The diversity of birds on earth is remarkable. There are more than twice as many bird species alive today as there are mammal species. A challenge for literal-day creationists is explaining how such diversity was either preserved during a global catastrophe not more than 4500 years ago or was formed after that event. Did Noah’s Ark hold... Continue Reading →
New Ad for Ark Encounter Contradicts Ken Ham’s Understanding of Biblical “Kinds”
Answers in Genesis is about to roll out a multi-million dollar advertising campaign for the Ark Encounter. You may have already seen many billboards, Facebook promotions and heard radio advertising for the ark but apparently these were just a preview of the real media blitz that will continue right up to the July 7th opening. As part of... Continue Reading →
The Grand Canyon: Magnificent Witness to Earth’s History
The Grand Canyon is one of the most iconic geological features on Earth. Its immensity of the canyon regularly causes those that have peered into its depths to wonder about its origins. How could such an awe-inspiring canyon have formed? This fascination with the Grand Canyon has fueled a long a history of geological research. As a result there is a wealth... Continue Reading →
Is Natural Selection the Same Thing as Evolution? Assessing Dr. Purdom’s Confusing Answer
The ministry of Ken Ham’s Answers in Genesis exists, in part, to provide Christians with responses to what they believe are anti-biblical beliefs about the age of the earth and the origin of biological diversity. To provide these answers, AiG has assembled a small group of geologists and biologists. These employees provide answers to questions that... Continue Reading →
Testing YEC Hyper-Evolution from Common Ancestors: Comparisons of mtDNA Genome Diversity in Mammals
Ken Ham's Ark Encounter will vividly display what many young earth creationists believe the common ancestors of today's species of animals may have looked like as they rode out a global flood 4350 years ago. After disembarking from the ark, young earth creationists have proposed that these common ancestors experienced a burst of adaptive radiation into new environments... Continue Reading →
The Great Genetic Bottleneck that Contradicts Ken Ham’s Radical Accelerated Diversification (Post-Flood Hyper-Evolution)
How can a population of organisms reproduce and over time become several hundred species each of which has its own menagerie of characteristics? This is a fundamental evolutionary question for which many different mechanisms have been proposed as solutions over the past 200 years. With AiG's Ark Encounter nearing completion Ken Ham is about to put on display his... Continue Reading →
When Peer Review Lets You Down Again: Another YEC Fact-Checking Problem
Do humans have nine billion bases of DNA not found in Chimpanzees? This is the bold claim made by head science writer for the Institute for Creation Research, Brian Thomas, in a newly released video. There is no doubt that Brian is mistaken. After all, the human genome only has 3.2 billion bases! How could such an error... Continue Reading →
Exploding Termites – Sacrifice of an Individual for the Good of the Whole Organism
When do the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one, as Spock suggested in Star Trek II? I have no interest in defending the utilitarian philosophy of Jeremy Bentham, especially as a guide for understanding human moral psychology, but it is interesting to observe that some simple organisms display... Continue Reading →
2500 Year Old Human Footprints Discovered: Insight into the Formation of Fossil Footprints
Countless numbers of footprints made by hundreds of kinds of organisms are preserved in hundreds of individual layers of the geological column. Millions of these tracks have been identified from just the tiny fraction of the rocks that are exposed at the surface of the Earth. But how were so many footprints preserved? In conversations with... Continue Reading →
Ken Ham’s Biblical Evolution? I Have a Book That Says Otherwise
Two years ago Ken Ham very publicly promoted what he believes is a biblical model of evolution to explain the diversity of life on Earth. I have a book before me that provides compelling evidence that his model of evolution is wrong. That book is the Bible. For those that follow young earth creation literature nothing that Ken... Continue Reading →
Titanosaurus: Largest Dinosaur Ever Found But is it the Largest Animal?
What is the largest animal to have ever lived on the Earth? Most people will answer "dinosaurs" or "sauropods" in particular. While some titanosaurs may have been the heaviest land animals they were not the largest animals to have lived on Earth. That distinction goes to an animal that is very much alive today: the... Continue Reading →
Testing Book-smarts with Observation: John Ray (1735) on the Value of Knowledge Creation
Should professors at Universities be active participants in generating and testing ideas or should they be content to be teachers of what is already known? Most higher educational institutions, such as the one that employs me, continually grapple with how to strike a balance between encouraging knowledge creation and dissemination past knowledge. Put another way,... Continue Reading →
A Creationist Rejects Intelligent Design, Appeals to “Natural Processes” to Explain Stone Artifacts
Are billions and billions of pieces of stone found strewn across the African continent the product of intelligent design (purposeful actions) or random processes? Last year I presented a Stone-Age artifact challenge to the young-earth creationist' chronology. Dr. Mortenson, from Answers in Genesis, responded to the evidence that I presented of vast stone-tool production in... Continue Reading →
John Ray on Flood Geology in 1695: Words that Still Apply Today
Modern young-earth creationism has deep roots. The essential elements of flood geology were established in the 17th century though much of what passed as flood geology at that time might be difficult to recognize today. One thing that hasn't changed is the style of rhetoric frequently used to promote flood geology to the general public.... Continue Reading →
Are Ruminants Derived from a Common Ancestor? Ruminating on the Meaning of Noahic “Kinds”
What do giraffes, cows, sheep, antelope, pronghorn and deer have in common? Foremost, they all share a specialized digestive system that includes a four-chambered stomach that allows them to obtain nutrients and energy from vegetation that is inaccessible to most mammals. This ability and other shared morphological traits are used by scientists to classify all... Continue Reading →