KEN HAM, PROFESSING CHRISTIAN? — To Answers in Genesis president Ken Ham, any Christian who disagrees with young-Earth creationism is a compromiser who undermines the authority of the Bible. In a recent blog post—Never-ending List of Christians Who Compromise—Ham wrote about a Christian biology professor who is an advocate for theistic evolution, referring to him as “Dr. Jeffrey Schloss, a professing Christian.” I know from previous experience that many young-Earth creationists would blow their tops if I started referring to YEC leaders such as Ham as “professing Christians.” But for some reason Ken Ham gets off the hook.
GIANT VOLCANOES BUILT SUPER-DUPER FAST — Tas Walker’s BiblicalGeology blog has an article on a recently described Large Igneous Province (LIP) in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, known as the Tamu Massif. Walker’s article is The Tamu Massif, the largest single volcano on earth, erupted during Noah’s Flood. One problem with Walker’s proposal is that LIPs tend to be complex features that defy explanation in terms of the single-emplacement models that are required in the very short time frame of the YECs. This ties into one of the basic problems with YEC flood geology: too many events, too little time. Near the end of the article, Walker writes, “If these scientists who are so puzzled would read their Bibles and take what they read seriously it would all make sense.” I take my Bible seriously, and I am confident that it does not say anything about Cretaceous volcanism. Like most YECs, Walker is reading a lot of stuff into both the Bible and Earth history that simply is not there.
RUN DINO RUN — Walker also writes about dinosaur footprints in Alaska: Dinosaurs caught fleeing rising waters of Noah’s Flood along the Yukon River, Alaska. “Footprints like this are classic evidence for the Inundatory stage of Noah’s Flood, in particular the period as the waters were approaching their peak.” So, even though many areas where dinosaur footprints are found are underlain by many hundreds of meters of earlier sedimentary rocks that cover tens or hundreds of thousands of square kilometers, the YECs want us to believe that dinosaurs somehow survived in some refuge and then had the energy to go on long walks more than half way through the flood? Fortunately, the Bible does not require me to believe such stuff. I’ve written about dinosaur footprints before: Dinosaur footprints part 4.
SEASONED WITH SALT — Speaking of Tas, I have now had some correspondence with Tas and Stef Heerema, author of the article I critiqued earlier this year on salt magmas. They have been very cordial, but haven’t presented anything that will make me revise anything I wrote.
YECS WILL NEED MORE INVERTED REASONING FOR THIS ONE — Naturalis Historia presents an excellent three-part series on inverted valleys in Utah. An example of an inverted valley is when a lava flow fills a river valley, and then because the volcanic rocks are more resistant to erosion than the surrounding sediments, the sinuous lava flow that was once in a valley becomes a ridge. In the third part in the series, there is a list of all the events that would have to happen in a very short period of time if YEC were true. Once again, too many events, too little time. See The Exhumed Paleochannels of Utah and Mars, Ancient Lava Flows and Inverted Valleys in Utah, and Inverted Valleys – A Question of Age.
HAVING ISSUES WITH ISSUES ETC. — I think Issues Etc. is one of the two best programs on Christian radio (the other being White Horse Inn). When I lived in St. Louis I regularly listened to Pastor Todd Wilken on IE during my afternoon commute home, and I miss that. But… every once in a while Wilken would get on the topic of the age of the Earth, and there is only One True Interpretation of Genesis in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, and that is young-Earth creationism. J.W. Wartick has written a nice response to Wilken: Responding to “Nine Questions for the Old Earth Creationist”.
THE CONSEQUENCES OF OUR PORNO CULTURE — There is a growing understanding among secular people that pornography is a great threat to our children. As an example, read through the disturbing article by Martin Daubney, former editor of a semi-porn “mens” magazine in Britain: Experiment that convinced me online porn is the most pernicious threat facing children today. Someday I’ll incorporate this into the “sexual argument for the existence of God.”
FORGIVENESS AS A CHRISTIAN WITNESS — I read three powerful stories this week that testify about the power of forgiveness in Christ:
- From grief to grace: Wife of Amish schoolhouse shooter breaks her silence — Husband shoots Amish schoolgirls. Wife embraced by Amish community.
- Do you know what happened to the girl in this iconic Pulitzer prize winning photo from the Vietnam War? — The girl who got napalmed — one of a handful of photos that define the Vietnam War.
- From Hitler’s Wolves to Christ’s Lambs — God forgave the apostle Paul for persecuting Christians to their deaths. Can God even forgive Nazi war criminals?
Grace and Peace
GeoChristian 
I’ll also be responding to Wilken’s more recent (either August or September of this year) questions for (he claims) OEC next week!
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David Coppedge also blogged about the Alaskan dinosaur tracks (but either forgot to mention that they were fleeing Noah’s Flood or else had no grounds for such wild claims):
http://crev.info/2013/09/dinosaur-tracks-in-alaska/
I appear to be banned from any further comment – other than the answer to his repeatedly asked off-topic question.
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Ashley — I was not aware of the crev.info site and had not heard of David Coppedge (just as he probably has not heard of me).
Despite our differences, Coppedge’s goals are likely the same as mine: to point people to Jesus Christ, the creator of the universe. Coppedge believes that evolution and old-Earth geology are obstacles to faith. I believe that young-Earth creationism is not biblically necessary—as you can read about in my GeoScriptures posts and other articles—and places an unnecessary obstacle to faith to people like you. The age of the Earth and the degree to which biological evolution has happened are in-house debates within Christianity, and should not be used as a reason to not believe in Christ.
Do you believe that biological evolution provides a sufficient basis to reject Christianity? If so, you are approaching the Bible the same way the young-Earth creationists do.
There are many good reasons to consider the truthfulness of theism in general and Christianity in particular. I urge you not to focus on the errors of some Christians (we are all faulty) but to approach Christianity with an open mind. A great place to start would be The Reason for God, by Timothy Keller.
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Kevin
Just seen. In fact I’ve just now mentioned under your blog about the AiG billboards that I am an ex evangelical Christian. Thus I was born again – but slowly ‘died again’ it would seem. I’ve read part of the Keller book which a still alive (ex YEC) Christian lent to me. He does not, I notice, deal with Bible inconsistencies and errors (such as Jesus being in the tomb for ‘three’ nights).
I target YEC-ists online not Christians in general.
Ashley
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PS I don’t have serious doubts regarding molecules to Man evolution, though I cannot claim certainty.
I expect you are aware of this (he’s still a YEC I think):
http://toddcwood.blogspot.co.uk/2009/09/truth-about-evolution.html
PPS I do happen to think that YECs are more biblical about origins than are theistic evolutionists – for what that’s worth. Even though the Bible discusses false philosophy not ‘false biology’.
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Everything works fine with the flood model for anything laid down under the k-t line.
Dinos were all killed suddenly by the flood. Thus why they are found in fossilized form. They did not die of old age.
Dino footprints survive because of the unique situation of ground fossilizing beneath ones feet after a step. Very rare on earth..
possibly the mud beneath was hardening under pressure as the critters were escaping and the footprints were the last steps of creatures on top of the mud heap. Probably the same creatures are found throughout the mud laters beneath at least within the particular segregated flow.
The whole earth is filled with sedimentary rock because it was all covered with moving water laying the sediment.
Geology proves the biblical account.
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Fortunately the Bible does not require people to believe the stuff Robert Byers comes out with.
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Ashley — In comment #4 you brought up that Keller does not address the issue of “Bible inconsistencies and errors” in his The Reason for God. Keller does state in the footnotes to his chapter “You Can’t Take the Bible Literally” that he is “not here trying to argue for the complete trustworthiness of the Bible, only that its portrayal of the life and teaching of Jesus is historically accurate.” He accepts the Bible as the Word of God not because he has “proven” it to be correct from cover to cover, but because he has put his faith in Christ, and Christ’s view of Scripture has become his own. In other words:
This is a different—and better—foundation for accepting the inspiration of the Bible than the
approach of fundamentalism.
I have addressed your comment about Jesus not being in the tomb for “three nights” in a new post, Days, nights, Jonah, and Jesus.
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As it happens, tomorrow I will be returning a copy of that book that I borrowed. Keller also writes (as a footnote): “Speaking personally, I take the whole Bible to be reliable not because not because I can somehow ‘prove’ it all to be factual. I accept it because I believe in Jesus and that was his view of the Bible”. I assume he is alluding to apparent contradictions or to scientific or other errors he may have noticed.
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Ashley — I think that what Keller is getting at is that he cannot “prove” that the Bible is inerrant or something like that. He cannot answer every difficulty that is raised, and I cannot either. But no difficulty is of a nature that would cause him to doubt its authority. Most of them are easy—like your “three nights” issue.
I suspect that Keller would go further and say that one does not have to accept inerrancy in order to be a Christian. Obvious examples of this would be influential Protestants such as C.S. Lewis and most Catholics. In other words, one shouldn’t let the things one doesn’t understand keep them from Christ.
The first issue is Christ, not inerrancy. If one puts their faith in Christ, it will affect how they view Scripture as well.
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