This Week in Creationism Episode 63

In episode 63 of "This Week in Creationism," I discuss recent developments within the young Earth creationist community and scientific challenges to their narratives. Major topics include the interaction between Ken Ham and Gavin Orland, climate skepticism at Answers in Genesis, and contradictory evidence regarding the dinosaur-bird connection. I critique the organization’s selective use of data and misinformation, emphasizing the importance of engaging with scientific evidence.

April 2, 2024

Review of “The Ark and the Darkness”: A Critical Perspective

I react to "The Ark and the Darkness," a film blending scientific evidence with biblical interpretations. The documentary, promoting a young Earth creationist viewpoint, emphasizes Noah's flood and end-times prophecy, lacking nuance and scientific engagement. Despite catering to believers, it misses an opportunity for open reflection and falls short of critical analysis.

March 24, 2024

A Fossil Paradox? Footprints are Rarely Preserved in Stone and yet are very Common

Billions of footprints are preserved in the rock record. While bones get all the attention, fossil footprints, a type of ichnofossils outnumber bones. How can we make sense of this observation? Surely, preserving a bone must be far more likely than preserving a footprint? I have written about how paleontologists use information from footprints and bones... Continue Reading →

May 8, 2023

Young Mars Creationism: What Happened to the Water on Mars?

Mars once had a thicker atmosphere and liquid water on its surface. Nearly every month data from satellites and multiple ground-based systems provide new evidence confirming what was once speculation about the watery past of Mars. But how much water and how long ago did this water exist? A large amount of water still exists on Mars... Continue Reading →

October 27, 2022

The Mosquito That Produced More Than A Little Buzz

Paleontologists can get excited about fossils even if they are not dinosaurs, mammoths and hominids though this story has a Jurassic Park dino connection which helps. In this case several tiny fossil mosquitos had scientists abuzz in 2013. Fossils of mosquitoes are known from amber (fossilized tree sap) but are extremely rare in sedimentary rock... Continue Reading →

January 6, 2022

Amazonian Forest Islands: Accidental Products of Ancient Human Occupation

The Amazon basin isn’t all a lush tropical forest. In large portions of western Amazonian wet seasonally flooded grasslands--not trees--are the norm. The upper branches of the Amazon River wind themselves across massive flood plains like snakes writhing across a sandy surface. One feature of these nearly featureless flat plains that has long puzzled... Continue Reading →

January 3, 2022

The Best Critique of Flood Geology Written by a Flood Geologist

Young-earth creationists have been wrangling for decades over how to identify where the Flood/post-Flood boundary is to be found. I described the most popular hypotheses put forward by YECs in a recent post, Where is Noah's Flood in the Geological Column? I have also recorded a YouTube video based on this article. https://www.youtube.com/embed/7gEwLe6c3Wg There is... Continue Reading →

December 29, 2021

Where is Noah’s Flood in the Geological Column?

Young-earth creationists have a geological column problem that 50 years of research has yet to solve: where is the boundary between Flood deposits and post-Flood deposits?

October 15, 2021

Multituberculates and the YEC Flood/post-Flood Boundary Problem

Yes, multituberculates have something to say about the ongoing division among YECs about where to locate the Flood/post-Flood boundary in the geological column. Is that boundary to be found in the Quaternary, at the Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary or way down in the Pennsylvanian Period? These are the three primary models that YECs have proposed. The problem... Continue Reading →

July 21, 2021

The False Hope of a Mature Creation

Strike up a conversation about the age of the earth with nearly any group of evangelicals and you are sure to get a lively discussion. There may be a young earth defender who will pull out some Ken Ham top-10 proofs of a young creation, some will claim to be agnostic on the topic while... Continue Reading →

April 5, 2021

A Tale of Taphonomy: Clam Shrimp Fossils and the Age of the Earth

One of the great privileges of my job is that I get to participate on graduate student committees. Many times this allows me to get up close and personal with data sub-disciplines extend far from those of my particular expertise. You know that I have a fondness for fossils and the stories they tell. So... Continue Reading →

November 18, 2019

The Toba Super Eruption, Polar Ice Cores, and Climate Change

I recently discussed how the catastrophic Toba super-eruption in Indonesia is a serious challenge to the young-earth model of earth's history (The Toba Super Eruption: A Global Catastrophe that Creationists Ignore). Briefly, I explained that the Toba volcano caldera produced the largest eruption in the past 100,000 years releasing an estimated 2800 cubic kilometers of... Continue Reading →

November 8, 2019

The Toba Super-Eruption: A Global Catastrophe that Young-Earth Creationists Ignore

Sudden catastrophic events are not unknown in earth’s history. Large craters are evidence of past cosmic impacts and widespread layers of volcanic ash are a testimony to massive volcanic eruptions. But when did these catastrophes occur and could they have influenced human history? Standard geological models place the largest catastrophic events far in the past. ... Continue Reading →

November 5, 2019

A Walk on the Beach Preserved in Stone–How Fossilized Turtle Tracks Refute Young-Earth Fossil Dogma

Baby sea turtles emerge from their sandy nest and quickly make their way down the beach and into the sea. As they do so they leave tiny footprints in the sand, but the tracks are short-lived. Blown away or destroyed by the next large wave, they are lost forever. Imagine the footprints you leave during... Continue Reading →

September 10, 2019

Ignoring the Plank: A Young-Earth Apologist Inadvertently Writes a Brilliant Critique of Young-Earth Creationism

How should a movement dedicated to science denial warn its adherents against the evils of science denial? Young-earth creationism finds itself faced with just this problem as some of its followers slip toward the flat-earth fringe. Answers in Genesis, the leading young-earth apologetics ministry, has responded by critiquing the flat-earth movement in a series of... Continue Reading →

August 9, 2019

Category: Flood geology