Christianity Today has a brief interview with philosopher Alvin Plantinga regarding his recent book entitled Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism. The main points of the interview are: The alleged conflict between theistic religion and science is superficial. There is a deep harmony between theistic religion and science. Part of the reason …
Continue reading Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism
Karl Giberson: Creationists Drive Young People Out of the Church Here is a quote: In a recent piece titled "Nine Year Old Challenges Nasa," [Answers in Genesis president Ken] Ham blogged proudly about "Emma B" who, when told that a NASA moon rock was 3.75 billion years old, asked "Were you there?" The suggestion that …
Continue reading Creationists drive young people out of the church — Karl Giberson
I have been involved in an online discussion regarding whether or not the geologic column (Cambrian-Ordovician-Silurian-Devonian...) is real, or some sort of figment of geologists' imaginations. Dr. Jay Wile, on his Proslogion blog, has written a post entitled Yet Another Failure of "Geological Column" Reasoning. Please note that I consider Dr. Wile (author of the …
Continue reading The stratigraphic column — not a figment of geologists’ imaginations
From Christianity Today -- Survey of Evangelical pastors convictions regarding the age of the Earth and human evolution: Self-identified evangelical pastors on whether the earth is 6,000 years old: No answer: 13% Strongly agree : 29% Somewhat agree: 19% Somewhat disagree: 12% Strongly disagree: 27% Self-identified evangelical pastors on whether God used evolution to …
Continue reading Evangelical pastors, the age of the Earth, and human evolution
I went trap shooting for the first time this weekend, at a church men's retreat near Nye, Montana: For those who are interested, I'm standing on a terminal moraine, with the Beartooth Mountains behind me. I looked for erratics from the Stillwater Complex, and may have found a boulder of anorthosite. The valley in front …
From the European Space Agency: Battered Tharsis Tholus volcano on Mars The latest image released from Mars Express reveals a large extinct volcano that has been battered and deformed over the aeons. By Earthly standards, Tharsis Tholus is a giant, towering 8 km above the surrounding terrain, with a base stretching over 155 x 125 …
From the 28th chapter of Job --- 1 “There is a mine for silver and a place where gold is refined. 2 Iron is taken from the earth, and copper is smelted from ore. 3 Man puts an end to the darkness; he searches the farthest recesses for ore in the blackest darkness. 4 Far …
Continue reading Job 28 — Mining for gold, mining for wisdom
Dr. Jay Wile has an excellent summary of C.S. Lewis's beliefs about evolution on his Proslogion blog: Another Point About C.S. Lewis. To summarize the summary: Lewis refused to join or endorse the Evolution Protest Movement, even though it was led by a personal friend. His writings state acceptance of biological evolution [and, I should …
The following item was originally posted in October 2009, and I have added it to my blog recycling program. Because I have new readers of The GeoChristian, I will occasionally go back and re-use some of my favorite blog entries (sometimes with a little editing). This post quotes from Michael Spencer, the late author of …
This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of The Genesis Flood, by Henry Morris and John Whitcomb. This was, perhaps, the most influential young-Earth creationist book of the twentieth century, and was listed at #22 on Christianity Today's Top 50 Books That Have Shaped Evangelicals. Morris (a hydraulic engineering professor at the time) …
"So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." -- Romans 10:17 ESV I became a Christian through the proclamation of God's word. The Law was proclaimed and I was convicted of my sin and need for a savior. The Gospel was proclaimed and I was drawn to the Lord Jesus Christ, …
Sometime back in May or June, The GeoChristian had its 500,000th page view. I don't completely understand what WordPress counts as a "hit," and I know that many of these hits are from people who spend about three seconds on the site and decide it isn't what they were looking for. But still, I am …
I haven't been blogging lately, but I have been enjoying being back home in Montana. Here I am with my "Gneiss Chert" t-shirt that I got for my birthday a few months ago. The waterfall is Undine Falls in northern Yellowstone National Park. Grace and Peace P.S. This waterfall was on the cover of the …
From XKCD, HT: Webmonk
The Billings Gazette has three short videos on the geology of the Billings, Montana area featuring Rocky Mountain College geology professor Derek Sjostrom: Geology of the Beartooths -- Montana's highest mountain range (Granite Peak, 12799 ft, 3902 m) has a core of 3.2 billion year old metamorphic rocks. Geology of the Pryors -- The Pryor …
Ken Ham is an Evangelical Christian and is perhaps the world's most prominent anti-evolutionist and advocate of young-Earth creationism. Richard Dawkins, author of the best-selling book The God Delusion, is perhaps the world's most prominent proselytizer for atheism. The two men are worlds apart on a number of important issues, but they seem to be …
Continue reading Ken Ham and Richard Dawkins agree with each other, but they are both wrong
Video from the Billings Gazette: Rimrock boulder destroys video camera (I haven't figured out to embed this on on my WordPress blog). Slideshow: Gallery: Falling rocks. Article: Crews succeed in pushing slabs off Rimrocks cliff. Here's another video, but it isn't nearly as good as the "Rimrock boulder destroys video camera" linked to above: As …
There are disasters. There are megadisasters. And now there are complex megadisasters. From The Christian Science Monitor: Mega-quakes and mega-disasters: Will US heed wake-up call in Japan? The crisis in Japan could be considered the first "complex megadisaster" the world has ever seen — a potent combination of natural and technological calamities that might become …
From the NOAA Center for Tsunami Research --- Honshu Tsunami Propagation Animation showing the spread of the March 11 tsunami: Note how the waves reflect and refract, just like you learned about in high school physics. Also from NOAA, a plot of the maximum amplitude of the tsunami: Note the faint gray contours; they represent …
Continue reading Japan tsunami propagation video and graphic
The following item was originally posted in February 2007. I have added it to my blog recycling program. Because I have new readers of The GeoChristian, I will occasionally go back and re-use some of my favorite blog entries (sometimes with a little editing). We often hear about "the scientific method." It would be better …
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