Most people know about Pixar's beloved film, WALL-E. Released in 2008 and directed by Andrew Stanton, this film has captured the hearts of many with its charming protagonist WALL-E or Waste Allocation Load-Lifter: Earth-Class. A few years ago I taught a Sunday school class on the topic of man's labor in the context of our... Continue Reading →
I own more than 400 books on the topic of origins, broadly speaking. That includes commentaries on the book of Genesis, works on the relationship of science and faith, young-earth creationist textbooks and popular literature and books on the philosophy of science. I’ve recently finished my most recent purchase The Liturgy of Creation by Dr.... Continue Reading →
Fossils often provide us with only a fragmentary view of the distant past but sometimes collections of fossils record ancient and seemingly alien worlds in stunning clarity. In the past decade several notable fossil discoveries have permitted the reconstruction of entire forest ecosystems that existed at various points in time and space in earth history. Today,... Continue Reading →
Thorns, prickles, spines and needles provide an effective means of protection for plants against many herbivores which would otherwise find them to be a source of nourishment. A common perception of the Genesis account of creation is that God created plants with no form of natural protection against herbivores because God pronounced that (Gen.... Continue Reading →
Ken Ham would have us believe that the modern reincarnation of the young-earth creationist movement, which he claims began only 55 years ago, is the real deal this time. Unlike previous attempts over the past 300 years to create a history of the Earth with a recent global flood as a centerpiece, this time his para-church apologetics... Continue Reading →
For many pastors and their congregations, questions about the intersection of science and faith are difficult because of their unfamiliarity with the scientific evidence and the extensive theological literature on Genesis. Hence, they turn to experts to provide answers. Ken Ham and Answers in Genesis (AiG) seem to provide the answers many Christians wish to... 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 →
As the strict young-earth creationists at Answers in Genesis work to complete their Ark Encounter "theme park," they have expended an impressive amount of energy organizing the millions of species of land animals alive today into a handful of small groups they call "baramins." Creationists insist that while adaptation or speciation within a particular "baramin" is observable (and, indeed, necessary in order to account for the present observed diversity of life), there is never any overlap between separate kinds. Unfortunately for the young-earth model, the push to minimize the number of animals riding on the Ark has exposed a major problem with this view.
A few weeks ago I was a scheduled to present several lectures as part of a course offered by Veritas Theological Seminary in Santa Ana, California. The course title was Scientific Apologetics: The Age of the Earth. The course was split 50/50 between speakers from Solid Rock Lectures including myself, and two prominent employees of the... Continue Reading →
Trillions of stone artifacts cover the surface of the African continent. The product of the manufacturing of stone tools by hunters and gathers over long periods of time, these stone artifacts literally carpet the ground in some places in Egypt and Libya. Just how much Stone-Age produced rock could be strewn across the African continent? Trillions and trillions... Continue Reading →
Diatoms are single-celled organisms that live in almost any moist environment. They are found by the millions in a cup of sea water or a puddle in your back yard. They play a critical role in the environment as oxygen producers. But they are best known for their visually stunning homes constructed of glass. I... Continue Reading →
Our perceptions of the age of an object are frequently based on our common experience but I have found that for many people those common experiences are of little help when it comes to examining objects for which a person has no experience at all. A couple of years ago this really hit me as... Continue Reading →
This is a follow-up to my previous post on the 15 juvenile dinosaur fossils found in a nest. In that post I mentioned one of the explanations by flood geologists (ie. young earth creationists) for the presence of fossilized dinosaur eggs in the fossil record is that dinosaurs somehow escaped the initial stages of... Continue Reading →
This is the first in what will be a series of posts on the "apparent age" or "appearance of age" theory as an explanation for some of the features of the earth and cosmos. There is a long tradition of those that have espoused various forms of apparent age including probably the most famous proponent... Continue Reading →
The following example is derived from several articles involving sediment cores from explosion craters (maars) and their subsequent analysis (See refs at end). I will assume little geological background in writing this example. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Summary: Pollen profiles from a 46 meter core from the center of a small explosion crater in South Central France suggest... Continue Reading →
Naturalis Historia 