My favorite waterfall in Montana is Natural Bridge Falls, located on the Boulder River, south of Big Timber. At high water---such as in this photo taken this spring---some of the water flows over the top of the cliff, while a considerable part of the flow comes out of caves in the side of the cliff. …
Around the web 7/4/2014 — Science curricula, ichthyosaurs, and antipodes
A promising alternative for science in Christian schools and home schools? -- Christian educators generally have had two choices when looking for secondary-level science curricula -- young-Earth creationist material or secular curriculum packages. When I was a high school science teacher, I always opted for the secular. It was much easier to integrate biblical principles …
Continue reading Around the web 7/4/2014 — Science curricula, ichthyosaurs, and antipodes
Earth Day 2014 — Conservative environmentalism — seeking balance
Today was Earth Day, 2014. For many, it was a day to celebrate the Earth, to give thanks for its fruitfulness, and to express concern about threats to both the planet and we humans that inhabit it. As a Christian, I also rejoice on Earth Day in the Creator, who has graciously placed us both …
Continue reading Earth Day 2014 — Conservative environmentalism — seeking balance
Do you believe in human rights? Then it makes more sense to believe in God than to believe that God does not exist.
Timothy Keller, in his book The Reason for God, demonstrates that while it is fairly straight-forward to make a religious case for human rights, it has proven very difficult to construct a case for human rights from a purely secular foundation. If the cosmos is all there is, all there ever was, and all there …
Two million Evangelical scientists in the U.S.
Are science and Christianity incompatible? If you asked this question to any one of the millions of Christians who work as scientists in the United States, the answer would be a confident "No." From Christianity Today -- Study: 2 Million U.S. Scientists Identify As Evangelical. Here are some excerpts: The media often portrays scientists and Christians …
Continue reading Two million Evangelical scientists in the U.S.
Around the web 2/18/2014 — Christian scientists (that is, scientists who are Christians) refute some YEC arguments
TURNING A YEC ARGUMENT ON ITS HEAD -- Young-Earth creationists like to tout soft tissues preserved in the fossil record as one of their prime evidences for a young Earth. A closely related issue is the preservation of ancient complex biomolecules, such as DNA, in the fossil record. The Natural Historian blog brilliantly turns this …
The camel that broke the Bible’s back?
Here's another "science proves the Bible wrong" story that has been in the news lately, in which science does not prove the Bible wrong. In this case, it has to do with archeology and the domestication of the camel. The first mention of camels in the Old Testament is in Genesis 12, where Abram is …
Norm Geisler: “The Young Earth view is not one of the Fundamentals of the Faith. It is not a test for orthodoxy.”
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 …
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 …
The Earth. Christianity. They go together.
Since the inception of this blog in 2006, its subtitle has been, "A blog about science, Christianity, and other topics." Although this is an accurate description of what one will find here on The GeoChristian, it isn't very catchy. So today I am introducing a new subtitle: The Earth. Christianity. They go together. Here's what I …
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 …
Reminder — Fix your RSS feeder
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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 …
Change from geochristian.wordpress.com to just geochristian.com
The URL for The GeoChristian has changed to geochristian.com. If you use an RSS reader, you may need to update your settings. Grace and Peace, and Happy New Year!
Reading the Bible in 2014
"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." Matthew 4:4 ESV It is through the Scriptures that we can know God, Christ, ourselves, and how to live in regards to God and our neighbor. I cannot think of any greater thing in life than to …
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 11/18/2013 — More on salt magmas, more atheists convert to Christ, and more…
CARBONATE ≠ CARBONATITE! -- Back in March, I wrote a critique of a young-Earth creationist proposal that evaporite deposits, such as thick layers of halite (rock salt), were actually formed during Noah's flood by crystallization from gigantic eruptions of salt lavas. I would have ignored this proposal completely if it had come from the fringe of …
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