Piltdown Superman

In the Southwestern United States, there is a place popular with geologists and paleontologists called the Green River Formation . There are several rivers and tributaries called Green River, and this area is a tributary of the Colorado River. The formation and basins include several states. Since so much research is done in the formation, it is not surprising to get news from there. What may have been surprising to secular scientists is how the new bat fossils they discovered gave no clues to an alleged evolutionary ancestor of bats. Since secularists don't play the hand they're dealt, they reshuffle and deal from the bottom of the deck. In this case, the unevolving bat fossils did not fit their paradigm, so they tacked on two million years to bad origins. Sure, why not? If it helps keep the story going and avoid the fact of recent creation by the God of the Bible, they'll find ways. The Green River Formation is also interesting because of varves (thin layers of sediment).

Last week, I was riding back from a men's conference on creation with some fellows. As I was making the coffee one morning on the campfire (boil the water in the pot, take it off the heat, scoop in ground up coffee, simmer a spell, add clean, crushed eggshells and all that good stuff), one of the boys asked about Noah's Ark. After I had the coffee done right, I joined the conversation. One fellow said there must have been a passel of miracles to get everyone through. Was the whole Flood a series of miracles? Noah's Ark, Pixabay / Jeff Jacobs (modified at PhotoFunia ) Because of uniformitarian science and evolutionism, people have wondered if the Genesis Flood and Noah's Ark are just myths or parables meant to convey spiritual truths. As discussed before, compare biblical accounts with mythology and huge differences are obvious (for example, the  Māori myths vs. the creation narrative ). Indeed, the Bible is a historical record giving names, times, and other details mi

Off the southern edge of England, in the English Channel, lies the Isle of Wight. It is known for landscapes, chalk, and geological features, so the locals were probably not overly surprised to learn that a new ankylosaur was discovered there. Ankylosaurs were herbivores. These critters looked like turtles gone wrong, what with all that armor and all. One curiosity is that they are usually found fossilized on their backs . Also, like other creatures of that time, evolution is assumed but there is no evidence of it. Edmontonia rugosidens, Wikimedia Commons / Mariana Ruiz (PD) The way they were buried in sediment is a curiosity to secular scientists, and they have some ideas that do not pass the sniff test. So many ankylosaurs were clumsy, fell into rivers and floated out to sea where they were buried? This child lacks belief that such an idea is plausible. Indeed, the more reasonable explanation (although streng verboten  among Darwin's acolytes) is the mechanisms of the global Gen

Secular scientists are committed to uniformitarianism ("the present is the key to the past") for the most part. Slow and gradual processes do not support observed evidence, so their worldview keeps them attempting to find explanations. Greenland is an icy place, but it was not always that way. There are canyons there (yippie ky yay, Bill Nye), plants were found underneath the ice sheet, the ice deposited quickly and not over huge amounts of time, and more. An ecosystem in the northern part of Greenland has been detected. Greenland north coast image credit: NASA /  Michael Studinger  (usage does not imply endorsement) The science of genetics, pioneered by Gregor Mendel (peas be upon him) has developed in some amazing ways. In this case, soil was analyzed and critters that lived in northern Greenland could be determined. But mammoths ? How did those  get up there? This is pretty far north. The biodiversity is a tough thing for secular scientists to explain in the first place

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

A common attraction for geologists and tourists is Arches National Park in Utah, which has thousands of stone arches. It may be surprising to some people to learn that such arches exist around the world, and Kentucky has a passel of them itself. Take a trip to the Daniel Boone National Forest and Red River Gorge to see some. There are many arches in the formerly United States, but not all are the big ones. Some are on the small side. What is more interesting is that some have been collapsing. Skybridge arch - Red River Gorge, Wikimedia Commons / Smokemob ( CC BY 3.0 ) Secular scientists say that stone arches last thousands of years and then fall. Interestingly, people seemed to think the arches would last indefinitely. To be standing on one when it collapsed could spoil a day. Certain arches are actively monitored to see if they are becoming dangerous. There are two articles to consider in this post, the first being shorter and more general. Take a look-see at " The Age of Arc

People who have read material or watched videos about fossils have invariably come across trilobites, since there was a passel of them. They are associated with the Cambrian Explosion , where way down yonder in the Cambrian layer, life forms suddenly appeared — with no signs of evolutionary ancestors. Trilobites are icons of evolution, but they are quite trying to Darwin's disciples. Aside from appearing fully formed, they were intricate. Advances in technology allowed scientists to learn that they had impressive optics , for example. Recent pristine trilobite fossils further trouble evolutionists. Trilobite, US Dept / Interior,  BLM  (usage does not imply endorsement of site contents) The fossils were discovered in a Morocco mountain range, which is not exactly the kind of place to seek marine organisms. They were preserved in ash, and even the complex digestive tract was preserved. What has been discovered about trilobites, including this bunch, fits the expectations of biblical

If you mount up and ride out Montana way and look near Glendive, you will come across  Makoshika State Park . It takes up an impressive 11,538 acres and does the usual state park things like camping, hiking, hunting, and so on.  Makoshika also has activities that they call educational because it is a part of a massive playground of paleontologists, the Hell Creek Formation. That means dinosaur bones and fossils. There is a wagon trainload of them for study and for secularists to evosplain the demise of dinosaurs. Rock formation in Makoshika State Park, Wikimedia Commons / Larry D. Moore ( CC BY 4.0 ) Storytellers commence chattering about the Chicxulub impact by a big rock from space and how it was responsible for dinosaur extinction. That story is unraveling . Also, dinosaur blood vessel grooves and other things are still in existence, but should not exist in the conventional deep time narrative. If secularists stripped away evolutionary presuppositions, they could examine the eviden

Roland Meadows had me ride over to his place for a visit, and his fiancée Stormie Waters was also stopping by. She wanted to go over some of her prospecting charts, then some details of their upcoming nuptials. Conversation wandered, and Stormie said she wanted to have children. She mentioned reading that Maisasaura  was a good mother dinosaur. This idea came from Jack Horner. He had been involved in some searching found several of their fossilized nests. It seemed that the young received care from their parents.. Maiasaura with young, Flickr / Eden, Janine and Jim ( CC BY 2.0 ) While I have no doubt that Stormie and Roland would be caring parents, doubt has been raised about the Horner scenario for  Maiasaura . He holds the majority view that dinosaurs evolved into birds. Jack "saw" traits of birds caring for their hatchlings in the dinosaur fossils. I reckon he generalized a mite too much, as not all birds are good parents (especially brood parasites , the dirty birds). A

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

"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

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

Believers in universal common descent presuppose evolution, so they get excited when a fossil is found that can be manipulated into supporting their paradigm. Facts without the deep time and evolutionary assumptions more readily support recent creation and the Genesis Flood. A fossilized shark was discovered down Arkansas way, and Darwin's disciples are excited about how this new discovery can provide information about evolution. Part of the thrill is that cartilage was involved, and that stuff does not fossilize very often. Shark, Pexels / Marc Derndorff When I say new discovery , I mean that it was found in the 1970s. Recently, it was analyzed with CT-scans and given digital reconstruction. (That technology is impressive.) They assigned it a new genus and species name. However, it's still a shark with no evidence of evolution. Also, others were fossilized with it, indicating the rapid burial characteristic of the Flood. There were some other surprises where sharks have been f

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

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

It seems that people all around the world are fond of hot springs, so they often turn areas into spas and such. Down Arkansas way is Hot Springs National Park , which was enjoyed by people for centuries. A unique feature is that the water does not stink of sulfur like in other hot springs. Although it is a comparatively small national park, it covers a large area. Also, there is hiking, camping, and other national park stuff to do. In addition, the park service's educational aspect is saturated with deep time assumptions. Tufa rock at Hot Springs National Park, NPS Photo / Mitch Smith (usage does not imply endorsement of site contents) One glaring inconsistency common among secular geologists is used here. Namely, that the folded rocks took their shapes over millions of years due to plate tectonics. Pick up a slab of flint and try to fold it. In fact, use hydraulic machinery. What happens? It shatters, of course. No folding here, mate. There is also the problem of a small stream i

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

Despite the persistent straw man accusations of anti-creationists, we are not content to say, "GodDidIt, case closed!" While creation scientists believe that God did something, they want to know how  he did it. They look for scientific answers first. Not that those are superior, as we presuppose the truth of the Bible. Unlike Darwin's disciples who presuppose naturalism and say, "Case closed," creationists and Intelligent Design theorists appeal to the miraculous when that is the logical conclusion. Both secular and creation scientists ponder biogeography — just how did  koalas and other marsupials get to 'Straya? Koala eating, RGBStock / Richard Dudley (modified at Imgflip ) Creationist explanations for biogeography are superior to those of secularists, as the methods of animal travel they propose are inadequate — even though the quantity of marsupials in Australia is somehow considered evidence for evolution. The debate is not easy for either side since e