Young earth creationism vs science

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Sheldon's picture
Young earth creationism vs science

Ok, this is obviously a non-contest, but I thought it would be useful to make a definitive list of every scientific fact creationists and creationism deny. I'll get the ball rolling with species evolution through natural selection.

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Muashkis's picture
Flat Earth vs NASA, SpaceX,

Flat Earth vs NASA, SpaceX, ESA, RosCosmos, etc etc etc...
Bible character age studies by medieval theists vs carbon dating by various scientific groups with differing beliefs.
Prayer vs functioning medicine.
Noah's ark vs best shipwrights of all times.
Every other bullshit vs Evidence.

That should cover it?.. *sips tea*

snowell's picture
Where were the dinosaurs in

Where were the dinosaurs in the garden of eden? On the noah's ark? Now which flood was it? How did the other people survive?- the ones they met after the flood?-guess "god" wasn't "calling" them yet.

David Killens's picture
The Earth is flat, not round.

The Earth is flat, not round.

Personally I really have trouble wrapping my head around the concept some people actually believe that.

Grinseed's picture
Dead people get up and walk

Dead people get up and walk around vs coroners' reports.

algebe's picture
Blood transfusions are not

Blood transfusions are not the same as drinking blood.

The continuing existence of monkeys, gorillas, chimps, etc., does not negate the fact that we have a common ancestor with these species.

Most of the fruit and vegetable varieties that we enjoy were indeed created for us....by us. Modern pigs, sheep, cows, chickens were selectively bred by us to meet our needs.

The only place where humans and dinosaurs co-existed was Bedrock. That was created by Hanna-Barbera, not Jehovah.

David Killens's picture
@Algebe

@Algebe

"Most of the fruit and vegetable varieties that we enjoy were indeed created for us....by us. Modern pigs, sheep, cows, chickens were selectively bred by us to meet our needs."

Of specialnote is the banana, cultured by people to it's present shape. In it's wild and unmodified state it doesn't easily fit the mouth (or other bodily orifices).

Sheldon's picture
Men have one less rib than

Men have one less rib than women, vs anatomy / medical science. And before any theists object I had this conversation with a creationist who insisted that men have one less rib than women because "God used one of Adam's ribs to make Eve".

chimp3's picture
Sheldon: I see what you are

Sheldon: I see what you are doing here! Trying to get the stupid ones into one place. I will lurk back into the bushes and prepare to hit them on the heads with a science textbook. carry on!

Tin-Man's picture
@Chimp Re: "I will lurk back

@Chimp Re: "I will lurk back into the bushes and prepare to hit them on the heads with a science textbook."

Tell ya what, in order to draw them in quicker, I'll stand in the middle of the clearing and start singing a bunch of different gospel hymns......*shaking head*..... Nope-nope-nope.... Silly me. Bad idea. If I'm doing the singing, that will actually scare away everybody. I'll use a stereo CD player instead.

arakish's picture
@ Tin-Man

@ Tin-Man

Don't feel bad. I feel my singing is so horrible I won't even sing in the shower. Even if I know I am the only one around for "miles and miles and miles and..."

rmfr

The_Quieter's picture
It's a sad reality that the

It's a sad reality that the ISS live feed on youtube has to include a disclaimer about not making fun of the flat earth idiots.

Sheldon's picture
I can't for the life of me

I can't for the life of me understand why anyone is ever allowed to demand respect for a belief. It should be a mandatory requirement of all school curricula that children are taught to ridicule stupid and bad ideas and beliefs. We'll never jettison archaic superstitions until this ridiculous moratorium on denigrating stupid beliefs is seen for the absurd nonsense it is.

In the mean time this thread will have to do.

Dave Matson's picture
Check out www.TalkOrigins.org

Check out www.TalkOrigins.org, especially their index. It's an endless playground for those tired of creationist nonsense!

Sheldon's picture
Yes, I like the talkorigins

Yes, I like the talkorigins site as well. Their index of creationist claims is excellent.

arakish's picture
OMG! (G = goodness)

OMG! (G = goodness)

I love that site!

rmfr

calhais's picture
I see my choices: research or

I see my choices: research or steal. I'll steal, and justify it by pointing out that you did ask for a single, definitive list. Call it keeping track.

  • Contemporary living species are more or less the products of classical evolution by natural selection, [contention: they were created as-is, roughly]
  • The Earth is round, [flat]
  • The Earth is between 4.4 and 4.6 billion years old, [a few thousand]
  • Biblical characters have not been shown to have existed, [they did, and those in Genesis were about as old as the Earth]
  • Experimentally backed medicine is the most effective treatment for any given ill, [the ill recover or die primarily by God's will, and this can be appealed by prayer]
  • There is no published and accepted evidence that there was a great flood covering the whole Earth, [Noah's story arc]
  • It seems there were dinosaurs and the like, [they must have all gone extinct in the Garden of Eden or something]
  • The claim that Jesus was resurrected is irreconcilable with modern medical science, & [but he was resurrected anyway]
  • Men have as many ribs as women [rather, they lack one]

This list is sadly short. Maybe I'll return to grow it.

Dave Matson's picture
Howlers! Howlers! And more

Howlers! Howlers! And more Howlers!
Young-earth creationists (usually with PhDs) have, at times and places, produced the following garbage:

Philosophy
1) It takes only one proof of a young earth to decide the issue. (And, here is that proof.)
2) If you can't disprove a young-earth argument then it's probably right--throwing doubt on the old-earth orthodoxy. That is, it's more important than mountains of old-age evidence.
3) Science arbitrarily rules out the supernatural which must be considered. God's involvement (as documented in the Bible) solves some of the more difficult problems.

Honesty
1) Scientists have circled their wagons in a worldwide conspiracy. Geologists protect their old earth; biologists defend Darwin.
2) Because of extreme bias, scientists only choose those radiometric clocks that support their assumption of an old earth.
3) Scientists are afraid to buck the orthodoxy. They could get fired or demoted.
4) The fictitious geologic column was developed early on to discredit the Bible. It does not exist intact anywhere except in textbooks.

Young-earth "clocks" and such
1) The sun is shrinking too quickly to fit an old earth. It would have been impossibly big.
2) Not enough cosmic dust has accumulated on the earth, so we have a young earth.
3) All the short-period comets would have burned out long ago, so earth must be young.
4) No meteorites are found in the fossil record, proving that the sediments are young. They are too young to have collected anything.
5) The moon is receding at such a rate that, if traced back 4.5 billion years, becomes absurd.
6) Short-lived radioactive isotopes are still around, meaning that the earth is quite young.
7) Radioactive decay rates can vary or be interfered with by neutrinos.
8) Saturn's rings are unstable, so the solar system can't be billions of years old.
9) In an old solar system Jupiter and Saturn would be stone cold by now, but they do give off heat.
10) The earth's magnetic field is decaying exponentially and, if run backwards, limit’s the earth to a few thousand years.
11) The volume of lava is inconsistent with a great age for the earth.
12) It takes rivers only a few thousand years to salt the oceans. The ocean would have been much saltier for an old earth.
13) The continents would have eroded away if the earth were really 4.5 billion years old!
14) Topsoil only takes a few thousand years to form. It would have been much deeper if the earth were truly old.
15) Niagara Falls is less than 10,000 years old, contradicting an old earth.
16) Oil deposits can quickly form, so they don't count as evidence for an old earth.
17) The size of the Mississippi River delta, divided by the rate of sediment brought in, yields a young earth.
18) The fossil order is a result of hydrodynamic sorting, animal mobility, and ecological strata burial. Naturally, clams get buried at the bottom along with other "primitive," shelled creatures. Humans, being resourceful, would hang on until the last layers of sediment were being deposited. Many modern animals would reach higher ground due to their mobility.
19) Sandstone can form quickly given the right pressure and chemistry, so geologists got its ages all wrong!
20) The geological record was laid down by Noah's flood, though some older Precambrian layers are original. No age there!
21) The earth's rotation is slowing down at such a fast rate as to give an absurd rate of rotation 4.5 billion years ago. Therefore, the earth is young.
22) The ocean's should have a much thicker layer of sediment if the earth is ancient.
23) The carbon-14 method is no good because you can't know how much original C-14 was present.
24) The oldest historical records are only 6000 years old, strongly hinting at a young earth. As the Bible indicates, civilization was pretty much there from the start.
25) Why have no trees been found that are older than 4500 years? Answer: Because the earth is not much older.
26) The atmospheric C-14 is only 1/3 of its way to equilibrium, meaning the earth is quite young.
27) Radiometric dating is not good because it is difficult or impossible to rule out contamination.
28) The dates in the Bible add up to about 6000 years when Usher did the calculations. You're not going to improve on God's word!
29) The standard geologic strata was laid down quickly. How about that whale fossil standing on its tail in Lompoc, California? Obviously, it was not deposited by slow sedimentation which would have buried it on its side. It's a catastrophic burial, the very thing predicted by Noah's flood.
30) Human footprints have been found with dinosaur footprints, discrediting an evolutionary age of the strata. It also discredits radiometric dating and other orthodoxy.
31) Human population growth, given its exponential nature, would have overrun the earth if humans were not a recent creation.
32) Radiometric dating is unreliable. Woodmorappe showed in his paper that radiometric dating is subject to multiple breakdown modes, which he thoroughly demonstrated by supplying numerous examples.
33) There was plenty of water for Noah's flood in that the original topography was low. Low hills were covered as indicated by more accurate translations of the Bible. High mountains came later.
34) Deepening basins (later becoming modern oceans) collected the excess water after the flood and allowed the earth to dry.
35) The Grand Canyon was quickly carved out by the retreat of flood waters off of the continents. It's not evidence for an old earth.
36) Coal is the result of the burial of antediluvian vegetation by Noah's flood.
37) The Antarctic ice cap should be much thicker for an ancient earth.
38) The water for Noah's flood came from pressurized reservoirs in the earth as well as from a massive, water vapor canopy overhead.
39) The speed of light was initially much faster, only slowing down a few thousand years ago. Thus, distant objects in the sky appear older than they should!
40) Many books have been written by PhDs that support a young earth, so it's still a debate.
41) Noah only took in major "kinds," so the ark wasn't impossibly crowded. It was designed so that air could circulate through it like a big barn.
42) Feeding Noah's animals wasn't an impossible task given that babies or even eggs were taken aboard in lieu of full-grown animals.

This romp in Creationland is based on "How Good Are Those Young-Earth Arguments" by Dave E. Matson, and is used with permission.

If this bottom-feeding excursion doesn't give you gas, then you have an iron tummy that can compete with Tin Man. (I suspect that an iron tummy in Tin Man is largely wasted given his rumored reputation for producing homespun, culinary dishes!)

Tin-Man's picture
@Greensnake Re: "(I suspect

@Greensnake Re: "(I suspect that an iron tummy in Tin Man is largely wasted given his rumored reputation for producing homespun, culinary dishes!)"

Awwww.... Thank you. Who let that secret leak?

Well, since the word is out, I suppose I can tell you my grubworm with cattail root soup is a definite favorite. I use only the freshest grubworms straight from the rotted logs in my back yard. And the cattail root is always fresh from the swamp. Oh, and for a little extra zing to really set it off, I sprinkle a generous handful of roasted termites over the top just before serving. Mmm-mmm-mmm! Delicious!

arakish's picture
@ Tin-Man

@ Tin-Man

Damn! Now you make me want to come to Alabamie to get some of that!

Mmmm...

rmfr

Dave Matson's picture
Tin-Man,

Tin-Man,

A high-protein diet of little critters! Hey, that's the wave of the future Tin-man! Get your recipes copyrighted, and your trademarks registered. Don't let this opportunity slip by. Find a good advertising agency. It may be a grubby business at its core, but I bet it could finance a nice yacht! You may have to win over some of us old geezers who might be chomping on crispy dino fragments--dinos of that surviving branch!

Cognostic's picture
OMG - That sure beats sun

OMG - That sure beats sun baked twig skewered bananas with monkey sauce.

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