Piltdown Superman

Some people read or watch mysteries for the challenge of solving them, but many have noted that writers withhold information. In reality, detectives have to find and use the evidence they have in the here and now to reconstruct what happened in the past. This is forensic science. In a courtroom, evidence is presented so a verdict can be reached. Both the prosecution and defense may be more interested in winning the case rather than reach the correct conclusion. Distractions, glossy presentations and wording, misleading logic and more can be utilized. Legal work, FreeDigital I mages /  I ndypendenZ Atheists and other believers in universal common ancestor evolution present their case, but do not take all the evidence into account. The secular science industry has biased presentations in museums, documentaries, and so forth. Those can be slick, compelling, and entertaining; they want to win. People who are interested in reaching the truth need both sides of the story. Biblical creationis

When the hand one is dealt is not playing well, cheat. After all, secular scientists seem to be doing that more and more. One example is the definition of archosaur . It has certain physical characteristics and includes crocodilians, dinosaurs, pterosaurs — and birds. Quite a broad category, and includes the tendentious assumption  that birds evolved from dinosaurs. Evidence and logic differ about that last part. A new fossil pseudosuchian (expensive word for crocodile) species was discovered in Nevada. That is counterintuitive, since those critters do not live so far inland. Crocodile, Pixnio /  Steve Hillebrand , USFWS Another species? That's nice. That also fits with biblical creation science models. Of course, like the assumption that birds evolved from dinosaurs and are related to archosaurs, secular scientists assume that crocodiles evolved even though there is no evidence of it. They also have to deal with the location of this one, as well as mixtures of organisms fossilized

Back in 1929, Edwin Hubble realized that the farthest galaxies had a redshift in the spectrums, and those also had the greatest redshifts. That became known as the Hubble Law , and was the beginning of what became the Big Bang origin of the universe story. Based on assumptions and speculations, secular cosmologists and cosmoginists did the math and expected evidence for the Big Bang in the Hubble telescope. It did not happen. The James Webb Space Telescope was built to be bigger and better — perhaps too good for their purposes. Phantom Galaxy M74, Flickr / James Webb Space Telescope ( CC BY 2.0 ) Amazing photographs were produced (but what we see is adjusted because the JWST works in the infrared). Secularists were alarmed because images were not comporting with the Big Bang tale . Worse, information actually supported biblical creationist predictions . The difficulties are compounding for the frequently-Frankensteined Big Bang, which should have been abandoned long ago. Hubble's

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  This article is considerably lighter reading, but is also a mite heavy in graphics. Regular readers may have noticed that I usually post one image, sometimes a second. File sizes are reduced. Most full-sized images  are uploaded to Unsplash . I live in an apartment complex with a longish driveway. This part of it goes over a stream known as Bear Ghat Kill . ( Kill , or kille , is Dutch for stream, among other things.) It is a two miles long, part a sub-basin of the Lower Esopus . It surprises me that it has a name. Driveway in trouble, water is rushing after the brief storm Here in our neck of Upstate New York, there was a not-unusual thunderstorm with plenty of rain. It did not last long. When I came home from the workplace a few hours later, the driveway was damaged. Looks like the stream got angry. The rushing water was surprisingly loud; I had never seen it with that much activity. So I took pictures. My hands were surprisingly steady and I'm glad I didn

Secular geologists wear Deep Time Spectacles, so any data they observe is interpreted to indicate millions or billions of years. Keep in mind that secular, creation, and Intelligent Design scientists all have the same data to work with. It invariably comes down to worldviews and presuppositions. May as well fill those millions of years (that Darwin needs to perform his wonders) with a passel of events. Creationists believe the evidence shows only one Ice Age while secularists believe in many. One of a controversial idea on the secular side is Snowball Earth. Snowball Earth, Flickr /  guano  ( CC BY-SA 2.0 ) There is plenty of evidence that the Ice Age happened, but only in a portion of the Northern Hemisphere. Snowball Earth presents glaciation extending all the way down toward the equator. Not all secular geologists ride for that brand, and with good reason: It never ends. Not only are secularists unable to postulate a believable cause for the Ice Age, but they cannot find a way to en

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  Although the word iconic  is overused, it does apply to The Rifleman . It ran from 1958-1963 and has been syndicated in the subsequent decades. Lucas McCain (Chuck Connors) was a widower raising his son Mark (Johnny Crawford). (I liked it before becoming a widower myself.) The actors had a bond that lasted until Connors died. Another star of the show was that tricked-out Winchester 1892 using 44-40 loads that could be swapped with the right pistols. Chuck Connors and Johnny Crawford, Wikimedia Commons / ABC Television , 1960 (PD) In "The Clarence Bibs Story," comedian Buddy Hackett played the part of a "mop boy" for a general store. He was wearing a gun that he cleaned for a customer. Bad idea because he had no skill with it. Clarence wound up killing a tough guy through a stupid accident. Although I have to spoil the ending somewhat, I'll leave out some details in case you want to see it. Shouldn't be too hard, it's even posted o

"Whatcha doing with those logs, Sid?" "Oh, hey, Trevor. I'm lashing them together so I can make a raft and go out yonder on the Atlantic. Gonna bring along some of those rat things for company. Wanna come along?" "It's a mite tempting, but whoever heard of monkeys taking a trip on a raft? I'll stay here. Got evolving and stuff to do." Years ago, I posted about critters rafting, and folks with Atheism Spectrum Disorder used prejudicial conjecture as a ridicule device. While raft  has connotations of a small floating object, the rafts under discussion are often quite massive. Rafts, morgueFile /  stickerstack Biblical creationists have used the ideas of land bridges and rafting as methods of animal dispersal (biogeography) after the Genesis Flood (see " Animal Dispersal by Raft " for example). Secular scientists laughed, but then realized they had their own problems with biogeography. They eventually began using the rafting idea themsel

In the late sixteenth century, it was speculated that continents were not static, but moved. Others considered this, and eventually Alfred Wegener ran continental drift up the flagpole in 1915, but nobody saluted it. Arthur Holmes provided a better version in 1931. Eventually, it evolved into plate tectonics. Biblical creation science takes plate tectonics up several levels. Dr. John Baumgardner proposed catastrophic  plate tectonics. The ocean floor during the Genesis Flood was subducted into the earth's mantle, and it was done much faster than is happening today. Common Cross Section of a Subduction Zone, Wikimedia Commons / Eround1 ( CC BY-SA 3.0 ) That's easy to say, especially since rapid subduction is not seen now. Scientists demand evidence for models (or should do so), and creationists even more so because they go against uniformitarian assumptions (slow and gradual processes; the present is the key to the past). Dr. Baumgardner pointed out evidence for his ideas sever

Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Robert Darwin came up with a version of evolution at almost the same time, but Darwin is given most of the credit because he published first. Also, Wallace was an outsider in science circles  and was open to a form of Intelligent Design. Each had an idea of how butterflies evolved, but scientists did not seem interested in pursuing the matter. New research was presented after getting help from studying pictures of birdwing butterflies with machine learning, and both Wallace and Darwin were said to be right. Birdwing butterfly, Flickr / Charles Patrick Ewing ( CC BY 2.0 ) If the researchers were seeking awards or applause by the secular science industry, that probably happened. They use both natural and sexual selection (but not the true meaning of natural selection). People who care about truth and logic in science may have a different view. For one thing, the sample size was far too limited. Another problem is despite praising the puny god of evoluti

There are several areas that have fossilized dinosaur tracks, which is quite remarkable if you think on it. Glen Rose, Texas has a significant number of them. They are easy to see at Dinosaur Valley State Park . Sounds like an interesting place to visit. During a time of drought in 2022, even more tracks were exposed. Paleontologists and other folks were excited to see them. One trackway is impressively long, apparently made by  Acrocanthosaurus atokensis . One tell-tale sign is that it has claws on its feet. Acrocanthosaurus atokensis , Wikimedia Commons / Petr Menshikov ( CC BY-SA 4.0 ), modified Hey, Cowboy Bob! How is  A. atokensis on the beach like Christmas? Because of its sandy claws ! Moving on... Secular scientists have some imaginative stories to tell about how they formed, but like so many other attempted explanations by Darwinists, they do not withstand scrutiny. With a proper understanding of sedimentation during the Genesis Flood, forming and fossilization of the tracks

Although it is not something that attracts a great deal of attention of the general public, there are occasions when materialists spit venom at one another. Some things that this child has seen is that some atheists are not vicious enough to please other atheists. Misotheists lead the charge against Intelligent Design and biblical creation science, showing hostility toward people who have views that they dislike. As mentioned before, the ID movement is distinctly non-creationist as a whole, but atheists still portray it as creation science. The Ambush , Albert Bierstadt, 1876 Folks like Clinton Richard Dawkins as well as many other professing atheists are committed to materialism; material is all there is, therefore, no God. When someone says that God exists, that person is considered stupid and anti-science. However, atheists have a fundamentally-flawed epistemology and they presuppose a universe without God, They claim to love science and logic, but their reasoning is irrational. Ev

Long ago, the Sahara was a really great place. Lots of lakes, good for fishing and swimming — it probably was not called Sahara, as that name is derived from Arabic  ṣaḥrāʾ which means desert. The fact that the region was wet is known to researchers. Something in dispute is the existence of megalakes. There is still Lake Chad, an important water supply and ecosystem that touches on four countries. It is large now, but was much bigger in the past. Today it is fed by rivers. Sahara sand dune, USDA / E.L Skidmore (usage does not imply endorsement of site contents) There is evidence that these megalakes existed, but residents of the secular science industry tend to ignore them or even deny their reality. One reason is that they cannot give a plausible explanation for how they formed. On the other hand, biblical creation scientists have an explanation to offer that involves the Ice Age, which happened much quicker than proponents of an old earth would like to consider. Researchers have l

Is it just my imagination, or are paleontologists finding more extremely large dinosaurs and such? There was a time that Brontosaurus  was impressive, even having the name that means thunder lizard . Probably because you could hear it walking. Now it is dwarfed by other sauropods. Indeed, scientists had to come up with impressive names to tack onto their discoveries, such as titanosaurs. Several more of these have been discovered. Curious, the impressive name game does not seem to happen to plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs, but a candidate for the largest of the latter has been presented. Ichthyotitan severnensis , Wikimedia Commons / Ansh Saxena 7163 (PD), modified at PhotoFunia Darwin's disciples are having a great time evosplaining the critters through the fiction of convergent evolution , a cheap rescuing device. After all, there is no evidence for dinosaur origins or ancestors — it is like they were created, not evolved. Rapid speciation was also mentioned, but that has nothing t

There is a story that a book in 1931 had 100 scientists against Einstein, and Uncle Albert replied that to defeat relativity, just one fact would be necessary. People tend to forget that science proves nothing , but can disprove established beliefs, theories, and all that good stuff. For many years, the secular science industry has propped up the Big Bang and Frankensteined it many times. They had high hopes that the James Webb Space Telescope would provide evidence of the Big Bang and subsequent cosmic evolution. The opposite happened . And it happened again. Oopsie! JADES-GS-z14-0 galaxy, NASA, ESA , et al. JWST is supposed to look "back in time" at the earliest stars and galaxies. By secular standards, they should be primitive and have little structure. Not happening, old son. Not just stars, but formed galaxies with structure exist — which is right in line with biblical creation science. Now two more galaxies have been found, and one is a whopper. Also, oxygen was detect

Down New Mexico way, a traveler can find White Sands National Park . Lots of big dunes comprised of gypsum. Have you ever gone sand sledding? That and other National Park activities like camping, hiking trails, stargazing and such are there. Also, fossilized footprints. They had mammoths, giant sloths, and many creatures in what was once a much nicer climate. Yes, there are human footprints as well. Assigning dates to them are a vexation to secular scientists because the results conflict with the narrative of when humans were supposed to live there. Fossil footprints, White Sands National Park / NPS photo (usage does not imply endorsement), modified at PhotoFunia Scientists are disagreeing about the carbon dating results, which showed that humans were in North America sooner than secular views expect and conflicts with the evolutionary story. Radiometric dating is dependent on assumptions , so the carbon dating used on relevant plants can be adjusted to more convenient levels. The sam

Things got interesting at my place with surprise visitors and all. First, Darwin Ranch foreman Rusty Swingset and his lady friend Jacqueline Hyde (who was not herself that day) dropped in on their way to Deception Pass. We yakked about what may be getting built in town, and they left. About five minutes later, I was surprised when Stevia Dolce (the baker at the Darwin Ranch) knocked at my door. She brought some croissants. However, she said she waited until the others had gone because she did not want them to know that she visited. Color-enhanced image of the delta in Jezero Crater on Mars, NASA / JPL et al. (usage does not imply endorsement of site contents) Stevia keeps mum about her evolution doubts because she needs the job at the ranch. (I know the feeling, as I have to do the same when dealing with "pride" month and science deniers who have "preferred pronouns".) Anyway, I told Stevia that she doesn't need to give me baked goods or other gifts, that I fre

First, a look behind the scenes. I did not title this using the singular possessive because of the way titles and certain other things are rendered. In this case, Noah's Ark. When challenging a position someone holds, rational people try to understand the opponent's point of view. The material should be examined to see if it is internally consistent and not chock full o' arbitrary assertions. Scoffers presuppose atheism, naturalism, deep time, evolution, and so on. To them, Noah's Ark and the Genesis Flood are just stories and not historical narratives.  Noah's Ark at Answers in Genesis, Unsplash / Elias Null Misotheists do not honestly examine what biblical creationists say for consistency and plausibility, instead writing it off because they filter what they say through their own worldview. Essentially, a straw man argument. They like to put Christians on the defensive and expect us to defend views we don't hold. We don't have to. You savvy that, Pilgr

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  In late 2005, the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial was held in a US federal court. Many lies were told from the get-go, including that it violates the establishment of religion clause of the US Constitution. But Dover asking students to realize that Darwinism is not proven and to check out other points of view is not establishing any religion. Secularists keep using that trick and getting away with it with schools, local governments, and others to keep them quaking in their boots. It may seem puzzling that this court case from several years ago is being discussed up here. One reason is that anti-creationists bring it up when discussing creationism (and especially the Intelligent Design movement). Another is that, as hinted above, it has repercussions and set a precedent for activists who want to protect evolution from scrutiny. Anti-creationists and anti-Intelligent Design folks repeat several things that are clearly false as if they had been prove

It had been quite a spell since Lisa Myworries, Winkie Guard supervisor at the Darwin Ranch, had stopped by my place. (She has been having doubts about evolution but keeps quiet because she needs her job.) The head of their Ministry of Truth, Russell Watchtower, said a study on mutations is bad news for the creationist view on genetic entropy . (That is, harmful mutations are building up at a known rate and we should be extinct by now.) Roundworms do not seem bothered by Chernobyl radiation. Large roundworms, Wikimedia Commons / Alaa ( CC BY-SA 3.0 ) The explosion at the plant released large amounts of radiation, which caused areas to be evacuated. Workers got radiation poisoning, which led to the deaths of several. Other people were also affected. Roundworms did not seem bothered by the radiation, so some evolutionary tinhorns inferred that genetic entropy was not valid. This also helps their view of mutations helping evolution. Problem is, humans are not roundworms . (These are supp