Last night in a public broadcast Ken Ham announced that enough funds have been obtained to break ground for the huge "evangelistic project" - the Ark Encounter. The event was clearly designed to put-to-rest rumors that Answers in Genesis has run into money problems and that the project is in trouble. I do think they rightly pointed... Continue Reading →
Testing The Creationist’s Hyper-evolution Orchard: Canines, Felines and Elephants
Last week I pointed out that the Bible provides no support for Ken Ham's contention that massive numbers of species have formed following their departure from Noah's ark 4500 years ago (YEC Biblical Evolution: I Have A Book That Says Otherwise). Now I'm following up with "observational" evidence from DNA sequences to test whether the... Continue Reading →
Geological Context V: Human Fossil Footprints Found Below Ice Age Deposits
A story is breaking today of a significant fossil find made almost a year ago but kept under wraps until the data could be properly evaluated. What has now been revealed is that over 100 footprints were found in newly uncovered rocks along a shoreline of England. Study of these footprints has led to... Continue Reading →
Geological Context IV: The Pit of Bones – An Ancient Death Chamber
Down a 43 foot vertical shaft, another 40 foot slope, and buried under thousands of cave bear, lion and lynx bones, lies the partially fossilized bones of at least 30 individual humans. Welcome to a chamber of horrors otherwise known as Sima de los Huesos (the pit of bones). This pit is but a small... Continue Reading →
Invoking Super-Speed Evolution: How to Squeeze 10,000+ Bird Species onto Noah’s Ark
There are about 10,000 species of birds alive today. Almost 200 additional species have gone extinct since the year 1500 and there are innumerable fossil species of birds in the geological column. One of the persistent challenges for modern young earth creationists is how to fit the diversity of life on the Noah’s ark. Answers... Continue Reading →
The Answers in Genesis Atheist Billboard Campaign
By now you have either seen or heard about the Answers in Genesis billboard campaign targeting atheists. In very prominent billboards in major cities including Times Square in New York City, the message is proclaimed to their atheist friends, Thank God Your Wrong. A considerable amount of digital ink has been spilt on internet discussion... Continue Reading →
Dragon Tales, UFOs and the Creation Museum
Since its inception, one of the Creation Museum’s most provocative exhibits has been one that places dinosaurs and man side by side. While this is anachronistic to most people at least everyone agrees that dinosaurs really lived at some time in earth’s history.* This year the Creation Museum added a new exhibit where you can... Continue Reading →
Dinosaurs, Dragons and Ken Ham: The Literal Reality of Mythological Creatures
Image you are living in 200 BC in the Middle East region and you come by the skull to the right as you plow your field or when you explore the local cave complex. What if you are wandering the desert in Egypt and happen upon the bones in the second figure. Or what about... Continue Reading →
A Horse is a Horse According to Answers in Genesis
In 2013 a remarkable DNA sequence was revealed by geneticists studying ancient DNA. It was the nearly complete genome extracted and decoded from the remains of a tooth from a horse preserved in permafrost sediments buried in the Yukon region in Alaska. This partially fossilized bone was estimated to be more than 500,000 years old. ... Continue Reading →
Evaluating the State of Creationism: Creationist Finances
Evaluating the state of creationism in the evangelical church today is a difficult task. Gallop polls suggest little changes among Americans regarding their views of origins but the generic nature of the questions make these results challenging to interpret. I have looked at web site traffic, publication records and other metrics of the reach... Continue Reading →
The Fake Fringes: How I Fell Victim to an Internet Parody
This is a bit embarrassing but I think instructive so I am going to share how I discovered that I have been utterly fooled by a parody web site for many years. Last week I wrote about the importance of understanding that even fringe groups have fringes (see: Human Fossil Footprints: Exploring the Fringes of... Continue Reading →
The State of Creationism as Viewed by Google Trends
Just how much interest is there in various forms of creationism and has that interest been increasing or decreasing? There have been many polls that that have addressed this question over the past several decades. These polls generally suggest that attitudes toward the age of the earth, the origin of man and evolution have not... Continue Reading →
NH Notes: Answers in Genesis and a Mountain of Extraterrestrial Dust
How long would it take for falling dust to accumulate into a mound 2 1/2 miles tall? Answers in Genesis has commented (Wind, not water, may have built the Martian Mount Sharp) over the weekend on the same research article that I referenced in my post last week (NH Notes: Did Wind and Dust Create a... Continue Reading →
Human Fossil Footprints: Exploring the Fringes of Creationism
A friend of mine recently gave me a book that he had found at a local library book sale knowing that I have an interest in creationist' writings. The book, Evolution and Human Fossil Footprints, was written by an Aaron Judkins. I assumed the focus of the book would be on the Paluxy “man” tracks in... Continue Reading →
DNA from a Fossil Canine Skull: Confirmation of an Ancient Domesticated Dog
Where did domesticated dogs come from? That dogs are wolves has been known for some time but which wolves and when did domestication occur has been a more difficult question to answer. Thousands of dog breeds and wolves have been genotyped to explore this question and that evidence suggests four and possibly more, separate wolf... Continue Reading →