Hovind Junior: Still Confused

Hovind Junior's latest (and final?) creation minute video is out:

Chemical evolution is the origin of all the elements we have today.

Wrong. That's nucleosynthesis.

Stellar evolution is the origin of stars and planets.

Wrong. Stellar evolution describes how the properties of individual stars change during their lifetimes.

Organic evolution is the origin of life from non-life.

Wrong. That's abiogenesis.

You might wonder why Hovind seems to have decided to attack other branches of science unrelated to Darwinian evolution. Take stellar evolution, for example. The processes by which stars alter in their structure and luminosity might not seem at first to pose any problems to creationists. Not true. Cosmologists have found (through observation and study, Eric) that stars go through very distinct stages throughout their lifetimes and depending on their type. There are logical and testable theories that describe and explain this stellar evolution in detail, and these are fully consistent with other areas of science such as nuclear physics and thermodynamics. These theories, however, prove that the universe must be much older than 6000 years (to make an understatement). Here lies a big problem for creationists. It's not just Darwinian evolution that debunks their creation myth, it's pretty much every field of science. And heck, not just science, but history too. So if creationists get their way and Darwinian evolution is banned from school science classes, which subject will they go after next?

Flood Geology?

I've just returned from a two week vacation, so I'll be posting here more regularly from now on. During our trip, my wife and I visited Bar Harbor, Maine, where I snapped this photo:


It's a large boulder sitting on the side of a mountain looking rather out of place. How did it get there? It's near the top, so it can't have fallen from somewhere higher up. The answer is that it was carried there by a glacier. Anyone who has seen a glacier will know that they move very slowly, so glacial action/transport can become a problem for young-Earth creationists since these pesky ice ages appear to have occurred over much longer timeframes than 6000 years. The "solution" that creationists have come up with is "flood geology". Creationists will talk about this as if it's a fully developed theory with true explanatory power, but really it's as vaccuous as their "God did it" explanation of how the universe was created:

Q: How are mountains formed?
Geologist: Upheaval caused by colliding tectonic plates.
Creationist: Noah's flood did it.

Q: How did sedimentary rocks form?
Geologist: Layer by layer deposition and high pressures over many years.
Creationist: Noah's flood did it.

Q: How is it that large boulders that don't match surrounding rocks can appear on top of mountains?
Geologist: They were carried there by glaciers.
Creationist: Noah's flood did it.

The problem with that, of course, is that rocks don't float. But flood geologists don't tend to let something so trivial as logic get in their way. Check out Hovind Junior's latest creation minute:



A handful of creationists have tried to expand upon "the flood did it" and have come up with some seriously bizarre theories and models. I'll be posting some of these soon, so watch this space.

I Just Love This Creation Stuff

Every so often I come across a creationist website so amateurish that it actually fills me with a sense of pity, and makes me feel a twinge of shame at drawing attention to it. It doesn't help when the site features pictures of the owners innocent, wide-eyed children. CreationSeminar.net is one of those sites. Now I can forgive the horrific layout, crazy fonts and text colors, and the dreadfully composed background image. We're not all experts of web design, after all. But the content is even more laughable than the way it's presented. This page is entitled "Evidences for a Young Earth". What evidence do they offer?

Outside of Shamokin, Pennsylvania a family has soda straws growing in the ceiling of their basement level garage. They gave us the four pictured on the right, which are on display at our conferences.

My gosh. I might just have to get tickets to their next conference so I can see these remarkable soda straws in person. They look so impressive in the photo:


The Earth is only 6,000 years old. Don't believe me? Check out these bad boys!!
Elsewhere on the site they're trying to hawk a bunch of DVDs on various creationism topics. I'm so tempted to order a set; judging from the website and this advertisement, these DVDs must have lower production values than the original Star Trek:


Topics on these DVDs include: Dinosaurs and Man Living Together, Dinosaurs Still Alive, Evolution is Dangerous, The Humanists Agenda in the Textbooks, and Animals and their Special Features. Order the complete set for just $120.

Wait, how much??

From the feedback page:

I just love this creation stuff. I can’t seem to get enough of it. This is one of the major areas which Satan has effectively used to deceive non-believers and simple minded Christians as well. If Satan can get us to put our faith in Darwin and his ilk, half his battle is won. Your very effective presentation of the Biblical account of creation has strengthened the saints of our church. You have provided us with answers to many of our questions, as well as given us knowledge to completely repel the enemies attack against the Biblical account of creation.

God bless you as you continue to labor for Him using common sense to explain the fallacies of Satan's hellish doctrine of Evolution.

Creation Science FAIL

This page describes an "eight-year scientific research project", the results of which were presented at a community church in 1997. Let's look at one of their findings:

Dr. Andrew Snelling, an Australian geologist on the team, performed a detailed study of radiohalos (microscopic circular marks left on mica crystals from radioactive decay). He studied over 3,485 slides made from seventy rock samples from Australia, England, Norway, and the United States. The radiohalos caused by the decay of uranium and polonium strongly suggests rapid decay, not a gradual decay process over billions of years. This evidence of rapid nuclear decay, creation scientists believe, is due to catastrophic conditions produced by a worldwide flood.

A flood affecting the rate of nuclear decay? FAIL.