Dinosaur tracks and eggshells are abundant findings within the geological column, capturing the attention of numerous dedicated paleontologists. Their relentless pursuit involves uncovering, studying, and interpreting these remnants of long-extinct creatures. However, is all this painstaking effort merely an illusion when considering the young-earth perspective? Could the majority of paleontological work be seen as fabricating... Continue Reading →
More Planets Than Stars! Exoplanets and Our Little Blue Ball
Our solar system comes with planets of all sorts of sizes and compositions.  Not long ago, it was possible to debate if there were any other planets in the Universe other than those of our solar system.  Now, there doesn’t seem to be any question that other planets, called exoplanets, do exist. The... Continue Reading →
A Strange Testament to an Ancient Earth: Bat Breath Causes Caves to Grow Larger
Can the act of breathing in a cave cause it to grow larger? Limestone caves are usually formed by dissolution of limestone as the result of the interaction of carbon dioxide dissolved in water seeping through cracks in bedrock.  Typically this begins deep underground and as voids expand and reach the surface animals may enter... Continue Reading →
The Naica Cave of Crystals is a Giant Problem for a Young Earth
Nine hundred feet below a Mexican desert hundreds of giant white crystals, some more than 90 feet long and 13 feet wide, fill a hot (137 F) and humid cavern.  Pictures of people exploring this crystal palace look as if Rick Moranis had shrunk them down to the size of an ant and then put them into... Continue Reading →
Ken Ham’s Ark Encounter to Usher in a Modern Day Reformation?
Ken Ham would have us believe that the modern reincarnation of the young-earth creationist movement, which he claims began only 55 years ago, is the real deal this time.  Unlike previous attempts over the past 300 years to create a history of the Earth with a recent global flood as a centerpiece, this time his para-church apologetics... Continue Reading →
My Letter to the Host of a Local Creation Conference
For many pastors and their congregations, questions about the intersection of science and faith are difficult because of their unfamiliarity with the scientific evidence and the extensive theological literature on Genesis. Hence, they turn to experts to provide answers. Â Ken Ham and Answers in Genesis (AiG) seem to provide the answers many Christians wish to... Continue Reading →
John Ray in 1695: The Flood, Fossils, and Extinction
John Ray, one of England's greatest 17th century natural theologians, spent much time pondering the meaning of fossils or "formed stones" as they were called then. Â I have shared some of his thoughts about fossils and Earth's history before (See: Â John Ray on Flood Geology: Words that Still Apply Today). Â In a correspondence with... Continue Reading →
Quadrillions, Quintillions and Beyond: The Vast Fossil Record Refutes the Flood Geology Hypothesis
Young earth creationists greatly underestimate the fossil record when they tell their audiences that there are "billions of dead things buried in rock layers."  The point, that there are huge numbers of fossils, is correct but billions is such an underwhelming number compared to the reality of the fossil record.  The vastness of the fossil record was driven... Continue Reading →
The Ark Encounter: A Presentation at the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting
Take a tour of the Ark Encounter with a geologist, paleontologist and myself in this YouTube presentation.  In July I visited the Ark Encounter with geologist Dr. Kent Ratajeski from The University of Kentucky.  After that trip Kent, myself and Dan Phelps (President of the Kentucky Paleontological Society) worked together - my contribution was rather... Continue Reading →
Perceiving Age: Student’s Interpretations of the History of Craters on Mars
Our perceptions of the age of a subject are frequently based on our common experience with similar subjects. Most people have some ability to guess the age of children with seemingly very little prior information.  We might call this ability to guess age our intuition but this "intuition" is the scientific method working automatically in our minds.  Our... Continue Reading →
Walking in the Footprints of Giants: The Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite in Wyoming
Scattered across the upper surface of a hard layer of limestone in the badlands of the Bighorn Basin in Wyoming are the tell-tale signs of dinosaur activity: footprints.  Over one thousand footprints have been identified here, most of them on one exposure of rock in a small gully in the Red Gulch region.  On our family vacation this... Continue Reading →
Remnants of a Shallow Sea: A Visit to Monument Rocks in Kansas
In remote western Kansas, groups of rock pillars stand like a natural Stonehenge over the grassy plains.  One such group of these pillars south of Oakley is named Monument Rocks.  Returning from our Wyoming and Colorado adventure, we stopped overnight in Scott City, Kansas just south of this interesting rock formation. The following morning we made our way along many... Continue Reading →
A 60,000 Year Varve Record from Japan Refutes the Young-Earth Interpretation of Earth’s History
Do places on Earth exist where annual records have been stored for tens of thousands of years and can be accessed today? Ice-cores and tree rings can preserve long records of yearly events but some of the best records come from layers of sediment underlying some lakes which,  if formed under the right conditions, can be read like the annual rings of... Continue Reading →
A Creation Museum Speaker Asks: Do Animals Evolve?
What does it mean to evolve? What is natural selection? Where did the genetic variation come from that allows evolution to happen? Why are there so many species of animals today?  What can mutations do? These are some of the questions that Answers in Genesis speaker Bryan Osborne addressed at public talks given at the young-earth... Continue Reading →
The Ark Encounter: Depicting a Real Flood with Unrealistic Images
Guests at the Ark Encounter will observe many descriptions and artistic impressions of what happened before, during and just after Noah's Flood.  One set of images was especially interesting to me because it visualized different stages of the Flood.  One panel which explains how the Flood waters prevailed over the highest mountains was particularly perplexing because of... Continue Reading →