DURING CONVENTION

If you were unable to attend the Perth Keswick Convention in person, you can watch it online.  For each session below, click on the link to watch it.

Dr Mark Harwood

B.Sc., B.E. (Hons.), Ph.D.



Mark has over 30 years experience as a scientist in the Australian telecommunications industry, specializing in satellite communications. In the early 1980s, he was part of a small team that helped develop Australia’s first domestic satellite system, AUSSAT.


Although still involved in designing the antennas and beams on the satellites, much of Mark’s role is also that of a business strategy manager for one of the largest telecommunications companies in the southern hemisphere. His work involves the design of complete satellite systems, as well as costing potential projects to gauge their viability. Mark told us about the many regulatory requirements in different countries—because, he said, ‘Space is becoming a little crowded these days, especially in the geostationary orbit.’1 Much international negotiation is involved to allocate ‘orbit slots’ so that satellites don’t interfere with one another. Smiling, he said, ‘It’s actually a lot more complicated than most people realize. You can’t just light a giant firecracker and send it off into space wherever you like.’


Mark says that as a designer of very complex systems himself, he stands in awe of the creation around him, especially the whole time/space/matter universe which, he says, ‘can only exist and be upheld because of an incredibly powerful and intelligent being.’

He adds, ‘There is a wonderful consistency and uniformity right throughout the laws of nature that points to the Creator God of the Bible, and particularly in the area of nature or the animal kingdom. The evidence I see is for originally created kinds containing lots of design information in their genes. The multiplicity of varieties that we see today is a result of a downhill processes. Whether it is through natural or artificial selection, it’s a reduction of genetic information compared to the amount in the original created kinds. This is in contrast to the theory of evolution, which requires increasing information to produce new kinds.’

To think that the original genetic programs could produce such an incredible array of beautiful creatures is, says Mark, ‘mind-blowing—it speaks of a Creator who is infinitely intelligent and has a great imagination, too. No one would believe that something as complex as a communications satellite could end up in orbit by accident. How much more then does something as complex as a living organism speak of an intelligent designer?’




Philip Worts

Philip Worts completed his Bachelor of Applied Science (Mining Geology) from the Western Australian School of Mines, Kalgoorlie, in 1977. He graduated with a Distinction and received two Gold Medal awards from W.A. School of Mines and the Geological Society of Australia, respectively. He has since worked in the fields of mining and exploration geology, in iron ore, nickel and gold, within the Eastern Goldfields & Yilgarn regions. In past decades he planned and led a number of Creation Science Safaris around the Stirling Range area and north of Perth as far as the Murchison River Gorge. Over the years he has also taught about Creation in various venues and led field excursions on Flood geology.

Dr Don Batten


Creationist Agricultural Scientist (Australia) , Managing Director, CMI-Australia


I was born and raised in a rural area of Australia at a time of great family stability and security—at a time when locks were not necessary and divorce was rare. Almost everyone had two parents caring for them. I have seen the development of the rampant social decay which now afflicts Australia—where it is no longer safe to walk the streets at night or leave your house unlocked and where many children struggle with only one parent to raise them. This social decay accelerated with the introduction of systematic evolutionary indoctrination into school curricula in the 1960s—indoctrination which I received also.


I was converted as a result of a street preacher from the Open Air Campaigners at the young age of 10 years (before the evolutionary indoctrination). As a young Christian in boarding high school I naively thought that ‘science was facts’ and tried to believe in evolution and the Bible by accepting the notion that ‘God used evolution’, days-are-ages, ‘progressive creation’, etc. I could never see how the gap theory solved anything, or that it had any basis in the Bible. However, I really chose not to think about ‘science’ and the Bible because I guess I knew that evolution did not go with the Bible at all. I arrived at University with this attitude.


As an off-the-cuff remark a Professor of Zoology said in a lecture ‘Some of you are worried about this evolution stuff. Don’t worry too much about it, I don’t know whether I believe it myself.’ Something ‘clicked’ with me when he said this—I came to see, after considerable prayer and study, that evolution is really a belief system parading as science. It is an alternative religion designed to banish the creator God to the realm of abstract philosophy only (contrary to Romans 1:20). In the end I came to see the importance of the written Word of God. I had an unforgettable experience of being confronted with the challenge, almost like an audible voice from Heaven, ‘Are you going to believe My Word, or the words of men?’ In tears, on my knees, I confessed my unbelief and asked for forgiveness. My life has never been the same since. It was like being born again—again!


Since then I have endeavoured to understand the Bible and to defend it from all who would attack it. I have seen many lives turned around, friends converted, and Christians on fire for the Lord, through the creation message. That is why I am now working to spread the Gospel-creation message with my colleagues and friends at CMI.


I am happily married to Lesley and blessed with three grown children who love the Lord.