Did man evolve, or was he created?

Can the Bible be trusted in every topic it touches on?

James Gardner, a lecturer and adjunct speaker for the Institute for Creation Research (ICR), located in Dallas, said Wednesday those were two key questions to answer when entering the Creationism versus evolution debate.

Gardner, a former business executive, was the fourth and last speaker in a series of lectures making up the Creation Seminar this week. The series of talks was held at First Church of God on West Main Street.

"Science always points to the Bible as true," Gardner said.

He said he starts his research with God's Word on topics, such as ancient man, then looks to science to prove what the Bible says.

Gardner's lecture was titled, "The Mystery of Ancient Man," and approximately 150 persons attended.

He said contrary to what has been the position of evolutionists, man's intelligence has not evolved and grown over millions of years, but was in fact far superior thousands of years ago when compared with man's current status and technological advancements.

He said that in geology, biology, astronomy, and so on, "almost all evidence is negative for evolution."

Gardner declared, "Evolution has never happened, could never happen, and is not happening now."

He said, "We do see natural selection occurring all the time (but) it's a change within" a species, what he called a "horizontal change."

On the contrary, a "vertical change," as evolutionists tout -- that one single cell eventually evolved into a human being -- is simply not possible.

He said the theory of evolution in a nutshell was the following: "by goo, to you, by way of the zoo."

He said if man was more primitive thousands, even millions of years ago, then so, too, would artifacts from the past also be more primitive.

"We're finding the exact opposite to be true," Gardner said.

He said, for example, some people argue that rocks, coal and the like "take hundreds of thousands, or millions of years, to form."

He then showed a photo in his PowerPoint presentation which showed a spark plug found in the middle of a rock, what he said scientists refer to as "an out of place artifact."

Gardner elicited laughter from some in the audience when he said the conclusion to be reached was either, 1) it doesn't take millions of years to make rocks; or 2) "ancient peoples were driving Chevys."

Ancients Highly Intelligent

He gave other examples of what he termed highly developed intelligence among our ancestors, including maps 4,000 years old that correctly describe the outline of Antarctica.

"If you believe evolutionists," he said, those maps should have been "more primitive" and inaccurate.

He said the Bible shows that "about 5,000 years ago, there was an explosion of high technology," which declined by the time Christ appeared in Israel, but which has been increasing since then.

"How can evolution explain that?" He added, "The Bible does."

Gardner said the Bible describes some high technological achievements early man achieved, such as animal husbandry (the care and raising of domesticated animals), the creation of woodwind and string instruments, and metallurgy.

Conversely, he said, if man began as a primitive "hunter/gatherer," he would not have had time to develop such skills only seven generations after Adam.

"About 4,400 years ago, the Bible records that the Flood destroyed the entire surface of the earth," and only eight people survived.

He said he believed it is likely that Noah or the others, warned beforehand by God of the impending catastrophic flood, probably took aboard the ark details on their high technological advancements, or the memory of them.

Gardner says the Bible states that later, Nimrod built the city of Babylon "and instituted a false religion -- astrology," which Gardner called "a dangerous, dangerous theology."

He built the Tower of Babel -- "a giant astronomical observatory," Gardner said.

Pre-Tower Of Babel People

"Pre-Babel men were far superior to us," Gardner said. He added, "They had far better memories; far smarter brains; all spoke one language; and they lived five times longer" than we do now.

Gardner went on to show slides of highly advanced structures in past generations, such as the pyramids, Mayan temples and the advanced Incan settlement of Machu Picchu.

A 'Spiritual' War

Gardner said that today, in 2008, "There is a (spiritual) war going on between God and Satan" in the world to win the minds of young people, including trying to have them believe in evolution.

He urged parents and grandparents to purchase educational materials, some of which were available to buy in the church's lobby, to prepare their college-age family members to intelligently rebut the theory of evolution when they are taught that it, and not the Bible, is true.

Gardner, a full-time lecturer on Creationism, speaks on behalf of Answers in Genesis (AIG), which last year opened a Creation Museum near Cincinnati that expresses the Creationist view of the world and man. In addition, he is the director of Canopy Ministries, Inc., located in Mountain City.