Re: Evolution and Creationism

[Ludwik Kowalski <KowalskiL@MAIL.MONTCLAIR.EDU>]

My first reaction to Phil's message was also "the haox".
Is Phil. P. Johnson a phys-L-er? Is he the real author?

Several items from the message (see below) do belong to
kinds of topics we like to debate. I view them a potential
candidates for our list of misconceptions, or paradoxes.
1)
> ... The sun contains most of the mass, but only 2% of the
> angular momentum of the solar system. If the solar system
> had condensed from a gas cloud, most of its angular
> momentum would be in the sun.
2)
> Most sets of fundamental constants would lead to a universe
> in which life could not exist.  Therefore, the fundamental
> constants of the universe must have been fine-tuned by a
> creator who wished to bring man into existence.
3)
> The rotation of the Earth has been slowing at a rate of 30 seconds
> per century. If the Earth were billions of years old, the rotation rate
> at the outset would have been so great that the planet could not have
> held together, much less support life.
4)
> The rate of decay in the geomagnetic field sets an outside limit of
> 10,000 years for the age of the earth.
5)
> If the earth were as old as geologists say, uranium decay would
> have put into the atmosphere more helium than we currently find
> there.

I never heard these arguments. The last "paradox" can probably be
resolved in terms of the escape velocity (which is not too far in the
tail of the equilibrated speed distribution). The same argument can
be used to explain why there is practically no hydrogen in air.

Can somebody comment on items 1 to 4?
Ludwik Kowalski