Norm Geisler has been a prominent defender of the Christian faith for a number of years. He is the author or coauthor of several important books on apologetics (the defense of the faith), including I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, and Christian Apologetics. Dr. Geisler recently contributed an article to …
Category: Origins
A more detailed survey indicates that most Christians are somewhere in the middle on the topic of origins, and that most don’t hold to their position all that strongly
Simplistic surveys can be very frustrating. For instance:Of all the colors of the rainbow, which is your favorite, Blue or Yellow?If your favorite color is green, and that is not an option in the survey, then there is no way for the survey to accurately assess your opinion. Nor does this simple survey assess how …
John Walton, Evangelical Old Testament scholar: Neither Ham nor Nye got the Bible right
Of the numerous analyses of the Ken Ham vs. Bill Nye debate earlier this week, one of the best is that of Old Testament scholar John Walton that was published as part of a larger review on the Biologos website (Ham on Nye: Our Take). Walton, author of The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology …
A few additional thoughts on Ham vs. Nye
I've had another 24 hours to think about the Ham vs. Nye debate, and I have a few additional thoughts: I'm struck by how little evidence Ken Ham presented in his main presentation or in his rebuttals. He briefly mentioned a few standard YEC arguments for a young Earth, such as woody material dated at …
Ken Ham vs. Bill Nye post-debate analysis
On February 4, 2014, Answers in Genesis President Ken Ham debated Bill Nye (“the Science Guy”) on the topic of “Is creation a viable model of origins?” I cannot say that I was disappointed with the debate, because I had very low expectations for it in the first place, and it was about what I …
Debate pre-game prognosis: What Ken Ham could learn from Duane Gish in order to “win” his debate against Bill Nye
In March of 1987, young-Earth creationist Dr. Duane Gish came to Washington State University to have a creation-evolution debate with Dr. Grover Krantz, an anthropology professor at WSU. Gish's style in his frequent debates was a rapid-fire overload of facts from a wide variety of fields, most of which were outside of his opponent's area …
GeoChristian most-read posts in 2013
Things have been rather quiet here on The GeoChristian lately, but people from around the world have still been finding things to read. Here are the most-read posts in 2013 (a number of which were written before 2013): #10 -- A young-Earth creationist magmatic model for the origin of evaporites -- This is my preliminary analysis …
Many top advocates of Biblical authority accept an old Earth as completely compatible with Scripture
Can one believe in the authority of the Bible and also believe that Earth is on the order of a few billion years old? Are Christians who accept an old Earth "compromisers" who deny obvious truths of Scripture? Many young-Earth creationist (YEC) leaders insist that acceptance of an old age for the Earth---billions of years …
Stuck in a tar pit
The June 2013 issue of Acts & Facts magazine from the Institute for Creation Research has a two-page article on the fossils of the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. "The La Brea Tar Pits Mystery" was written by Dr. John Morris, president of ICR, and Dr. Timothy Clarey, ICR's new staff geologist. The …
PCA 2013 General Assembly — The YECs get their turn
In 2012, two old-Earth Christian geologists gave a presentation at the General Assembly (annual meeting) of the Presbyterian Church in America. Gregg Davidson is a professor of geology at the University of Mississippi, and Ken Wolgemuth is an oil industry consultant, and their presentation was entitled "The PCA Creation Study Committee a Dozen Years Later: …
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Dinosaur quiz — part 3
Yesterday on the Answers in Genesis website, Ken Ham encouraged people to take "the dinosaur quiz" and to let him know on his Facebook page how we have used this quiz to help "rescue our kids." I guess I took him seriously, so I posted a comment on his Facebook page: This morning, my comment …
More on the Answers in Genesis 4th grade dinosaur quiz
Last week I wrote about A 4th grade quiz on dinosaurs that the teacher would have given me an “F” on. A Christian school in South Carolina had used an Answers in Genesis quiz entitled "Dinosaurs, Genesis and the Gospel," and the atheist and skeptic blogs were abuzz about how goofy this quiz was in their …
Continue reading More on the Answers in Genesis 4th grade dinosaur quiz
A 4th grade quiz on dinosaurs that the teacher would have given me an “F” on
Here is a quiz on "Dinosaurs: Genesis and the Gospel" given to fourth graders at a South Carolina Christian school: The quiz was based on material from Answers in Genesis. Atheists and skeptics, of course, have made much of this quiz since it was first posted on the internet a few weeks ago. Christians are …
Continue reading A 4th grade quiz on dinosaurs that the teacher would have given me an “F” on
An Answers in Genesis chat about the ice age(s)
Answers in Genesis had its first ever live chat on Facebook today, where people could discuss the article When Was the Ice Age in Biblical History with one of the authors. Unfortunately, the author who chatted was the editor of Answers magazine, Mike Matthews, not Andrew Snelling, AiG's geologist. The basic idea of the article …
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The Pleistocene is not in the Bible — A critique of “When Was the Ice Age in Biblical History?”
Young-Earth creationists (YECs) attempt to squeeze most of the geological record into the brief span of Noah's flood, even though the Bible does not state that the flood was responsible for Earth's sedimentary rocks, and does not even require that the flood covered the entire Earth (read more here and here). There is an important exception …
A young-Earth creationist magmatic model for the origin of evaporites
On my most recent "Around the web" post, I stated that I would be writing a longer response to the young-Earth creationist (YEC) proposal that salt deposits (usually referred to as evaporites) were actually formed through igneous processes rather than being precipitated from seawater. This may not be that longer response. Instead, it is a …
Continue reading A young-Earth creationist magmatic model for the origin of evaporites
Around the web 3/22/2013 — The ice age only lasted 250 years, evaporites formed from magma, environmentalism is bad for us, and more
There have been a number of articles on the web the past few weeks that deserve a long analysis, but some short notes will have to do. THE ICE AGE (SINGULAR) OCCURRED BETWEEN 2250 AND 2000 B.C. -- Answers in Genesis posted an article in February by Andrew Snelling and Mike Matthews entitled When Was …
A Christian geologist tells his story
Many Christian geologists I know began their undergraduate geological training as young-Earth creationists (YECs). They entered their studies having been equipped by reading YEC classics such as The Genesis Flood and Scientific Creationism, had a whole stack of Institute for Creation Research Acts & Facts "Impact" articles, and were certain that they would set the …
The age of the Earth is a quinary issue
For most Christian traditions and denominations, the age of the Earth is not a primary issue. It is not even a secondary issue. Nor is it a tertiary issue. In fact it is not even a quaternary issue. For most Christian traditions and denominations, the age of the Earth is a quinary issue! That's three …
Around the web 2/10/2013
THE "NOT SCIENCE FRIDAY" SHOW -- From Christianity Today: Creationist Pastor Loses to NPR over 'Science Friday' Radio Show. Apparently the name of the radio program---Real Science Friday---was too close to NPR's Science Friday program. It is now Real Science Radio. THE LAW OF SUPERPOSITION IS WRONG? -- At least according to the above mentioned radio …
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