Creation Ministries International, the third of the big-three literal solar-day young earth creationist organizations, weighed in yesterday with their own assessment of the remarkable set of bones found in the deep recesses of a South African cave. The scientists who recovered and examined those bones over a two-year period have identified them as belonging to a... Continue Reading →
Where did all the Dinosaurs Go? Ken Ham’s Climate and Human-Induced Dinosaur Extinction Hypothesis
If dinosaurs lived with people not long ago then what happened to them? Â Any Literal Solar-Day Young Earth Creationist is going to have to contend with this question. Â At the Answers in Genesis conference that I attended recently the speaker, Bryan Osborne posed this very question to the kids in his audience knowing they would... Continue Reading →
Dinosaurs and Humans Living Together? The Young-Earth Apologetic of Ken Ham
Dinosaurs play an important role in forming the public—and children's in particular—perception of the age of the Earth. I was reminded of this when I had the opportunity to attend two talks about dinosaurs both targeted at kids. The first was a presentation by Jack Horner of Jurassic Park fame but more importantly a researcher... Continue Reading →
The Frequently Overlooked Geological Context of Hominid Fossils
The human fossil record is probably one of these least understood yet frequently discussed topics in the Christian church.  I have neither the expertise nor the desire to attempt to resolve the debate over whether particular fossils represent human ancestors or not. I understand that human origins is a sensitive topic, especially within the conservative evangelical church... Continue Reading →
Bones of Contention III: ICR Claims Homo naledi Fossils are of an “Imaginary Creature”
Soon after the revelation that the remains of at least 15 individuals had been found in the deep recesses of a cave and that these bones looked as if they had been deposited there purposely, I asked the question: How Will Creationist’s Respond to a Huge New Hominid Fossil Find? The first responses came within... Continue Reading →
Diatoms: Tiny Organisms Highlight Big Inconsistencies in Young Earth Flood Geology Models
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 →
Bones of Contention II: Ape, Human or Fraud? Young Earth Creationists Respond to the Dinaledi Chamber Fossil Discovery
The largest collection of hominin bones ever found in Africa is causing massive waves in the anthropological world and beyond. When it was first announced, I wrote about how I thought some creationist organizations might respond to questions posed by hominin fossils and their geological setting (see: Bones of Contention: How Will Creationists Respond to... Continue Reading →
Bones of Contention: How Will Creationists Respond To A Huge New Hominid Fossil Find?
Where no animal except a lost owl and rodent has ever found themselves, through skinny passages that I could not fit through, laying on or just under fine sediments, the partially fossilized bones of at least 15 individuals have been found deep in a cave in South Africa. UPDATE: I have written a follow-up to... Continue Reading →
When Peer Review Lets You Down: A YEC Quote Problem
Where are the fact checkers in Young Earth Creationist' (YEC) organizations?  And why do simple errors and profound misconceptions of science persist among their ranks?  I have commented multiple times that the YEC organization Institute for Creation Research (ICR) has a self-editing problem. As I have documented (Eg.  The Case of the Shrinking Comet and the Age... Continue Reading →
Stone Artifacts From the Deep Sahara: Creating Problems for Young Earth Creationists
In our tour of African stone artifact collections, we now travel to a remote portion of the Sahara Desert in southern Egypt. Stone artifacts are probably abundant in nearly all parts of northern Africa, but they are not easily found everywhere. The shifting sands of this forbidding desert have buried most of the evidence of... Continue Reading →
Thousands of Stone Age Artifacts and Fossil Bones: A Story of an Ancient Butcher Shop
I have been writing about the immense number of stone artifacts that are preserved in the sands, soil and rock layers of Africa in response to the young earth creationist's rejection of their existence or at least of their abundance. Â I was reminded that I had written about stone artifacts a few years ago that... Continue Reading →
Billions of Stone Artifacts: Witness to the Ancient Occupation of the Saharan Desert
The Nubian Desert, which encompasses 400,000 square kilometers of the eastern portion of the Sahara Desert, contains a rich assortment of stone tools and products of Stone Age industries. Scattered stones among the drifting dunes speak of a time long past during which this land was covered by grassy hills and ungulates, lions, and hyenas... Continue Reading →
Trillions of Stone Artifacts Redux: A South African Test Case of YEC Chronology
Recently, Dr. Terry Mortenson of Answers in Genesis responded to one of my articles (Trillions of Stone Age Artifacts: A Young Earth Anthropology Paradox) which claimed that the presence of trillions of stone artifacts scattered across Africa is a significant problem for young-earth creationism (YEC). He questioned the fact that so many artifacts could be produced even... Continue Reading →
Answers in Genesis Struggles to Make Sense of Vast Numbers of Stone Age Artifacts
How many stone age tools and associated artifacts are there and what are the implications of their existence? I raised those questions in a series of posts in the past year (Trillions of Stone Age Artifacts: A Young Earth Anthropology Paradox and How Rare are Stone Age Artifacts? A Visit to a Stone Tool-Making Center... Continue Reading →
NH Notes: A Four-legged Snake – Has the Edenic Serpent been Found?
An exquisitely preserved fossil snake has made its debut on the internet the last couple of days and it's getting a lot of attention. Why? Because it has four well-developed legs. No snake fossil has ever been found with four legs. There are a few with two hind legs but none with front legs. The... Continue Reading →