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.
Is Ken Ham’s Rapid Post-Flood Diversification Really Evolution?
I ended my previous article, Ken Ham's Darwinism, with the following observation: Ken Ham has fully embraced Post-Flood Rapid Evolution as a mechanism of creating the amazing variation we see today. As he slides further down the slippery slope into the rabbit hole of radical accelerated evolution he has now become, ironically, more accepting of naturalistic... Continue Reading →
Ken Ham’s Darwinism: On The Origin of Species by Means of Hyper-Evolution Following Noah’s Flood
Young life creationists, or baraminologists as they prefer to be called, have experienced a paradigm shift over the past three decades. Initially, young-life creationists (YLCs) made a point of identifying every possible unique characteristic of a species as the result of direct special creation and intelligent design. However, they are now increasingly embracing a model... 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 →
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 →
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. 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 →
Can You Spot the Difference? The Slowly Changing Surface of Mars
How different is the surface of Mars today compared to one thousand, a hundred thousand or a million years ago? The photo below was snapped by the Curiosity Rover which has spent several years trekking across an ancient lake-bed inside a large crater on Mars. It is a barren, forbidding but strangely familiar and beautiful... Continue Reading →
Is Historical Science Reliable? An Exploration of the AiG “Origins” Science Label
Young earth creationists frequently speak of two kinds of science which they refer to as "origins" and "operational" science. These terms are possibly akin to what scientists may call "historical" and "experimental" science. What is this "origins" science and how does origins science play a role in the discussion of the Age of the Earth?... Continue Reading →
Reflections on a Young Earth Creationist’ Approach to Scientific Apologetics
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 →
Amazonian Forest Islands: Accidental Products of Ancient Human Occupation
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... Continue Reading →
NH Notes: An Ancient Jawbone Found By Fishermen off the Coast of Taiwan
From a net pulled out of the ocean doesn't seem a likely place to find an ancient human fossil. But by scraping the bottom of the ocean,Taiwanese fishermen have been pulling up all sorts of unusual items in addition to their targeted prey. Like some trawlers off the cost of Great Britain these fishermen have... Continue Reading →
The State of Creationism in the Church Today: Reflections on ETS 2014, Part II
Evangelical Christianity, broadly defined, has seen a number of science and faith battles over the past 50 years. For most of those years the debate has focused on the age of the earth and the closely – though not universally - associated debate about the extent of Noah’s Flood. Today, the age of the Earth... Continue Reading →
Reflections on ETS 2014, Part I: An Overview of Origins Related Talks
The landscape of science and faith discussions within conservative evangelical Christianity has shifted noticeably over the past 20 years. Vigorous debates over the meaning of the day of creation in Genesis 1 were common in the 1990s, resulting in study committee reports from conservative denominations like the Presbyterian Church in America, “Report of the Creation Study Committee”... Continue Reading →