Topic Suggestions for Student Essay Contest
Have no fear - there are zillions of possible topics! Literally the whole universe
is full of God's fingerprints! Here are a few suggestions.
Anthropology-Physical
- Ape-Men are there any real "ape men" in the fossil record? What else might those fossils represent?
- How did all the "races" come from one human couple?
- Were Neanderthals really humans?
Anthropology - Cultures
- Legends of the Flood are found in perhaps half the indigenous cultures on earth. Some are amazingly similar to the Genesis Flood, yet they were told to missionaries and explorers by people groups who likely had never seen a Bible nor heard the Gospel. How did the Chinese, Hawaiians, North American Indians, South American Indians, and so many others get such similar legends?
- Material culture: for example, the boomerang is now thought of as unique to the Australian aborigines, but it has been found in many parts of the world. The Aboriginal word for it is the same as the word for it in a part of India! How'd the people of Australia have the same word for an object as people they supposedly had to contact with for so many thousands of years?
- Why do religions around the world have so much in common? Blood sacrifices, belief in an afterlife, prayer to spirits or gods for help, priests.
- How could such different human languages have developed?
Archaeology
- Giants in the Bible and in Archaeology: Can we confirm any claims of giants in archaeology? What difference would that make in substantiating Genesis' statement of "Nephilim" in Genesis?
Astronomy/Cosmology/Physics 
Implications of the Laws of Thermodynamics: The Laws of Thermodynamics
are so demonstrable that they are called "Laws." Does evolution-by-chance
agree with these?
Problems with Theories on the Origin of ...: stars, galaxies,
the universe, the earth, the earth/moon system, the solar system
Uniqueness of the Earth: to be habitable by life as we know it, a planet
must have many particular properties: size, magnetic field, etc. How common
might those be?
Do "Martian" meteorites contain fossils or life?
Radioactive Dating Methods: how good
are they?
Physics and Metaphysics: There are
current physicists making astounding claims that contradict the basic reasoning
needed for science!
Bible/Theology
- Couldn't God Have Used Evolution?
- Could "Day" Mean "Long Ages" in Genesis 1-3?
- Does it Matter How Genesis Is Interpreted? Should
people not be confronted with creation/evolution, yet, before
they consider the claims of Christ?
- Why does God allow catastrophes, crimes, and tragic mistakes?
Biology 
In general, when investigating questions of biological evolution, you can look at --
- Where/when and in what order any claimed transitional forms show up in the geological record
- How much of an animal's remains have been
found in fossil form?
- How Siminar and dissimilar are the organs of
alleged related forms?
- How does the Embryonic development of different organisms compare?
- Who made what claims concerning this topic
- DNA evidence (what changes would be required, and what DNA evidence
exists, for creature A being more related to B than to the totally dissimilar
Q)?
Specific biology topics you might try
- Antibiotic Resistance: in all cases in which the reason for antibiotic
resistance is known, it is due to DNA damage, not improved DNA. The bacterium
is less able to feed, process food, or something else has gone wrong
- but that problem makes the individual less susceptible to feeding
on or otherwise processing the toxin in the antibiotic.
- Insect Metamorphosis - Could It Have Evolved? Butterflies, beetles, go from one body type to something totally different, some by a gradual process, some - turn to jelly and come out a new life-form!
- Evolution of consciousness? Of instincts? Of conscience? Even if we could find a statistical possibility of the spontaneous generation of a one-celled organism, and even if we could statistically justify it becoming a complex organism, why would it not be an unconscious robot?
- Could DNA arise by chance, carrying information that would actually form a self-reproducing organism? Could an organism mutate to form a different kind of organism?
- Reproduction: could sexual reproduction evolve?
- Mitochondrial Eve: scientists can trace the mothers of everyone back to THREE women in the "recent" past; and can trace them back to one original mother of the modern human race. How stong is this as evidence for Eve, and for the 3 mothers of the human race who survived the Genesis Flood?
- "Y-Chromosome Adam" is the Adam of Genesis: every male has one y-chromosome in his cells, which came from his father, who received it from his father, etc . Human Y-chromosomes trace male lineages back to one human father. Any reason to believe this is NOT the Adam of Genesis?
- Statistical Impossibility of Spontaneous Generation of Life: The origin of life by chance processes is preached as fact by many science teachers and writers. What are the odds of this having happened?
- Evolution of Flight - in birds, mammals, insects, and reptiles.
- Evolution of Fish or Amphibians or Mammals: Are lungfish the ancestors of amphibians? Are all lungfish related to each other? What would have to happen for a mammal to have come from a non-mammal?
- Are all [fill in the blank!]related to each other? Are all sharks
related to each other? All bats? All birds? All people?
 Earth Science (earth, fossils, weather)
Fossils vs. Uniformitarianism: Uniformitarianism is the geological doctrine
that the same processes we see in the world today are the only processes
that have ever occurred, and the Genesis Flood never happened
Evidence for a World-Wide Flood from the Grand Canyon (or, pick a different location): fossils and sediments
both point to a catastrophic origin
Was there an Ice Age? Ages? How long did it last? How does it fit
into the Bible?
"Transitional Fossils:" what fossils are supposed
to be transitional between what life forms? What parts
of the bodies bave been found? You could include "feathered" dinosaurs, "Ida," "Lucy," etc.
History/Sociology/Government
Deadly Religion: opponents of Christianity,
and even of theism in general, have claimed that religions cause wars.
Know which belief system has killed by far the most people? Atheism!
History of Geology: the Origin of Uniformitarianism
History of Science: where does the modern scientific method come from?
How far back did it originate? Notice that
Daniel and his friends conducted a scientific experiment on the effects of
eating a vegetarian diet!
History of the Church's Teachings on Creation: How far back does the Six-Day
view go? How about the long ages view - was it held by all/most/some/a few/no
early church fathers?
The Scopes Trial: facts and fictions
The Faiths of Our Fathers: what did the Founding Fathers believe about the
Bible and creation, and how did it affect the government they set up? What
about in other countries?
There's an endless supply of possible
topics. Be specific enough that you can adequately cover your topic without
spending more time than you have by April 30! DO remember that you have to
find enough published material to research, and you can't just copy some of
one paper, and some of another paper, and so on. This needs to be your original
work in putting together ideas from different sources. Some topics may have
too little already written to be used yet. You will find that the more you
know, the more you realize that you don't know!
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