practice of science in the institutionalized public arena.”
The author states the central thesis of the book as, “… the Creator left decisive evidence enabling us to identify the Genesis rocks of our planet. But genuine evidence for creation falsifies the evolution model of origins, irrespective of how many pieces of the evolutionary puzzle seem to fit together. By most popular accounts, scientists are thought to be fair, open-minded, and honest, always ready to accept new evidence, even if it conflicts with cherished theories. This book presents the other side of the story- the twenty-year-long effort to publish my discoveries supporting creation.”
The first four chapters of the book
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deal primarily with details of Gentry’s experimental work and his interpretation of the results. Chapters 5 and 6 share some of the reactions of the evolutionary scientific community to his work. Chapters 7–13 go into great detail about the Arkansas court trial and the attack against creation science there. The final two chapters of the book are concerned more with the media reaction to the creation/ evolution controversy. In the Epilogue Gentry summarizes how his work fits into a creation model of origins. The final section has 11 pages of prints of various halos which are most helpful in understanding the text, followed by a 90-page appendix of reprints of Gentry’s published articles, and key letters and testimony from the Arkansas trial.
While Creation’ s Tiny Mystery gives excellent detail, only a brief summary of Gentry’8 work can be given here: 1) Presence of “parentless” polonium halos1 In “primordial” granitic rocks pointed to an instantaneous cooling of the magma [implying fiat creation of the earth]. 2) Presence of elliptical (compressed) polonium halos in coalified wood implied that the wood samples taken from Jurassic, Triassic and Eocene formations were all deposited at about the same time [speaks of universal flood]. 3) Presence of dual polonium halos, one circular and one compressed into elliptical shape, in coalified wood implied that only a few years elapsed between the time from the introduction of uranium (in water) to the time when the wood was compressed [speaks of universal flood including considerable readjustment and deformation of freshly deposited sedimentary rocks in the years after the Flood receded]. 4J Uranium to lead ratios found in coalified wood suggest that the various Colorado Plateau formations were several thousand years old instead of the 60 to 200-million-year age required by the evolutionary time scale. 5) Zircon crystals taken from core sections obtained from 3000 to 15,000 feet drillings in granite showed almost no loss of radiogenic lead [implying a young earth]. 6) Other experiments with these same core samples showed high retention of helium [implying a relatively recent creation].
The chapters dealing with the Arkansas court trial in which Gentry was a witness are extensive and give one a feeling what it would have been like to have been in the midst of it all. In Gentry’s own words, “Scientifically, they were confronted with evidence for creation, and they didn’t even try to refute it. Make no mistake – if the ACLU had found a flaw in that evidence they certainly would have brought it out during my cross-examination. Their only recourse was to treat that evidence for creation presented at the trial as a ‘tiny mystery.’”
In the Epilogue, Gentry summarized the message of his book well. “The challenge I have presented in this book to the uniformitarian principle includes evidences of an instantaneous creation and a young age of the earth. Thus the essential time needed for the geological evolution of the earth as well as the biological evolution of life on it vanishes, and the entire evolutionary scenario is devastated.”
Creation’s Tiny Mystery is available for $11.95 plus $1.00 postage. Write: ABR, PO Box 31, Willow Grove, PA 19090.