The Fossil Record
NMSR indicates that the observed roughly horizontal stratification of fossil-bearing sedimentary rocks covering most contemporary continents is a tribute to evolutionary deposition of material and organisms in primordial seabeds, later raised by gradual plate tectonics to form extant structures. If the "present is the key to the past", then we should observe such strata and fossils being formed today. We don't observe this and we know it's not happening. We also know that modern plate tectonics disallows such an evolutionary occurrence; granitic continental plates float like a cork on the denser mantle material. Observed continental sedimentary formations could never have formed through gradual evolutionary processes.
NMSR's statement that different strata maintain different fossils is only true when counter-vailing evidence is ignored. NMSR claims that "life forms entombed are not arranged willy-nilly..." The truth is, evolution ignores the great fossil graveyards where animals and plants of all kinds are entombed together - precisely reflecting some great catastrophe, the Great Flood. The fossil record, as opposed to Thomas' propagandizing, reveals no succession of closely related forms - these don't exist and there is no evidence for them. NMSR doesn't understand Creation science. The fossil record is not a testimony to a short period of creation, but a Post-Creation mass extinction caused by God's judgement during the Great Deluge.
Molecular Biology
This section is almost incoherent. NMSR incorrectly believes the molecules to man hypothesis. Creation science doesn't predict irreducible complexity, it merely states that random processes cannot produce it. Adaptations can occur on purpose, but purposeful adaptations are antithetical to evolutionary theory which requires unguided, random modifications accumulating to generate a more fit entity; a process never observed. NMSR disputes the foundation of evolution.
The canard regarding and efficient versus meticulous designer is trivia. DNA codes for production of peptides and proteins. Simple chemical peptides (e.g. insulin) apply more universally very complex ones, thus we discern some molecular chains apply to many creatures; more complex ones do not. Genes code for different traits and multiple traits - given this, creationists expect to see molecular differentiation even for similar structures; they must perform different tasks.
Geographical Diversity
Evolution doesn't account for geographical diversity or provide the evolutionary explanation for kangaroos only in Australia. Creation science predicts the observed Diaspora pattern subsequent to the Flood. Marsupial creatures dispersed more rapidly because their young are carried while placental mammals must nurture their young and the dispersion requires more time for placental mammals. Flood geology predicts the Southeast Asia to Australia land bridge (known to geologists) was exposed for a brief time during the Post-Flood ice age. Marsupials were able to use the bridge; mammals had not yet arrived. Subsequent warming eliminated the bridges, isolating certain population types.
Where placental mammals and marsupials cohabited, the aggressive nature of placentals displaces the mild marsupials (excepting opossums). Evolutionary theory experiences difficulties because they believe long ice ages occurred. This means there is every reason to expect biological homogenization rather than diversity if evolutionary models are accepted.