Who is interested in the question of origins and where do they go to find information?  There are a number of ways to gauge interest but a quick look at web site traffic can be illustrative of what information is getting to the most people. Below I list what I think are the prominent organizational... Continue Reading →
How were the planets formed?  While young earth creationists appear to be fairly unified in their convictions about the origin of the geological features of the earth, the question of how the planets and the moon came to appear as they do seems to be one for which there is little consensus among YECs other... Continue Reading →
Sometimes you run across an article so ridiculous you can hardly believe you just read it. Such is the case with a chapter of Walter Brown's book "In the Beginning."   The whole book has significant problems but while I was delving a bit deeper into the origins of meteorites and asteroids and the appearance of... Continue Reading →
Another blog brought to my attention a recent daily news update from ICR that comments on the origins of Mercury. The latter article comments on recently published results of the MESSENGER spacecraft that is now orbiting the planet Mercury (Science abstract). That spacecraft is mapping the surface of Mercury with several instruments including X-ray fluorescence... Continue Reading →
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 fossils.   The letter reveals Ray's reading of the prevailing interpretation of the flood narratives of Genesis in his day. ... Continue Reading →
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 Edited by Robert W. T. Gunther and printed for the Ray Society in 1928. I need to set the scene for... Continue Reading →
I am working my way through John Walton's Genesis 1 as Ancient Cosmology and really enjoying it. I would say that if you are already familiar with his writing this book may leave you wishing for more as I was hoping for a greater expansion of his ideas outlined in The Lost World of Genesis... Continue Reading →
Here at Naturalis Historia we hope to bring a greater awareness of the importance of science and religion in the 17th and 18th century. A time when many discoveries were being made that impacted our views of the earth and its history.  Such an emphasis may unintentionally perpetuate the myth that the Middle Ages where... Continue Reading →
The worlds largest rock tumbler? This story caught my eye this morning.  GSA press release - The Strange Rubbing Boulders of the Atacama. It seems that every other day I read about some place on earth that has a strange story to tell and usually that story is difficult to understand without an earth that... Continue Reading →
Can cancer become an infectious disease? Usually with think of cancer as limited to the individual in whom the cancer formed. But what if cancerous cells could infect other individuals. Here is a link to a story on the sad case of what happens when cancer "learns" to infect more than one individual: BBC News... Continue Reading →
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 answer: “Q. What are the Creatures intended in the Original, where our Translation reads, Great Whales? V.21. A. Job Ludolphus ha’s demonstrated,... Continue Reading →
An interesting new resource for research into 17th century natural history has been made available this year in the form of the first of what will be 10 volumes of the monumental work Biblia American by Cotton Mather (1663-1928).   The first volume coves this American puritan's commentary on Genesis.  Unfortunately the book is rather expensive... Continue Reading →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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