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 …
Category: Young-Earth creationism
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 …
Best of The GeoChristian 2013
In my previous post, I listed the ten most-read articles on The GeoChristian in 2013. They are, I suppose, the reader's picks. Here are my picks for the most significant blog posts on The GeoChristian for the year. #10 -- A 4th grade quiz on dinosaurs that the teacher would have given me an “F” on …
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 …
Around the web 10/16/2013 — the latest Jesus conspiracy theory and YEC attacks on old-Earth Christians
AN INVENTED JESUS? -- The media has started giving publicity to the latest Jesus conspiracy theory: Story of Jesus Christ was 'fabricated to pacify the poor', claims controversial Biblical scholar: Christianity was a sophisticated government propaganda exercise used to pacify the subjects of a the Roman Empire, claims scholar. So, the Romans invented a story in …
Thankful to God that the atheists are wrong
Answers in Genesis has some new billboards that I actually like, highlighted on today's Around the World With Ken Ham blog. Here's one of them: As I recently reminded one reader here on The GeoChristian, I am on the same side as the young-Earth creationists. We may differ on a secondary issue---the age of the …
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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 …
Around the web 8/11/2013 — YEC problems with poop, having the flying spaghetti monster for lunch, and more
YEC ARGUMENTS BURIED IN DEEP DOO-DOO -- The Natural Historian has written a post I wish I had written: Dino Doo-Doo (Coprolites) and the Genesis Flood. Coprolites are pieces of fossilized excrement (and back when I was in graduate school, also the name of my geology department's intramural softball team). The fossil record has an abundance …
Around the web 7/13/2013 — No response on salt magma hypothesis, nature deficit disorder, thou shalt not criticize Ken Ham, and more
It has been a while time since my last "Around the web" post, and I have bookmarked more articles than I can reasonably make brief comments on. Here are a few... THE DEATH OF GOOGLE READER -- Since the untimely demise of Google Reader a couple weeks ago, I haven't been keeping up on the …
Arks a-plenty
The Noah's Ark theme park being built by Answers in Genesis gets lots of publicity, but it is only one of a number of Noah's Ark projects in progress around the world. Christianity Today reports on eight such projects: A Flood of Arks. If you were to build a Noah's Ark attraction, what would you …
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 …
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
Around the web 5/17/2013 — A Christian leader who is really a Baal worshiper, Old-Earth Christian homeschooling, and more…
TO REJECT YEC IS LIKE BAAL WORSHIP? -- If you don't agree with Answers in Genesis president Ken Ham, you are a compromiser. You might even be a closet Baal worshiper. Mr. Ham recently singled out Hank Hanegraff (who is "The Bible Answer Man" on the radio) as a compromiser because he doesn't believe that …
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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J.P. Moreland’s advice to young-Earth creationists
Many leading Christian apologists---an apologist is one who makes a reasoned defense for the faith---are old-Earth Christians. They hold firmly to the truthfulness and reliability of the Scriptures, but reject the hyperliteralism of the young-Earth creationist movement. One such scholar is J.P. Moreland, professor of philosophy at Talbot School of Theology. In the book Three …
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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 …