Creationist Family Digs Fossils -- and Helps Others Learn to Dig Them, Too
by Mary Rettig
January 23, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A Florida ministry is allowing Christians to experience God's creation while studying the intricacies of its design. Creation Expeditions was founded four years ago by Peter DeRosa and his family as a way for believers to get a better understanding of biblical creation through first-hand experiences. Creation Expeditions takes vacationing families and individuals on fossil-digging trips to Colorado, the South Dakota Badlands, the Peace River region in Florida, and other parts of the U.S. to dig for fossil remains. Visitors can also go to the ministry's headquarters, which lies about 80 miles north of Tampa, to help clean and put together fossilized bones and to take part in other educational, fun and interesting activities.
"We do hands-on excavating with these families," DeRosa says, "and they have an opportunity to come out in the field to see the evidences right before them of the Great Flood. We give them foundations in creation science, and also, the opportunity to have the Book of Genesis come alive for them."
One of the most unique aspects of these creation science discovery tours, the ministry spokesman points out, is that people are allowed to keep any of the fossils they find along the way. This way, he says, those who have made the trip can take a part of the experience home with them and share about God's creation with their friends.
The DeRosas founded Creation Expeditions after years of digging up fossils for other organizations. The family members, including 22-year-old Peter, his sister Leah, brother Mark, and parents Pete and Linda, have no formal training in paleontology or other related sciences, but they have studied dinosaurs and fossils for more than ten years.
Peter DeRosa says the family has found many prehistoric remains that back up the Bible's account of creation, but nothing that favored Darwinist claims. "When we go out and we dig up fossils, we don't see different layers of different animals that support the evolutionist-type view," he asserts, "but we actually see animals that stay within their kind."
Among the remains the family of prehistory buffs have found, DeRosa continues, "we do not find transitional-form fossils. In all the years that we've been excavating, we have never found a transitional-form fossil changing into another animal."
Instead, the Creation Expeditions spokesman says, the fossils he and his family members have found have generally supported the Genesis account of Noah's flood. For instance, he notes that his family has found fossils of modern-day animal species side by side with dinosaur footprints and has even unearthed dinosaur skin, which he believes constitutes proof that the fossil -- and by extrapolation, the Earth -- could not be millions of years old, as many members of the scientific establishment claim. The DeRosas are among a growing number of creationists who contend that the Earth is not millions but only thousands of years old.
Between leading tours for Creation Expeditions and pursuing their own research, the DeRosas speak publicly at private schools, churches, and other venues, explaining to audiences how the fossil record provides support for the Bible's explanations of origins and the early history of life on Earth. "Everything we've found supports that God's Word is true," Peter DeRosa asserts. "It's very clear in scripture."
Mary Rettig, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
