Thank-you for your continued insights on these new discoveries. I do have a have question about the YEC view voiced by Todd Wood. He wrote:
"For me as a creationist, however, I'm excited about this discovery for a very different reason: I expected it. According to my understanding of kinds and species, the "two of every kind" that left Noah's Ark experienced a rapid and unprecedented increase in diversity in those first generations after the Flood. I don't know how many generations this diversifying lasted, and I don't know how diverse each kind became. In general, I think every kind diversified to an extent, and some generated many new species. Remember your ecology, though: If you have too many similar species in one environment, it's not likely that they will all survive. I think that explains why when we look at the post-Flood fossil record, we find all manner of species that have gone extinct. In the exuberant rush of new species originating after the Flood, not all could survive, especially with the gigantic environmental fluctuations occurring as a direct result of the Flood."
Even to a layman like me this statement seems to have all kinds of issues. It appears to me to be more apologetics than science. I ignore Ken Ham because he has always struck me as a charlatan but Todd is hard to ignore and yet he seems to get a free pass from non-YEC Christian scientists. Is he just the odd brother-in-law that shows up at Thanksgiving but everyone tolerates because he's family?
I find Todd to be an interesting guy because he looks at the evidence and says "Well, that's what the evidence says, we will have to figure out how to deal with it. Maybe there is an explanation that fits our perspective," instead of simply distorting it like the standard YEC writers. He took Fuz Rana of Reasons to Believe to the cleaners and, as odd as it sounds, goes out of his way to expose shoddy genetic research. Why he doesn't extend this to other disciplines is beyond me.
Thank-you for your continued insights on these new discoveries. I do have a have question about the YEC view voiced by Todd Wood. He wrote:
ReplyDelete"For me as a creationist, however, I'm excited about this discovery for a very different reason: I expected it. According to my understanding of kinds and species, the "two of every kind" that left Noah's Ark experienced a rapid and unprecedented increase in diversity in those first generations after the Flood. I don't know how many generations this diversifying lasted, and I don't know how diverse each kind became. In general, I think every kind diversified to an extent, and some generated many new species. Remember your ecology, though: If you have too many similar species in one environment, it's not likely that they will all survive. I think that explains why when we look at the post-Flood fossil record, we find all manner of species that have gone extinct. In the exuberant rush of new species originating after the Flood, not all could survive, especially with the gigantic environmental fluctuations occurring as a direct result of the Flood."
Even to a layman like me this statement seems to have all kinds of issues. It appears to me to be more apologetics than science. I ignore Ken Ham because he has always struck me as a charlatan but Todd is hard to ignore and yet he seems to get a free pass from non-YEC Christian scientists. Is he just the odd brother-in-law that shows up at Thanksgiving but everyone tolerates because he's family?
I find Todd to be an interesting guy because he looks at the evidence and says "Well, that's what the evidence says, we will have to figure out how to deal with it. Maybe there is an explanation that fits our perspective," instead of simply distorting it like the standard YEC writers. He took Fuz Rana of Reasons to Believe to the cleaners and, as odd as it sounds, goes out of his way to expose shoddy genetic research. Why he doesn't extend this to other disciplines is beyond me.
ReplyDelete