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Most of this web site is available in book form as The Counter-Creationism Handbook , from Greenwood Publishing Group. The book also contains an introduction on countering creationism, illustrations, and an index. Other Links: CreationWiki rebuttal A Wiki is being assembled to respond to this Index from a Young-earth perspective. Creationist claims are numerous and varied, so it is often difficult to track down information on any given claim. Plus, creationists constantly come up with new claims which need addressing. This site attempts, as much as possible, to make it easy to find rebuttals and references from the scientific community to any and all of the various creationist claims. It is updated frequently; see the What's New page for the latest changes. Since most creationism is folklore, the claims are organized in an outline format following that of Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk-Literature . Sections CA through CG deal with claims against conventional science, and sections CH through CJ contain claims about creationism itself. This collection is intended primarily as a guidepost and introduction. The explanations are not in depth (with a few exceptions), but most responses include links, references, and sources for more information. These are not just added for show. Readers are strongly encouraged to pursue additional reliable sources. We hope that readers will put in the effort to gain enough understanding of the subject so that they will not just parrot the information here, but will be able to explain it to others. The Complete List Links to Main Sections CA : Philosophy and Theology CB : Biology CC : Paleontology CD : Geology CE : Astronomy and Cosmology CF : Physics and Mathematics CG : Miscellaneous Anti-Evolution CH : Biblical Creationism CI : Intelligent Design CJ : Other Creationism Expanded Outline CA : Philosophy and Theology CA000 : Ethics CA100-CA499 : Epistemology CA100 : Foundation of Knowledge CA200 : Theory of Science CA300-CA499 : Scientific Method CA600 : Theology CB : Biology CB0 : Abiogenesis CB100 : Genetics CB200 : Molecular Biology CB300 : Physiology and Anatomy CB400 : Behavior and Cognition CB500 : Botany CB600 : Ecology and Population Biology CB700 : Developmental Biology CB800 : Systematics CB900 : Evolution CC : Paleontology CC0 : Physical Anthropology CC200 : Transitional fossils CC300 : Fossil Record CC400 : Methodology CD : Geology CD0 : Geochronology CD100 : Geological Column CD200 : Sedimentation CD300 : Evaporation CD400 : Glaciation CD500 : Mountain Building CD600 : Erosion CD700 : Geophysics and Plate Tectonics CD800 : Climate Change CE : Astronomy and Cosmology CE000 : Earth CE100 : Moon CE200 : Planets and Solar System CE300 : Sun and Stars CE400 : Cosmology CF : Physics and Mathematics CF000 : Second Law of Thermodynamics and Information Theory CF100 : First Law of Thermodynamics CF200 : Radiometric Decay CG : Miscellaneous Anti-Evolution CG000 : History CG100 : Linguistics CG200 : Folklore CH : Biblical Creationism CH000 : Biblical Creationism Generally CH100 : Biblical Accuracy CH200-CH799 : Young Earth Creationism CH200 : Age of the Universe CH300 : Death and the Fall CH350 : Created Kinds CH400-CH599 : Flood CH700 : Miscellaneous Young Earth Creationism CH800 : Day-Age Creationism CH900 : Geocentrism CI : Intelligent Design CI000 : ID as Science CI100-CI199 : Detecting Design CI200 : First Cause. CI300 : Anthropic Principle. CI400 : Meta-arguments CJ : Other Creationism CJ000 : Vedic Creationism CJ200-CJ499 : Native North American Creationism CJ500-CJ699 : Islamic Creationism Authors

There have been many famous scientists who believed in special creation in the past. In particular, the following scientists were creationists: Louis Agassiz (1807-1873; glacial geology) Charles Babbage (1792-1871; computer science) Francis Bacon (1561-1626; scientific method) Robert Boyle (1627-1691; gas dynamics) David Brewster (1781-1868; optical mineralogy) Georges Cuvier (1769-1832; comparative anatomy) Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; hydraulics) Humphrey Davy (1778-1829; thermokinetics) Henri Fabre (1823-1915; entomology of living insects) Michael Faraday (1791-1867; electromagnetics) John Ambrose Fleming (1849-1945; electronics) Joseph Henry (1797-1878; inventor) William Herschel (1738-1822; galactic astronomy) James Joule (1818-1889; reversible thermodynamics) Lord Kelvin (1824-1907; energetics) Johann Kepler (1571-1630; celestial mechanics) Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778; systematic biology) Joseph Lister (1827-1912; antiseptic surgery) Matthew Maury (1806-1873; oceanography) James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879; electrodynamics) Gregor Mendel (1822-1884; genetics) Samuel F. B. Morse (1791-1872; telegraph inventor) Isaac Newton (1642-1727; calculus) Blaise Pascal (1623-1662; hydrostatics) Louis Pasteur (1822-1895; bacteriology) William Ramsay (1852-1916; isotopic chemistry) John Ray (1627-1705; natural history) Lord Rayleigh (1842-1919; dimensional analysis) Bernhard Riemann (1826- 1866; non-Euclidean geometry) James Simpson (1811-1870; gynecology) Nicholas Steno (1631-1686; stratigraphy) George Stokes (1819-1903; fluid mechanics) Rudolph Virchow (1821-1902; pathology) John Woodward (1665-1728; paleontology) Agassiz, Pasteur, Lord Kelvin, Maxwell, Dawson, Virchow, Fabre, and Fleming were strong opponents of evolution.

...reationists, including scientists in relevant fields such as biology and geology. Today, virtually all relevant scientists accept evolution. Such a turnabout could only be caused by overwhelming evidence. The alternative -- that almost all scientists today are thoroughly incompetent -- is pre...

New claims are linked in bold red . Updates to previously existing files are regular links. 2007-02-20 CB360.1 : The human appendix is functional, not vestigial. 2007-02-18 CB921.1 : What use is half an eye? 2006-12-05 CC300 : The Cambrian explosion shows all kinds of life appearing suddenly. 2006-11-05 CC200 : Transitional fossils are lacking. 2006-11-02 CB300 : Complex organs couldn't have evolved. 2006-10-30 CA510.1 : Problems with evolution are evidence for creation. 2006-09-12 CB200.1.1 : The flagellum has 30 or so unique (non-homologous) proteins. 2006-09-07 CB910 : No new species have been observed. 2006-09-07 CB731 : Finger development disproves birds descended from dinosaurs. 2006-09-06 CA005 : Evolution is racist. 2006-08-29 CC202 : Transitional fossils do not show direct ancestry. 2006-08-29 CA320.3 : Darwinists had Dembski removed from his position at Baylor. 2006-08-04 CA341 : Evolutionists have not met Hovind's challenge to prove evolution. 2006-08-04 CA006.2 : Stalin's policies were influenced by Darwin. 2006-07-24 CH102.1 : Genesis must be literal; it is straightforward narrative. 2006-07-15 CC200 : Transitional fossils are lacking. 2006-06-28 CC371.1 : Soft tissues from a Tyrannosaurus bone indicate recent burial. 2006-06-28 CA343 : Evolutionists refuse Mastropaolo's "Life Science Prize" challenge. 2006-06-08 CB121 : The cost of natural selection is prohibitive (Haldane's dilemma). 2006-05-30 CB150 : Functional genetic sequences are too rare to evolve from one to another. 2006-05-12 CD701 : The earth's magnetic field is decaying, indicating a young earth. 2006-04-23 CB805 : Evolution predicts a continuum of organisms, not discrete kinds. 2006-04-07 CA301.1 : Naturalistic science will miss a supernatural explanation. 2006-04-05 CB921.1 : What use is half an eye? 2006-03-31 CB620 : Human population growth indicates a young earth. 2006-03-03 CA041.1 : Federal law (Santorum Amendment) supports teaching alternatives. 2006-02-25 CC216.1 : There are gaps between land mammals and whales. 2006-02-23 CI131 : Every machine's origin, where determinable, is by intelligent agency. 2006-02-06 CE412 : Gravitational time dilation made distant clocks run faster. 2006-02-02 CD016 : The U-Th-Pb method, properly corrected for neutron capture, gives recent dates. 2006-01-31 CH110 : Prophecies prove the accuracy of the Bible. 2006-01-26 CE420 : The big bang theory is wrong. 2006-01-20 CD410 : World War II airplanes are now beneath thousands of "annual" ice layers. 2006-01-13 CF001.2 : The second law of thermodynamics, and the trend to disorder, is universal. 2006-01-13 CF001.1 : Systems left to themselves invariably tend toward disorder. 2006-01-05 CI001.4 : Intelligent design has been published in peer-reviewed journals. 2006-01-03 CD011.1 : Variable C-14/C-12 ratio invalidates C-14 dating. 2005-12-14 CB010.2 : First cells could not come together by chance. 2005-12-07 CI001.2 : Intelligent design is not creationism. 2005-12-01 CI190 : SETI researchers expect that they can detect design. 2005-11-25 CA114 : Many famous scientists were creationists. 2005-11-24 CA602 : Evolution is atheistic. 2005-11-22 CA114.4 : Babbage was a creationist. 2005-11-19 CA114.4 : Babbage was a creationist. 2005-11-18 CH581 : The Grand Canyon was carved by retreating Flood waters. 2005-11-17 CB921.2 : What use is half a wing? 2005-11-05 CA211.1 : Karl Popper said Darwinism is not testable. 2005-11-04 CB910 : No new species have been observed. 2005-11-03 CA210 : Evolution does not make predictions. 2005-11-01 CB921.2 : What use is half a wing? 2005-10-31 CF001.3 : Instructions are necessary to produce order. 2005-10-14 CI001.1 : Intelligent design theory is not religious. 2005-10-14 CA041.1 : Federal law (Santorum Amendment) supports teaching alternatives. 2005-10-14 CA041 : Teach the controversy. 2005-10-07 CI401 : The methodology of science rules out even considering design. 2005-10-07 CA001.1 : Crime rates etc. have increased since evolution began to be taught. 2005-10-05 CG041 : Agriculture is too recent. 2005-10-05 CG040 : Written history is too short. 2005-10-05 CB928.2 : Humans have stopped evolving. 2005-10-05 CB144 : Human and chimp genomes differ by more than one percent. 2005-10-03 CD102.1 : Out-of-order strata occur at the Lewis Overthrust. 2005-09-24 CH102.5 : God's promise of no more floods fails if Noah's flood was local. 2005-09-24 CC381 : There are too few Stone-Age remains for a long history of humanity. 2005-09-24 CB930.4 : A pterodactyl was found alive in Jurassic limestone. 2005-09-24 CB301 : The eye is too complex to have evolved. 2005-09-24 CB200.2 : Blood clotting is irreducibly complex. 2005-09-24 CA115.1 : Design arguments converted atheist Anthony Flew to theism. 2005-09-21 CA602 : Evolution is atheistic. 2005-09-14 CB035.2 : Earth's early atmosphere had no reducing gases. 2005-08-30 CB010.2 : First cells could not come together by chance. 2005-08-24 CI190 : SETI researchers expect that they can detect design. 2005-08-16 CA041 : Teach the controversy. 2005-08-13 CA008 : Evolution encourages promiscuity and lust. 2005-08-12 CE420 : The big bang theory is wrong. 2005-08-09 CC216.1 : There are gaps between land mammals and whales. 2005-08-05 CI301 : The cosmos is fine-tuned to permit human life. 2005-08-02 CA114.2 : Linnaeus was a creationist. 2005-08-02 CA111.1 : Over 300 scientists express skepticism of Darwinism. 2005-07-31 CF011 : Evolutionary algorithms smuggle in design in the fitness function. 2005-07-18 CB922 : No two-celled life exists intermediate between one- and multicelled. 2005-07-13 CH101.1 : If part of the Bible is wrong, none of it can be trusted. 2005-07-04 CA602 : Evolution is atheistic. 2005-07-03 CH110 : Prophecies prove the accuracy of the Bible. 2005-07-01 CA006.1 : Hitler based his views on Darwinism. 2005-06-29 CD031 : KBS Tuff shows the flaws of radiometric dating. 2005-06-29 CB751 : Bilateral symmetry is improbable under evolution. 2005-06-28 CB200.4 : The immune system is irreducibly complex. 2005-06-18 CB822 : Evolution's tree-like pattern is discredited. 2005-06-18 CB035.2 : Earth's early atmosphere had no reducing gases. 2005-06-18 CB035 : Miller's experiments had an invalid assumption of the type of atmosphere. 2005-06-16 CG202.2 : The Chinese Hihking flood myth is very like the story of Noah. 2005-06-16 CG202.1 : The Miao flood myth is very like the story of Noah. 2005-06-16 CA341 : Evolutionists have not met Hovind's challenge to prove evolution. 2005-06-05 CB701 : Haeckel falsified his embryo pictures. 2005-05-26 CB952 : The evolution of specialized diets would not be adaptive. 2005-05-26 CB811 : Homologous structures are not produced by homologous genes. 2005-05-26 CA602 : Evolution is atheistic. 2005-05-25 CG201 : There are flood myths from all over the world. 2005-05-16 CA006.1 : Hitler based his views on Darwinism. 2005-05-12 CC373 : Jurassic shells from mud springs are remarkably preserved.

The earth's magnetic field is decaying at a rate indicating that the earth must be young.

The earth's magnetic field is known to have varied in intensity (Gee et al. 2000) and reversed in polarity numerous times in the earth's history. This is entirely consistent with conventional models (Glatzmaier and Roberts 1...

Barnes, Thomas G. 1973. Origin and destiny of Earth's magnetic field , ICR Technical Monograph No. 4. Gee, J. S. et al. 2000. Geomagnetic intensity variations over the past 780 kyr obtained from near-seafloor magnetic anomalies. Nature 408: 827-832. Glatzmaier, G. A...

The geological column is a fiction, existing on paper only. The entire geological column does not exist anywhere on the earth.

...in the geological column at any spot are entirely consistent with an old earth history. The column is deposited only in sedimentary environments, where conditions favor the accumulation of sediments. Climatic and geological changes over time would be expected to change areas back and forth be...

Morton, Glenn, 2001. (see above) Trendall, A. F. et al., (ed.), 1990. Geology and Mineral Resources of Western Australia, Memoir 3 . Geological Survey of Western Australia. State Printing Division, Perth. Previous Claim: CD031 | List of Claims | Next Claim: CD102 created 2001-3-31, modifie...

Some micas in granite have tiny haloes caused by the decay of radioactive elements. From their diameters, we know the energy of the alpha particles that caused the haloes, which tells us what element decayed. Some of these haloes formed from isotopes of polonium, all of which have short half-lives (138 days for the longest-lived isotope). According to conventional geology, the rocks in which the polonium radio-haloes occur took millions of years to form. All of the original polonium should have decayed in that time. Thus polonium radio-haloes indicate a sudden creation of polonium in rock.

...Thus, all of the locations Gentry examined show evidence of an extensive history predating the formation of the micas; they show an appearance of age older than the three minutes his polonium halo theory allows. It is possible God created this appearance of age, but that reduces Gentry's argu...

...See above. Gentry, R. V. 1988. Creation's Tiny Mystery . Knoxville, TN: Earth Science Associates. Wakefield, J. R. 1998. See below.

The earth is relatively young, about 10,000 years old or less.

Radiometric dating shows the earth to be 4.5 billion years old (see CD010 regarding the reliability of radiometric dating). If the earth is old, then radioactive isotopes with short half-lives should have all decayed already. That is what we find. I...

...iability over the past 130,000 yr in the Luochuan loess sequence, China. Geology 25(3): 275-278. Williams, D. F., J. Peck, E. B. Karabanov, A. A. Prokopenko, V. Kravchinsky, J. King, and M. I. Kuzmin, 1997. Lake Baikal record of continental climate response to orbital insolation during the pa...

Nicolai Stenonis, known also as Nicolaus Steno, made important advances in anatomy and stratigraphy; he is credited with founding geology as a scientific field. He was a creationist.

...the earth. Creationism played a part in keeping Steno's theories -- and geology in general -- from being widely accepted for several decades. In particular, belief in a young earth ruled out repeated episodes of deposition and mountains slowly rising above the sea. Steno's theories were foun...

Cutler, Alan. 2003. The Seashell on the Mountaintop . New York: Dutton. Previous Claim: CA114.22 | List of Claims | Next Claim: CA115.1 created 2005-2-18

...ent of Genesis ran from AD 1700-1780. This period was marked by a great deal of field geology rather than grand cosmogonies. It became clear that there had been significant changes in the Earth's topography over time and that these changes could neither be accounted for by natural processes operating during the brief nor by the postulated Noach...

...le amount of activity by scriptural geologists who attempted to reconcile Genesis and geology. The efforts of the scriptural geologists failed signally; by 1830 scriptural geology was a dead issue in Science. The modern period runs from AD 1850 to the present. The great debate was won by the uniformitarians, so much so that the degree of gradua...

...geology. The efforts of the scriptural geologists failed signally; by 1830 scriptural geology was a dead issue in Science. The modern period runs from AD 1850 to the present. The great debate was won by the uniformitarians, so much so that the degree of gradualism was overstated and the importance of catastrophes was unduly minimized. The moder...

...from the Precambrian shields show that the Earth is older than 3.8 billion years. The geology of these oldest rocks also indicates that there was a substantial period of history of the Earth before 3.8 billion years ago for which no datable geological record now exists. There are several possible reasons for the apparent absence of this earlies...

Previous Introduction Next SCIENTIFIC AGE OF THE EARTH Before analyzing the arguments advanced by creation “scientists” for a very young Earth, I here summarize briefly the evidence that has convinced scientists that the Earth is 4.5 to 4.6 billion years old. There can be no doubt about the Earth’s antiquity...

...RTH Before analyzing the arguments advanced by creation “scientists” for a very young Earth, I here summarize briefly the evidence that has convinced scientists that the Earth is 4.5 to 4.6 billion years old. There can be no doubt about the Earth’s antiquity; the evidence is abundant, conclusive, and readily available to all who care to examine...

...arliest Precambrian. These data and all the accumulated knowledge from the science of geology show conclusively that the Earth we now see is the result of natural processes operating over vast periods and not the product of one or two worldwide catastrophic events. The geologic corollaries of “scientific” creationism — namely, that the Earth is...

...total disregard for the scientific evidence concerning the history of the Earth, its geology, its physics, and its chemistry. Their calculations are meaningless and cannot be taken seriously. “Scientific” creationism does not provide any rational basis for meaningful scientific investigations of the Earth, the Solar System, or the universe. To...

...apers of the fourth international conference, geochronology, cosmochronology, isotope geology. U.S. Geol. Survey Open-File Report 78-701. 476 pp. Basu, A. R., S. L. Ray, A. K. Saha, & S. N. Sarkar. 1981. 3.8 b.y.-old tonalites from eastern India: Evidence for early differentiation (abs.). EOS 62: 420. Bloch , S. 1980. Some factors controlling t...

...presumably as a result of the lack of plant cover to retard erosion. Radioactivity in Geology (Eric M. Durrance, John Wiley, no earlier than 1977), when dealing with another subject, says the rate was lower in the past, but gives no details or number. 5. Radiogenic helium in the atmosphere Helium is given off through the decay of uranium and th...

A talk.origins Age of the Earth Debate [Last Update: February 27, 1992] Part One This is the first of two postings generated by the debate. It contains Bob Bales's opening statement, Chris Stassen's rebuttal, and Bob Bales's closing remarks. Bales Opening Statement In this argument, I'...

...es Opening Statement In this argument, I'll stick to the evidence which indicates the earth has a young age. Any young-earth theory must also explain evidence that seems to indicate that the earth is millions of years old. I've discussed some of this in the newsgroup, but here I'll leave it for the rebuttal phase of the debate. The arguments I...

...t a long while. The "Creation Science" approach is to deny the independent results of geology, chemistry and astronomy because these molecules exist. I will not take the time in this essay to address the problematic origins of "creation science" in the United States or elsewhere and instead refer the interested reader to The Creationists: The E...

...e was published in 1997 by a magazine called Earth , a for-profit magazine focused on geology and paleontology for the general public. The magazine folded after three volumes. The former Editor, Josh Flishman, has personally acknowledged to me that Earth was a popularization, and not a scientific journal. But in 1997, the popularity of Steven S...

...s The author of this article deals with creationist osteocalcin claims. Acommon young earth creationist ( YEC ) misinterpretation of the discovery of surviving organic molecules in ancient bone is that this "proves" that the Earth is young and that geological and radiometric data should be ignored. The ancient surviving materials they commonly...

...arly geologists involved in this work. By 1830 Lyell's famous textbook, Principles of Geology , came out. The captain of the H.M.S. Beagle, a very strong Bible believer, made it a point to have a copy of Lyell's book for the ship's library. Obviously, even Lyell was not pushing evolution at the time. Such was the age of the great creationist ge...

...ll that radiation being released in a fraction of a year, radiation that conventional geology attributes to billions of years! In case you missed the point, that means the radiation would have been billions of times more concentrated than today! Noah and crew would have fried in one, giant nuclear reactor!! There is, of course, still the minor...

How Good Are Those Young-Earth Arguments? A Close Look at Dr. Hovind's List of Young-Earth Arguments and Other Claims by Dave E. Matson Copyright © 1994-2002 Previous Contents Next Dr. Hovind (G1): The assumption that the geologic column is a base from which to calibrate the C-14 date...

...ion "as to the prevailing scientific thought" on such topics as the age of the earth, geology, and relationships among living things "will be deprived of a significant part of science education." Science, Overton said, is defined as that which is "accepted by the scientific community"; science is "what scientists do," and "creation science" as...

...ing through books and technical journals for quotes with which to snipe at evolution, geology, astronomy, and other areas of science which challenge their central dogma. When they're not doing that, they can usually be found out on the stump drumming up support among the uneducated public. Real scientists base their theories on the available ev...

...ughs. Creationists fancy that they are in the process of overthrowing modern biology, geology, astronomy, anthropology, linguistics, paleontology, archaeology, oceanography, cosmology, physics, and numerous other branches of science. Some creationists (the flat-earth societies) would add the "grease-ball" theory of round-earth geography to that...

...L. Harmann. 1966. "Fossil Ursus reported as early man in Louisiana" Tulane Studies in Geology . Vol. 4, no. 2, pp.75-77 Babinski, Edward T. 1986. Does the Bible Teach Scientific Creationism? 408 Halcyon Circle, Greer, SC 29650-2931 (self-published); 124 pages. (A fabulous coverage of the real ideas behind the biblical cosmos.) Bailey, Lloyd R....

...th (Second Edition) McGraw-Hill, Inc., 504 pages. Dunbar, and Waage. 1969. Historical Geology (Third Edition) John Wilely & Sons, 556 pages Dutch, Steven I. 1982. "A critique of creationist cosmology" Journal of Geological Education , vol.30, pp.27-33 Elsasser, Walter M. 1946-1947. "Induction effects in terrestrial magnetism" Physical Review ,...

...ar Science , vol.22, pp.165-202 Farrand, William R. 1961. "Frozen Mammoths and Modern Geology" Science , vol.83 (March 16, 1961), pp.729ff Fairbridge, R. and J. Bourgeois (editors). 1978. The Encyclopedia of Sedimentology Dowden, Hutchinson, and Ross, Stroudsburg, PA, 901 pages. Faure, G. & J. L. Powell. 1972. Strontium Isotope Geology Spring-V...