One of the newer features on the Answers in Genesis website purports to explain the phenomena of ice ages (or, in their view, the single ice age allowed by their reading of Scripture). Just like any good creationist argument, they see a gap in the understanding of modern science and rush to fill it in a perfect "God of the Gaps" moment.
http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/ee2/ice-age
Pointing out that so-called "secular" science doesn't have a good mechanism to explain the "on-off" switch of repeated ice ages, the creationists throw the Bible as a wedge to get into the door, positing that the aftermath of the Flood is a good mechanism to explain the single ice age that they accept as having occurred. The Flood, as one might expect, put a lot of moisture into the air which allowed for the formation of great glaciers, and the tectonic shifts that accompanied the aftermath of the Flood served as the actual trigger for an ice age, which conveniently exposed land bridges and allowed for the full migration of the animal survivors.
While critical of an evolutionary understanding of earth's geologic past (multiple ice ages are said to rely on an old earth and ultimately reinforce each other without evidence), this article demonstrates the same sort of reliance. The Flood story is taken as true, without evidence, and used to base the author's understanding of why an ice age would occur. There is no evidence of a Noachian deluge, and to use that as evidence for what follows is unsupportable. The second baseless assumption is a delightful piece of mental gymnastics; tectonic activity occurred at a very rapid pace, far faster than today, in order to allow for animal migration after the Flood to all continents. Then the rapid movement of the continents put them where they are at today. There is similarly no evidence that tectonic activity, the motion of the continents, was ever any faster than it is today, a pace that makes even the term "glacial" seem speedy by comparison.
The two assumptions needed in the creationist mindset to trigger an ice age are thus baseless and they are left with nothing. The creationists at Answers in Genesis display their usual mental contortions and basic lack of scientific understanding as they continue to carve out an alternative reality from whole cloth.
http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/ee2/ice-age
Pointing out that so-called "secular" science doesn't have a good mechanism to explain the "on-off" switch of repeated ice ages, the creationists throw the Bible as a wedge to get into the door, positing that the aftermath of the Flood is a good mechanism to explain the single ice age that they accept as having occurred. The Flood, as one might expect, put a lot of moisture into the air which allowed for the formation of great glaciers, and the tectonic shifts that accompanied the aftermath of the Flood served as the actual trigger for an ice age, which conveniently exposed land bridges and allowed for the full migration of the animal survivors.
While critical of an evolutionary understanding of earth's geologic past (multiple ice ages are said to rely on an old earth and ultimately reinforce each other without evidence), this article demonstrates the same sort of reliance. The Flood story is taken as true, without evidence, and used to base the author's understanding of why an ice age would occur. There is no evidence of a Noachian deluge, and to use that as evidence for what follows is unsupportable. The second baseless assumption is a delightful piece of mental gymnastics; tectonic activity occurred at a very rapid pace, far faster than today, in order to allow for animal migration after the Flood to all continents. Then the rapid movement of the continents put them where they are at today. There is similarly no evidence that tectonic activity, the motion of the continents, was ever any faster than it is today, a pace that makes even the term "glacial" seem speedy by comparison.
The two assumptions needed in the creationist mindset to trigger an ice age are thus baseless and they are left with nothing. The creationists at Answers in Genesis display their usual mental contortions and basic lack of scientific understanding as they continue to carve out an alternative reality from whole cloth.
These folks are willfully ignorant of the vast literature that exists about the causes and timings of the ice ages, both the most modern and those throughout the past billion or so years. As someone once said...there are none so blind as those who will not see. This level of self-delusion would be comical if it weren't behind some of the nastiest political activities in the country today.
ReplyDeleteHow come Australia got all the cool kangaroos and kola bears and the rest of the world didn't?
ReplyDeleteThis post and the above two comments are a delight for me to read that this point in the evening (2259, to run against the suspected false time stamp).
ReplyDelete