Ken Ham: The Cause and Cure of Racism

You don’t want to miss the latest from Ken Ham (ol’ Hambo), the ayatollah of Appalachia, the world’s holiest man who knows more about religion and science than everyone else. His new post is titled What “Black and White” Twins Teach Us About Supposed “Race”. Here are some excerpts, with bold font added by us for emphasis:

Several years ago I wrote an article for our Answers magazine titled “It’s Not Just Black & White.” This article looked at several examples of what are referred to as “black and white” twins — fraternal twins where one is dark skinned with black hair and the other is light skinned with fair hair.

[…]

The Biggs twins, Millie and Marcia, are in the news again because they are entering middle school in Birmingham, England. Their mother, who is light skinned (their father is dark skinned), had to explain to school staff that the girls are indeed twins. Reportedly, “some of their teachers were shocked, and strangers are often baffled when they find out the girls are related, much less twins.”

Okay, but what does that have to do with evolution and creationism? Hambo says:

Why are people so shocked by these twins? Because they’ve been indoctrinated with the idea of supposed “races,” an idea fueled today by evolutionary thinking.

BWAHAHAHAHAHA! Right. Before Darwin and his abominable theory, no one ever even thought about race. All humans, everywhere, lived in perfect harmony. Then he says:

Because all humans are descended from Adam and Eve, we’re all one race, or “one blood” as the Apostle Paul puts it in [scripture reference]. This is confirmed by observational science — humans are one species, Homo sapiens sapiens, and the supposed “racial” differences only account for .012% of the differences between humans.

Back in the days when everyone believed in the bible, no one even noticed racial differences. Hambo tells us:

The reason for the slight differences, such as skin tone and eye shape, between people groups is primarily because of the event at the Tower of Babel [scripture reference]. This division of languages broke up the human gene pool and isolated groups from one another. Certain genetic variations became prominent in different groups. … There’s just one race — the human race. We look different because of what happened at the Tower of Babel.

It would probably shock ol’ Hambo to learn that (except for the Tower of Babel stuff), that was also Darwin’s view. In Racism, Eugenics, and Darwin, we quoted his book The Descent of Man, Chapter 21 – General Summary and Conclusion, where he says:

Through the means just specified, aided perhaps by others as yet undiscovered, man has been raised to his present state. But since he attained to the rank of manhood, he has diverged into distinct races, or as they may be more fitly called, sub-species. Some of these, such as the Negro and European, are so distinct that, if specimens had been brought to a naturalist without any further information, they would undoubtedly have been considered by him as good and true species. Nevertheless all the races agree in so many unimportant details of structure and in so many mental peculiarities that these can be accounted for only by inheritance from a common progenitor; and a progenitor thus characterised would probably deserve to rank as man.

Hambo continues:

There’s only one solution to racism — a change of heart so people will build their thinking on God’s Word and believe the true history of the world. Racism, as well as other social issues such as gay “marriage,” transgenderism, and abortion, are all moral issues that are symptoms of a foundational issue — rejection of God’s Word. America’s racism issues will not be solved until hearts and minds are committed to the true history in God’s Word and the salvation message.

There can be no doubt, dear reader. Hambo has the answers. You must turn away from Darwin and all the evil that he has brought into the world.

Copyright © 2017. The Sensuous Curmudgeon. All rights reserved.

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ICR: Ancient Algae Disproves Evolution

Today we have an excellent article from the creation scientists at the Institute for Creation Research (ICR) — the fountainhead of young-earth creationist wisdom. It’s titled Dinosaur Algae Alive and Well Today, written by Brian Thomas. He’s described at the end of his articles as “Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.” Here are some excerpts, with bold font added by us for emphasis:

Botanists recently discovered Lychnothamnus barbatus, a large form of green algae known from European and Asian freshwater lakes, in North America. Before this discovery, the only hints of this particular water plant in the Americas came from their fossils mixed with dinosaurs in Argentina.

PhysOrg mentioned that about six weeks ago — see Dinosaur-era plant found alive in North America for first time. They quote its discoverer, Richard McCourt, PhD:

Lychnothamnus barbatus’ survival isn’t, per se, ecologically earth-shaking, but it changes our view of what the algal flora of North America is composed of and inspires us to keep hunting for more new finds.

But ICR thinks it is earth-shaking. Brian says:

If this type of algae’s fossils were deposited tens of millions of years ago, then how has it avoided evolutionary tinkering ever since? How could it remain unchanged for over “65 million years?”

Gasp — what a profound question! As all creationists know, evolution is supposed to be an irresistible force that transforms everything, so no allegedly ancestral species should survive. That bedrock principle underlies the familiar creationist taunt to evolutionists: If we evolved from monkeys, then Why Are There Still Monkeys?

We have three quickie responses to the monkey question: If America was founded by England, why are there still Englishmen? If dogs evolved from wolves, why are there still wolves? If the emergence of a new species demands the disappearance of its ancestral stock, then why is there anything on Earth other than humans?

After dropping his bombshell on the evolutionists, Brian tells us:

First, the [algae] gets buried and fossilized with dinosaurs in Argentina. Much later, botanists begin formally describing the same exact algae in Europe in the 1800s. It also grows in freshwater spots across Asia and toward Australia. Last, the same algae pop up in North America in the 21st century — with no hints of evolutionary alterations.

Gasp! How is that possible? Brian continues:

Secular botanists [Hee hee!] might offer the standard argument that once Lychnothamnus evolved, it never experienced an environment that challenged it enough to force its form to change. But how could the dramatic extinction event strong enough to morph dinosaurs into birds and rats into monkeys make no changes whatsoever to a gentle freshwater algae species?

Great question! Brian is relentless. He knows he’s got us on the ropes. Let’s read on:

The total lack of evolutionary change from Cretaceous to modern Lychnothamnus requires that either evolution never happened, the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event never happened, or neither happened.

Golly, he’s right! Our professors lied to us!

Finally, at the end of his article, Brian explains how to understand the continued existence of this allegedly ancient algae:

A recent deposition of dinosaur (and modern-looking stonewort) layers from Noah’s Flood plus the Genesis 1 declaration of God creating plants and animals according to distinct, interbreeding kinds perfectly accounts for the persistence of this same stonewort kind from fossils to today’s fresh waters.

Yes. Oh yes! That’s the answer! Darwinism is doomed!

Copyright © 2017. The Sensuous Curmudgeon. All rights reserved.

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After Irma Free Fire Zone

Your Curmudgeon has fully recovered from hurricane Irma, which struck last weekend. The shutters are down and put away, the lawn debris — loads of it — has been removed, stores are open, and things are back to normal.

Well, almost normal. Although power was restored a day after the storm hit, we still don’t have cable TV service. Comcast keeps giving us dates and times when service will be restored, but they’re always wrong and it appears that they don’t have a clue. [Addendum: That was the situation on 17 Sept. Cable service was restored around noon the next day, the 18th, so we were without TV for a week after Irma.]

There hasn’t been much creationism news recently, but we did find a couple of off-topic items that you may find amusing:

1: CBC News in Toronto reports: Toronto man ‘angry’ after learning his $8,100 master’s degree that required no exams or academic work is fake. They say:

Erwin Sniedzins doesn’t trust traditional universities. So when the Toronto business management consultant found one offering a master’s degree requiring no studying, exams, or academic work — for just $8,100 — Sniedzins thought it was a school sharing his unconventional approach to education.

[…]

He said the degree issued by Kings Lake University, which he found by searching the internet, is based on his previous life experience and professional accomplishments.

[…]

After his experience was “validated” by the university, Sniedzins said he paid the $8,100 fee, and received a master’s degree in education, specializing in technology in education. The university mailed him the degree and several other signed, stamped and apparently certified documents. He said he even received a graduation cap and gown.

[…]

Any doubts Sniedzins may have had were also eased by what appears to be a sworn affidavit, included in his package of documents, supposedly signed by former U.S. secretary of state John Kerry.

Tough luck. He should have taken advantage of what your Curmudgeon offers — see Earn a Degree in Creationism Today!

2: The Washington Post has this headline: The world as we know it is about to end — again — if you believe this biblical doomsday claim. Here’s a bit of it:

A few years ago, NASA senior space scientist David Morrison debunked an apocalyptic claim as a hoax. No, there’s no such thing as a planet called Nibiru, he said. No, it’s not a brown dwarf surrounded by planets, as iterations of the theory suggest. No, it’s not on a collision course toward Earth. And yes, people should “get over it.”

But the theory has been getting renewed attention recently. Added to it is the precise date of the astronomical event leading to Earth’s destruction. And that, according to David Meade, is in six days — Sept. 23, 2017.

You can click over there and read the whole thing, if you like.

That’s all we could find, so we’re declaring another Intellectual Free-Fire Zone. We’re open for the discussion of pretty much anything — science, politics, economics, whatever — as long as it’s tasteful and interesting. Banter, babble, bicker, bluster, blubber, blather, blab, blurt, burble, boast — say what you will. But avoid flame-wars and beware of the profanity filters.

We now throw open the comments to you, dear reader. Have at it.

Copyright © 2017. The Sensuous Curmudgeon. All rights reserved.

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AIG: Ancient Megaliths and the Bible

For your weekend enjoyment, we bring you another splendid example of creation science from Answers in Genesis (AIG) — the ministry of Ken Ham (ol’ Hambo), the ayatollah of Appalachia.

AIG’s article is titled Uncovering Assumptions at Newgrange, written by Danny Faulkner. Here’s AIG’s biographical information about him. They say he taught physics and astronomy until he joined AIG. His undergraduate degree is from Bob Jones University. Here are some excerpts, with bold font added by us for emphasis:

The winter solstice has a special effect at Ireland’s most famous megalith. An astronomer believes we can use this to recalibrate early dates to match biblical history.

[*Begin Drool Mode*] Ooooooooooooh! [*End Drool Mode*] This is exciting! By the way, according to Wikipedia, Newgrange:

… is a prehistoric monument in County Meath, Ireland, located 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) west of Drogheda on the north side of the River Boyne It was built during the Neolithic period, around 3200 BC, making it older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids.

Lets see what Danny boy says about these ancient monuments:

Stonehenge is one of literally thousands of the massive stone monuments, called megaliths, that dot the landscape of Europe and other lands. They inspire endless fascination, as we wonder why early people devoted so much labor to these structures. Since their builders left no written records, we must piece together answers based on limited clues. Bible-believing Christians are also interested to fill in these gaps about the spread of human civilization after Noah’s Flood.

BWAHAHAHAHAHA! Then he reveals a mystery:

One mystery, in particular, puzzles believers. Secular archaeologists assign dates to most of these stone structures of 2500–3000 BC. Solid dates based on multiple lines of evidence are extremely scant prior to the time of Abraham, yet dating radiocarbon in wood or charcoal, when available, sometimes seems to confirm these older dates. That would put these artifacts before the Flood, even though human civilization didn’t spread until well after the Flood (2350 BC, according to the chronological information given in our Bibles). How can Christians reconcile these early dates with the Bible?

Egad! What’s to be done about this problem? Danny tells us:

Clearly something is wrong with radiocarbon dates, but what? As an astronomer who analyzes how humans mark time by the regular movement of celestial bodies, I have long wondered whether different branches of science could work together to solve these questions.

Yes, this mystery must be solved! Danny continues:

If we could somehow find a reliable, independent astronomical way to date stone structures, perhaps we could show how older radiocarbon “dates” must be revised to match these more accurate astronomical dates, which are certain to line up with the Bible’s timeline.

How exciting that would be! We could then begin to revise the radiometric dates in archaeology to match biblical dates. Instead of dates going back tens of thousands of years, we could begin nailing down precisely when people built things between the time of the Tower of Babel and Abraham.

Sounds great, but what’s Danny boy’s plan? Let’s read on:

The problem is that most of these sites have been reworked and disturbed over the centuries, so we can’t be sure the stones line up correctly . . . with one possible exception, Newgrange, in County Meath, Ireland.

Danny goes on and on discussing the details of Newgrange. We know nothing about that megalith, so we’re going to skip his discussion. Moving on to near the end, we’re told:

When reports say that astronomical dates appear to corroborate radiocarbon dates, we need to be cautious. [Hee hee!] The interpretation depends upon many assumptions. If the dates contradict Scripture, we need to reexamine the assumptions. This takes patience and further research of the possibilities. That’s the nature of science and archaeology. Sometimes we have to wait for the development of new high-tech research tools.

Yes, we always have to be sure that those scientists are in agreement with the bible. They haven’t got it right yet, but eventually they will. And now we come to the end:

Christians should continue to take an active interest in uncovering our past and think creatively about ways to overcome the limits of human knowledge. We want to paint a clearer picture of world history and show that it truly aligns with the Bible and glorifies God. We should never fear what we discover. We know that we have much more to learn. By starting with the key eyewitness to world history, the Bible, we take a crucial step in the right direction that others ignore.

So there you are. Danny boy isn’t discouraged by the fact that those secular scientists keep coming up with the wrong conclusions. He knows The Truth™, and he’s confident that science will prove he’s right.

Copyright © 2017. The Sensuous Curmudgeon. All rights reserved.

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