What happens when a speaker gives a talk about dinosaurs but doesn't have any training in geology or paleontology? You could get a string of distortions of both of these fields of inquiry and even problems keeping facts straight.  A few weeks ago I witnessed just such a talk when I attended an Answers in Genesis... Continue Reading →
The difference between what young earth creationists like to term "operational" or "observational" science and historical science doesn't have the sharp distinction they like to project to their audience.  I was reminded of this recently when I had an opportunity to hear Tommy Mitchell speak at a local Answers in Genesis conference a few weeks ago.  One particular talk was... Continue Reading →
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 →
The Ark Encounter in Kentucky is built on a foundation of trillions of fossils but when they built a new activity to allow visitors to find their own fossils they opted to give them assorted fossils from other places in the world. This was a missed educational opportunity. When I wrote about my visit to the... Continue Reading →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
The pace of discovery of ancient human activities continues unabated. That alone should tell us that that there is much yet to discover and learn. The latest revelation come from deep—more than 1000 feet—inside a French cave.  In the blackness of a large opening there are peculiar "structures" constructed from fragments of stalagmites. Found many... Continue Reading →
The Grand Canyon is one of the most iconic geological features on Earth.  Its immensity of the canyon regularly causes those that have peered into its depths to wonder about its origins. How could such an awe-inspiring canyon have formed? This fascination with the Grand Canyon has fueled a long a history of geological research.  As a result there is a wealth... Continue Reading →
Countless numbers of footprints made by hundreds of kinds of organisms are preserved in hundreds of individual layers of the geological column.  Millions of these tracks have been identified from just the tiny fraction of the rocks that are exposed at the surface of the Earth.  But how were so many footprints preserved? In conversations with... Continue Reading →
Two years ago Ken Ham very publicly promoted what he believes is a biblical model of evolution to explain the diversity of life on Earth.  I have a book before me that provides compelling evidence that his model of evolution is wrong. That book is the Bible. For those that follow young earth creation literature nothing that Ken... Continue Reading →
Modern young-earth creationism has deep roots. The essential elements of flood geology were established in the 17th century though much of what passed as flood geology at that time might be difficult to recognize today. One thing that hasn't changed is the style of rhetoric frequently used to promote flood geology to the general public.... Continue Reading →
What happened to dinosaur eggs that were either abandoned or broke prematurely?  You might think that this is a question that is impossible to answer, but dinosaur eggs have been discovered with intriguing evidence of scavenging of many forms.  By studying the remains of organisms that are preserved in preserved dinosaur eggs paleontologists have discovered compelling evidence that a complex ecology... Continue Reading →
While reading literature by young earth creationists, I am frequently struck by how often authors seeking to resolve one problem are unaware of how many new problems their explanations create. I recently read an article by Dr. Snelling of Answers in Genesis in which he provides a young-earth hypothesis for the recent origin of oil and coal. He has... Continue Reading →
Naturalis Historia 