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 →
Cheaters prosper! Yes, they really do. Hundreds of thousands of species are singularly devoted to some form of parasitic life strategy. It's a strategy that involves one organism deriving all or much of its resources from a host organism to the detriment of that host. Many of these strategies make us cringe. For example the... Continue Reading →
The talk of the world is coronavirus-so many questions. How did it come to infect humans? How should we go about controlling its spread? Will the virus mutate and become more infectious or deadly? Are there any effective treatments? There is no shortage of speculation and ongoing research hoping to provide answers to these questions. ... Continue Reading →
Ten years after launching, the European Space Agency Rosetta spacecraft caught up to its target: Comet 67P. In 2014, Rosetta, now 250 million miles from Earth, traveled along with the comet while it made its way around the Sun measuring its increased activity including classic comet tail formation as it approached the sun. At one... Continue Reading →
The lost world of North America? A Great Lakes Doggerland? Ancient hunting grounds beneath Lake Huron? Yes, people once lived and moved about on land which is today submerged 120 feet under Lake Huron. In 2014 O'Shea and colleagues reported the results of their studies confirming this Atlantian-like history underneath the Great Lake Huron. The... Continue Reading →
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 →
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 →
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 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 →
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 →
In Egypt the Nile River Valley conceals a massive canyon that once was as deep and wide as the Grand Canyon in Arizona. We have explored the origins of this lost canyon in the previous posts. We found that geologists attribute the origins of this massive canyon to the great drying up of the Mediterranean... Continue Reading →
Everyday a new piece of earth's history is uncovered. And everyday those discoveries add a new puzzle piece for young-earth creationists to try to fit into their 6000-year picture of earth's biological and geology history. Yesterday's new puzzle piece comes in the form of seven large footprints on a slab of rock. They were found... Continue Reading →
A committed young-earth creationist, Dr. Todd Wood, and an equally committed evolutionary creationist, Dr. Darrel Falk, spend time with each other. At first both are suspicious of the other’s Christian credentials. One feels like he is thought to be a fool the other is concerned that he is looked down upon as a heretic. Through... Continue Reading →
YEC, GT, AoA, OEC, ID, PC, EC, TE? These acronyms refer to theistic models of earth’s biological and physical history. Do you know which models each of these letter combinations refer to? If so, do you know which one best characterizes your view? If you don’t—or if you don’t know, or are not sure, into... Continue Reading →
Naturalis Historia 