John Walton's follow-up book to The Lost World of Genesis 1 is finally out. I have ordered my copy and will be providing a review and excerpts in the near future. This book was promised two years ago and many people, including myself, have been waiting for what has been pitched as the scholarly update... Continue Reading →
John Ray: Testing Knowledge with Observation
The following quote is from page 152 of the 1735 edition of Wisdom of God, Ray's best known book. He is bemoaning the fact that so few professors have any experience from observation but appear to be content with the knowledge of the past which they have gained from books. Let us not suffice us... Continue Reading →
Perspicuity, Exegetical Populism, and Tolerance: A Reply to G. I. Williamson – Reformation21 Blog
Perspicuity, Exegetical Populism, and Tolerance: A Reply to G. I. Williamson - Reformation21 Blog. by William B. Evans Double posting today only because I thought this short article was worth receiving more press. Below is a small portion from this article linked above that discusses Christian liberty and the tolerance of different eschatological views withing... Continue Reading →
Historical Creationism Part III: An Overview
John Sailhamer calls his interpretation of Genesis 1 and 2 Historical Creationism. He distinguishes it from the Scientific Creationism which he sees as starting with the assumption that "modern science holds the answer to the meaning of the biblical text." A: Overview A brief summary of the Historical Creationism thesis of John Sailhmer is... Continue Reading →
Historical Creation View of Sailhamer – Part 2: The Issues
The questions we are faced when we seek to interpret Genesis 1 and 2. Before diving into Sailhamer’s book, Genesis Unbound we need to lay out a list of some questions concerning the meaning of Genesis 1 and 2 that any consistent interpretation of this text must be address. This is far from a comprehensive... Continue Reading →
Genesis Unbound: The Historical Creation View of John Sailhamer, 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 is a fairly lengthy introduction and overview of John Sailhamer’s book “Genesis Unbound” (1997). The first edition had a small printing and was out... Continue Reading →
The History of an 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 an asteroid that may have killed off the dinosaurs. While the release and the related research paper is interesting in itself I was more interested in... Continue Reading →
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 John C. Collins, John Sailhamer and John Walton, all three see their views as representing the literal reading of Genesis 1. ... Continue Reading →
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 of those that have espoused various forms of apparent age including probably the most famous proponent... Continue Reading →
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 more than 200 books on the topic and generated a library that includes over 50,000 pages of material including journal articles, copies of... Continue Reading →
Covered in Shells: How many fossils are there?
SUMMARY: Below I calculate the number of fossils in the Midwest region from some of my own observations and knowledge of the area. I conclude that at a minimum there are enough fossils in just this one set of rock strata in the Midwest US to cover the entire earth with 20 small shells (little... Continue Reading →
Volcanic Ash (Tephra): 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 background in writing this example. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Summary: Pollen profiles from a 46 meter core from the center of a small explosion crater in South Central France suggest... Continue Reading →
Thoughts on Baraminology
A month ago or so I read an interesting article that got me thinking about the young earth creationists (YEC) view of the extent of the biblical term “kind.” I wrote up some comments which you can see below. Apparently there has been a creation study group that has actively been asking the question what... Continue Reading →
Ash tree spring budding
Ash trees of north side of street leaf out about 1 week before those on the south side. What you can't see is that there is a parking garage that shades the trees on the south side. As a result the north side is warmer and therefore brings out the buds on the trees more... Continue Reading →
Tas Walker’s Biblical Geology Model
In reading about the transformation of Creation Science Foundation into Creation Ministries International (there site can be found at: http://www.creationontheweb.com/ ) I happened onto one of their affiliated sites which is Tas Walker’s Biblical Geology web page (www.biblicalgeology.net). I had forgotten about his particular model of all of earth’s geological history which he presented in... Continue Reading →