All I got from Mt St Helens (MSH) in the days following its May 18, 1980 eruption was a few pretty sunsets. I was an undergraduate student in my first year at the University of Utah, and most of the ash cloud passed far north of Salt Lake City. MSH became more significant for me …
Continue reading What does Mt St Helens teach us about Noah’s flood? Almost nothing.
This five-minute "Noah's Flood and Catastrophic Plate Tectonics" video was recently released by Genesis Apologetics. It has as shown up in my Facebook feed several times this week, so I decided to watch it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V68p75xhrSk I have no doubt that the producer(s) of this video mean well. They believe the Bible, and want to provide …
This is the first in a planned six-part series of Six Geological Reasons Why I am Not a Young-Earth Creationist. I am a Christian who holds to the inerrancy and authority of the Bible, and who also has a master’s degree in geology. I have previously given my biblical and theological reasons why I believe …
Davidson, Gregg, 2019, Friend of Science, Friend of Faith: Listening to God in His Works and Word, Kregel Academic, 297 p. Gregg Davidson, a Christian, is Chair of Geology and Geological Engineering at the University of Mississippi. Friend of Science, Friend of Faith opens with the story of Riley, a Christian college student working toward …
Continue reading Book review — Friend of Science, Friend of Faith
Bishop, R.C., Funck, L.L., Lewis, R.J., Moshier, S.O., and Walton, J.H, 2018, Understanding Scientific Theories of Origins: Cosmology, Geology, and Biology in Christian Perspective, Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 659 p. https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Scientific-Theories-Origins-Christianity/dp/0830852913/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1547601156&sr=8-1&keywords=understanding+scientific+theories+of+origins Understanding Scientific Theories of Origins is authored by five professors from Wheaton College. Wheaton is an Evangelical institution with rigorous admissions standards, and therefore …
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Your Guide to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks: A Different Perspective, by John Hergenrather, Tom Vail, Mike Oard, and Dennis Bokovoy The Geology of Yellowstone: A Biblical Guide, by Patrick Nurre Young-Earth creationists (YECs) believe that the Bible requires that almost all features of Earth’s crust are the result of Noah’s Flood about 4300 …
This brief article on Yellowstone National Park from Answers in Genesis is exceptionally bad. https://answersingenesis.org/creation-vacations/yellowstone-national-park/ Answers in Genesis -- "The volcano that left the enormous crater at Yellowstone was far greater than anything we observe today. While modern craters measure barely 20 square miles (52 km2), the crater at Yellowstone covers about 1,500 square miles …
Continue reading Yellowstone National Park — Another bad answer from Answers in Genesis
Here is my standard short answer to the young-Earth creationist claim that the deposits formed by the 1980s eruptions of Mt St Helens demonstrate that Noah's flood could be responsible for the sedimentary rock record. The deposits of Mt St Helens (MSH) demonstrate that volcanoes can do a lot of geologic work in a short …
Continue reading Short Answer — Mt St Helens and young-Earth creationism
A vocal set of Christians believes that the book of Genesis requires the age of the universe and Earth to be something like 6000 years. This belief is being reinforced by the release last year (2017) of the documentary Is Genesis History?, which was narrated by Del Tackett, and produced by Thomas Purifoy. The film …
On two nights this past week (Nov 13 and 16, 2017), the young-Earth creationist (YEC) documentary Genesis: Paradise Lost was shown in select movie theaters across America. I spent $15 (the most I have ever spent for a movie) and sat in the upper corner of the theater where there was a little light that …
Continue reading “Genesis: Paradise Lost” — A film review by an old-Earth Christian
There have been a number of positive reviews of my Earth Science textbook Earth Science: God's World, Our Home, published by Novare Science and Math. One of the most comprehensive reviews is in the journal Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith (Volume 69, Number 2, June 2017, pp. 111-113). The review was written by a …
Continue reading Review of Earth Science textbook in Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith
I am creating a series of Google Earth labs to use with my middle school Earth Science textbook Earth Science: God's World, Our Home. For the most part, these labs could be used with other textbooks as well, though I do occasionally refer to figures or pages in my textbook. At this stage, I would love …
Continue reading Using Google Earth for Earth Science Education
Reasons to Believe (old-Earth Christian apologetics organization of Hugh Ross et al.) has a nice review of my new textbook Earth Science: God's World, Our Home. "Overall, Earth Science: God’s World, Our Home is an outstanding textbook to add to an old-earth science curriculum. Compared to a few years ago, we now have a rich …
The folks at Biologos.org have interviewed me regarding Earth Science: God's World, Our Home, my new middle school textbook published by Novare Science and Math. http://biologos.org/blogs/chris-stump-equipping-educators/new-science-textbook-celebrates-ancient-age-of-earth-from-christian-perspective
I recently spent about seven hours at the Creation Museum run by the young-Earth creationist (YEC) organization Answers in Genesis in northern Kentucky (I visited the museum, not the new Ark Encounter). As I anticipated, the exhibits at the museum are all of the highest quality. Whether the displays were animatronic dinosaurs, dioramas of the …
I have the unexpected opportunity to visit the Answers in Genesis Creation Museum in Kentucky in a few days. Positive Expectations High quality -- Skeptics and AiG fans alike acknowledge that the museum experience is at a high level. The displays and presentations are all professionally done. This isn't a mom and pop roadside museum. …
The Grand Canyon: Monument to an Ancient Earth (2016), edited and written by a number of highly-qualified, predominately Christian authors, is a devastating critique of the geological arguments of young-Earth creationism (YEC). The subtitle of this new book asks the question, “Can Noah’s Flood Explain the Grand Canyon?” which is an appropriate question, being that …
Continue reading Book review — The Grand Canyon: Monument to an Ancient Earth
The Earth. Christianity. They go together. Welcome to The GeoChristian, a blog primarily about the relationship between the Earth sciences and Christianity. My name is Kevin Nelstead, and I have been writing at geochristian.com since 2006. The most important thing about me is that I am a Christian. The passage of Scripture that opened up my …
AN OLD-EARTH CHRISTIAN AT A YOUNG-EARTH CONFERENCE This is the third in a series of articles about a young-Earth creationism (YEC) conference held in Bozeman, Montana in April, 2016. 1. Bozeman creation conference preview and expectations 2. Does Genesis Really Matter? - Yes Genesis does matter, whether a Christian believes in a young Earth or an …
Continue reading Bozeman Creation Conference — Radiometric Dating
My first experience teaching Earth Science was at a small Classical Christian school in Missouri for the 2001-2002 school year. The headmaster was a young-Earth creationist. She knew that I was an old-Earth Christian, but perhaps being desperate for a science teacher she went ahead and hired me as a part-time teacher for a year, …
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