Recent Articles
As The Asteroid Tumbles: Asteroids and the Age of the Solar System
There are millions of asteroids orbiting the solar system most of which are found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Studies of these asteroids, as part of an effort to assess the threats to earth, have allowed us to track and paths, sizes and rotational frequencies of over 1000 asteroids.
The Toba Super Eruption: A Non-Flood Catastrophe – The Artifacts Say Yes!
The Toba volcano is found near the center of Sumatra, Indonesia. It has been estimated that at least 2800 cubic kilometers of material was thrown into the air during the explosion or series of explosions. To put that in perspective the Krakatoa volcano threw just over 2 cubic kilometers of material into the air some of which circled the globe causing dazzling sunsets in Europe.
Giant Dino Eggs Found? Bad Reporting on Bad Science
Dinosaur eggs are surprisingly (to the non-biologist) similar in size. Even the very largest dinosaurs laid eggs that were hardly any bigger than the largest eggs found today. These are observations from the fossil record and these observation make sense biologically even though all we see are fossilized eggs. Eggs are limited in the size they attain for several reasons but one of the most important is that the embryos in the eggs must have oxygen to grow.
Origins Science and Misconceptions of Historical Science
Many people have a perception of scientists as white-coated individuals hunched over at a lab bench performing experiments. They are doing experimental science which include the testing of hypotheses and determining which ones are supported and which should be discarded. Others scientists are imagined as collecting observational data using telescopes to describe distant planets and [...]
Progressive Creationism: A Whale of an Inference
I think it is safe to say that the average person has little appreciation for the diversity (eg. number of species) and the total numbers of whales in the world. What most people hear about whales is that there are some that are hunted to near extinction. This tends to create the impression that whales are rare animals. Yes, there are many rare and endangered species of whales but there there are many that are very abundant.
Creation and the Church
The Garden Temple: A Framework for a Biblical Worldview
In Sunday School curricula, their illustrated Bibles and even famous illustrations and paintings over the centuries, literal interpretations have formed our image of the ecology of the Garden of Eden. But even literalist are not likely to explore the theological implications of the specific features of the Garden of the Eden and are even less likely to ask what the regions outside of the Garden was like and why.
Bring Out Your Dust: The YEC Moon Dust Argument
Not enough moon dust! It’s the argument for a young earth that just won’t die even though many YEC leaders have said it should. I was prompted to think about moon dust two days ago, after a 15 year break, when a colleague of mine stopped by my office and told me that she had [...]
Web Traffic Data for Reformed and Creationist Sites
I am updating some web traffic data and adding a few new sites. I was wondering how the traffic of some of the prominent creation evangelism sites such as Answers in Genesis (AIG) and the Institute from Creation Research (ICR) compared to that of other general Christian web sites and reformed Christian organizations. I got [...]
Having Faith in Flood Geology – Dogmatic Assertions of Evidence
A comment on another site captures the essence of where I think Christians who have been told the Bible teaches the earth must be young are putting their confidence. Their confidence is placed in the belief that experts in scientific fields have provided them with not only enough evidence but overwhelming evidence that earth is young. This person is putting his faith in experts which, he admits, have bolstered his faith in the Word of God.
America’s Views on Evolution and Creation – poll results
The following image comes courtesy of Biologos.org which has created the easy to visualize summary of some of the most recent polling data regarding American’s views of the origin of man. The questions posed by several national polling specialists are rather simple and many people clearly do not fit so easily into the boxes that [...]
Featured Posts
Fossil Eggs, Nests, Floods and Stressed Pregnant Dinosaurs
This is a follow up to my previous post on the 15 juvenile dinosaur fossils found in a nest. In that post I mentioned one of the explanations by flood geologists (ie. young earth creationists) for … .
Apparent Age: Craters on Mars
This is the first in what will be a series of posts on the "apparent age" or "appearance of age" theory as an explanation for some of the features of the earth and cosmos. There is a long tradition … .
The Reformed Church and YEC
I have now been following the current creation debate intensively for a decade. During that time I have participated in hundreds of on-line discussions of the topic, have gathered a collection of … .
Perceptions of Age: Craters on Mars
Our perceptions of the age of an object are frequently based on our common experience but I have found that for many people those common experiences are of little help when it comes to examining … .
Tephra/ash layers as evidence of the passage of time
The following example is derived from several articles involving sediment cores from explosion craters (maars) and their subsequent analysis (See refs at end). I will assume little geological … .
Historical Creation View of Sailhamer – Part 3. Summary
Just the name will probably offend a few but this is what Sailhamer calls it and I like the name as well and think it is appropriate. I might also call it a Biblical Creation view. I usually refer … .
Historical Creation View of Sailhamer – Part 2: The Issues
The challenges faced when confronting Genesis 1 and 2. Before diving into Sailhamer’s book, Genesis Unbound we need to lay out a list of some questions concerning the interpretation of Genesis 1 … .
The Historical Creation View of Sailhamer in “Genesis Unbound” Part 1
HISTORICAL CREATIONISM: A summary of the interpretation of Genesis 1 and 2 by John Sailhamer as presented in "Genesis Unbound: A provocative new look at the creation account" (1997). What follows … .
The History of a Asteroid Family
A press release yesterday from NASA (HERE) was picked up by various news outlets because it referenced problems with a prior work that attempted to identify the source of a asteroid that may have … .
Thoughts on John Walton’s “The Lost World of Genesis One”
There have been a number of commentaries on Genesis 1 and 2 by conservative evangelical scholars. Many of these can be found in my literature review (Modern Creation Debate Books). In the case of … .
Ray on the Purpose of Creation in “The Wisdom of God”
John Ray's most famous work is The Wisdom of God which, like many books at the time, he continually revised and reissued until the time of his death and then even after his death edits he had made … .
Ray to Llwyd: On Formed Stones and Mammalian Fossils
This is part of a continuing a series of posts on John Ray's correspondences. Quotes are from the publication of Ray’s letters (Further Correspondence of John Ray) edited by Robert W. T. … .
Ray to Lhwyd in 1695 continued: Fossils and the Flood
The same letter of Ray's to Lhwyd in 1695 that I posted recently goes on to explain Ray's feelings about the new flood theories that were being promoted in the late 1600s and some observations on … .
John Ray on Woodward in 1695: Words that still apply today
The following quote is by John Ray from a correspondence with Mr. Edward Lhwyd on April 8 1695. The quote is from a publication of Ray's letters called the Further Correspondence of John Ray … .
Mather on Genesis 1:21: What is the great sea creature?
A note on Genesis 1:21 and the creation of the great sea creature From page 328 of the 2011 translation of Cotton Mather’s Biblia Americana vol 1 we find the following question and … .
