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, Dragons and Ken Ham: The Literal Reality of Mythological Creatures
Image you are living in 200 BC in the Middle East and you come by the skull to the right (Fig. 1) as you plow your field or when you explore the local cave complex. What if you are wandering the desert in Egypt and happen upon the bones in the second figure. Or what... Continue Reading →
Bones of Contention IV: A YEC Homo naledi Fossil Status Scorecard
Creation Ministries International, the third of the big-three literal solar-day young earth creationist organizations, weighed in yesterday with their own assessment of the remarkable set of bones found in the deep recesses of a South African cave. The scientists who recovered and examined those bones over a two-year period have identified them as belonging to a... Continue Reading →
Where did all the Dinosaurs Go? Ken Ham’s Climate and Human-Induced Dinosaur Extinction Hypothesis
If dinosaurs lived with people not long ago then what happened to them? Any Literal Solar-Day Young Earth Creationist is going to have to contend with this question. At the Answers in Genesis conference that I attended recently the speaker, Bryan Osborne posed this very question to the kids in his audience knowing they would... 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 →
New Creation Museum to Test the Limits of Donors and Attendees?
Just how far can the pocketbooks of donors to young earth creation-based organizations be stretched? We may soon find out as the Institute for Creation Research (ICR) based in Dallas Texas has announced an ambitious new creation museum named the “Dallas Museum of Science and Earth History.” This $24 million dollar project, long in the... 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 →
Trillions of Stone Artifacts Redux: A South African Test Case of YEC Chronology
Recently, Dr. Terry Mortenson of Answers in Genesis responded to one of my articles (Trillions of Stone Age Artifacts: A Young Earth Anthropology Paradox) which claimed that the presence of trillions of stone artifacts scattered across Africa is a significant problem for young-earth creationism (YEC). He questioned the fact that so many artifacts could be produced even... 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 →
The Never Ending Debate: Ken Ham’s Obsession with Bill Nye
Do you remember the debate between Bill Nye and Ken Ham back in February? Probably, but if it is becoming a hazy memory then that's a sure sign you aren't visiting the Answers in Genesis website often enough. For if you were, you could not forget. For a month after the debate AIG had a... Continue Reading →
Plants and the Biblical Definition of Life: What is Life – Part II
Are plants alive? Ken Ham seems to think so since he refers to “animal or plant life in outer space.” But what does he mean by alive? I think he has only a secular scientific definition of life in mind when he makes these statements. I wonder if he even knows that his own website... Continue Reading →
Ken Ham’s Aversion to ‘Life’ on Other Planets, Part I – What is Life?
Ken Ham recently proclaimed that he thought it was highly unlikely that “plant life” would be found on other planets. I wonder what he thinks the word “life” means in this context? For example, does living mean that plants also experience death? If so, how can he say that animals and man were allowed to... Continue Reading →
Ken Ham’s Ark Encounter to Usher in a Modern Day Reformation?
Ken Ham would have us believe that the modern creationist movement, which apparently began only 53 years ago, is the real deal this time. Unlike all the other attempts to create a history of the Earth with a recent global flood as a centerpiece, this time it apparently is going to usher in a real reformation in both science and an appreciation for biblical authority.
Historical Science and the Case of T. rex’s Puny Arms and Dinosaur Diets
Everyone has encountered a T. rex in books, movies or museums. Besides its size and menacing jaws one of the most striking features of a T. rex is its diminutive arms. So why were the arms of T. rex so short? There have been many hypotheses including: 1) they had no use and... Continue Reading →
The Ark Encounter To Proceed With Construction
Last night in a public broadcast Ken Ham announced that enough funds have been obtained to break ground for the huge "evangelistic project" - the Ark Encounter. The event was clearly designed to put-to-rest rumors that Answers in Genesis has run into money problems and that the project is in trouble. I do think they rightly pointed... Continue Reading →