How did the earth become populated by billions of species of living things? Conventional evolutionary biology provides an explanatory framework to answer that question. Intelligent Design advocates provide another as do Progressive Creationists (Old Earth Creationists). But a large segment of the population looks to creation scientists (Young-earth creationists—YECs) to answer the question. How do... Continue Reading →
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 →
The Ark Encounter theme park in Kentucky is filled with signs and displays that promote young-earth interpretations of geology, astronomy, biology, archaeology and theology. I have critiqued many of these interpretations before (e.g. My Trip to the Ark Encounter and Depicting a Real Flood with Unrealistic Images). Today, I want to talk about one sign.... Continue Reading →
How do scientists communicate with each other? What are the latest research results? How can one learn about theories and how they are regarded by the scientific community? Where can you talk to scientists about their work? A partial answer to all of these questions is: scientific conferences. It is possible to stay somewhat current... Continue Reading →
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 →
Here is a puzzle: Where can you stand on dry ground and look up to see a river channel above you? Yes, New Orleans is a good answer. However, I'm talking about looking up 100 feet from a non man-made location. There are many places on Earth and possibly on Mars where such... Continue Reading →
What is the origin of the Hawaiian Islands? The exploration of that question consumed my attention for several years. At that time—way back in the 1990s—I was a post-doctoral researcher at Southern Illinois University sequencing chloroplast genes from holoparasitic plants. At the same time I discovered list-serve discussion groups, I was given creation science literature... Continue Reading →
I recently attended the annual meeting of the American Scientific Affiliation held at Wheaton College. About 300 professional scientists who are professing Christians had gathered to discuss a variety of topics related to science and faith. Monday morning I delivered my presentation titled: “Young Earth evolutionists? Adaptation of young-earth creationist models, and implication for the... Continue Reading →
Ken Ham and his staff have demonstrated their confusion about biological classification yet again and also shown they don’t read primary literature before jumping to their own conclusions. The latest example comes courtesy of a new flowering-plant fossil which was recently described in the literature as an ancient “lily.” Ken Ham on the AiG website... Continue Reading →
Today, young-earth creationists are actively promoting a new model of the origin of the diversity of life on Earth. This speculative view borrows a number of elements found in any typical evolutionary biology textbook. For example, modern YECs claim that most and possibly all species alive today—except humans—are related to numerous other, though not all,... Continue Reading →
Just how quickly can animals expand their geographical range? Recently I expressed my skepticism about young-earth creationist' claims that animals could depart an ark in the Middle East and migrated all the way to South America in just a few years (Glyptodonts, Armadillos and Ken Ham's Hyper-Speciation Model). Take the armadillos I wrote about. There are... Continue Reading →
Armadillos are curious little animals but were all of them as small as they are today? DNA extracted from a 12,000 year old bone of an extinct glyptodont the size of a small car revealed a genetic code that clearly places this huge animal inside the group (clade) of diverse animals we collectively call armadillos. These DNA results (see... Continue Reading →
Phrenology, essential oils, homeopathy, reflexology, ESP, astrology, creation science, climate change denial, blood-type diet, vaccinations cause autism, quantum computing, smoking causes cancer, dinosaurs were killed by an asteroid impact, HIV causes AIDS, low-carb diet. Which of the above would you classify as the products of good scientific research and which would you classify as pseudoscience? ... Continue Reading →
Everyone is an expert in something but they can’t be an expert in everything. At some point we all have to rely on the expertise of others to guide us through our lives. I am a biologist, however, the vastness of the field of biology leaves me in the position of deferring to the knowledge... Continue Reading →
Where is the next generation of creation scientists? I don’t mean the next generation of believers in creation science but the next generation of young-earth experts who will continue the legacy of Morris, Austin, Humphreys, Woodmorappe, Wood, Bergman, Oard, Baumgardner, etc… I have to believe that this has to be a question that many of the... Continue Reading →
Naturalis Historia 