Get Answers: Countering the Critics

Q&A Topics: Q&A Index pageAlien/UFOsAnthropology & Ape-menApologeticsArchaeologyArguments NOT to useAstronomy & AstrophysicsBibleBiographies - CreationistsCloningCommunism & NazismCountering the CriticsCreated KindsCreation CompromisesCreation: Why It MattersDarwin, CharlesDeath and SufferingDesign FeaturesDinosaursEducationEmbryonic RecapitulationEnvironmentalismFamily & MarriageFloodFossilsGeocentrismGenesisGeneticsGeologyGodHistoryHuman Life: AbortionIce AgeInformation TheoryJesus ChristLinguisticsLiving FossilsMammothsMorality and EthicsMutationsNatural SelectionNoah’s ArkOrigin of LifePhilosophyPlate TectonicsProbabilitiesRacismRadiometric DatingReligion (humanism, etc.)ScienceScopes’ TrialSpeciationThermodynamics and Order‘Vestigial’ OrgansYoung Age Evidence

---

Responses to attacks against creationists’ arguments

Do anti-creationists have a scientific case?

• Who’s really pushing ‘bad science’?
  Detailed Response to: Good Science, Bad Science by L.S. Lerner
  (Semi-Technical, available in Russian)
• A brief response to anti-creationist books
• 15 ways to refute materialistic bigotry: A point by point refutation of Scientific American
  (Semi-Technical, available in Russian)
• Refutation of Thomas Hayden’s U.S. News and World Report article
• Creationists attacked in Ireland!
• The strange recurring case of the feathered reptile
• Red-Blooded Evidence: Refuting the evolutionary ‘sea water’ argument
• Eviscerating Eldredge (Semi-technical, refutation of Niles Eldredge’s anti-creationist book The Triumph of Evolution and the Failure of Creationism)
• Mutilating Miller (Semi-technical, refutation of Kenneth Miller’s anti-creationist book Finding Darwin’s God)
• Response to all-comers on the Washington Post Online Forum, 28 September 2001
• The ‘Indoctrinator’
• Refutation of PBS-TV Evolution series (Seven articles— one per episode; Episode 2 rebuttal available in Spanish)

How do skeptics answer creationists’ design arguments? How do creationists respond?

• The Second Law of Thermodynamics: Answers to Critics (Semi-technical)
• Some thermodynamics criticisms (by anti-creationist science writer Jonathan Sherwood) — and answers (Technical):
  • Part 1
  • Part 2
• Refutation of Richard Dawkins’ anti-creationist book
  Climbing Mount Improbable (Semi-Technical)
• Refutation of Richard Dawkins’ anti-creationist book
  Unweaving the Rainbow (Semi-Technical)
• Weasel Words: Refuting a common ploy to persuade people that evolution has been ‘proven by computer’
• Dawkins’ weasel revisited (Semi-technical)
• The problem of information for the theory of evolution: have evolutionists really solved it? Technical refutations by Dr Royal Truman (on True Origins website) of the antitheists:
  • Dr Richard Dawkins
  • Dr Tom Schneider
• New plant colours — is this new information?
  AiG scientist answers a skeptic
• That depends on what your definition of “information” is (Semi-technical)
• How is information content measured? (Technical)
• Is antibiotic resistance really due to increase in information? (Technical)
• Behe rebuts critics (Technical — posted on True Origins, originally from the Discovery Institute)
• Rebuttals to common criticisms of Michael Behe’s book Darwin’s Black Box
  (Semi-Technical — by Dr Robert DiSilvestro, published on Leadership University)
• A scientific critique of evolution [mutations and information]
  Dr Lee Spetner refutes Dr Edward Max; on True Origins website (Technical):
  • Part 1
  • Part 2)
• See also:
  • Design Q&A
  • Thermodynamics Q&A

Are there really vestigial or badly designed structures in living organisms?

• Refuting ‘bad design’ arguments (including the allegedly ‘backwardly wired’ retina, from a review of Dawkins’ Climbing Mt Improbable)
• Is Our ‘Inverted’ Retina Really ‘Bad Design’? (Technical)
• The panda thumbs its nose at the dysteleological arguments of the atheist Stephen Jay Gould (Technical)
• Vestigial Organs: What do they prove?
• Male nipples prove evolution? (response to critic)
• A vestigial tissue (finally)? What about male breast tissue? (response to critic)
• AiG misuses the term ‘vestigial’? (response to critic)
• Rats! A toothless argument for evolution
• Useless horse body parts? No way! (available in Spanish)
• See also ‘Vestigial’ Organs Q&A

What about skeptics’ arguments for billions of years and against the biblical time-scale and Noah’s Flood?

• Geology and the Young Earth
• The Karoo vertebrate non-problem
• Problems with a Global Flood? ((Semi-Technical) by AiG scientist, published on the True Origins site)
• Church leader ‘aghast’ at belief in a worldwide Flood?
• Too Much Coal for a Young Earth? (Technical)
• Rapid Cave Formation by Sulfuric Acid Dissolution (Technical)
• Limestone Caves … a result Of Noah’s Flood?
• Caving in to creation: Carl Wieland interviews Romanian geologist and world cave authority Dr Emil Silvestru
• National Geographic magazine joins the dating game
• Rapid Stalactites?
• Stalactites in Kelly Caves grow at rates of up to 1/2 inch four years
• Tas Walker not familiar with material science?
  (Do large crystals in granite prove very slow cooling? Semi-technical, response to critic)
• Granite grain size: not a problem for rapid cooling of plutons
• Starlight Wars: Dr Russell Humphreys answers the critics of his cosmological model proposed in Starlight and Time (contains links to articles from the Technical Journal, posted on the True Origins site. See also his earlier rebuttal to Hugh Ross)
• Evolutionist questions AiG report — Have red blood cells really been found in T. rex fossils?
• Responding to Hugh Ross’s ‘corrections’
• Critique of the introductory chapter of Hugh Ross’s new book A Matter of Days: Resolving a Creation Controversy
• Trilobites on the Ark? Hugh Ross’s latest bungles on the created kinds
• Analysis of the Hovind–Ross Debate, John Ankerberg Show, October 2000 (Semi-Technical)
• Analysis of the Lisle–Ross Debate, ‘Dr Bob Grant’ radio program, December 2004 (Semi-Technical)
• Hold on, Mr Holzmann: Leading homeschool supplier misleads about biblical creationist exegesis
• Russell Humphreys refutes agnostic Joe Meert’s claims about helium diffusion
• Russell Humphreys refutes atheistic apostate Kevin Henke’s verbose attack on RATE group helium diffusion paper (True Origins site)
• Russell Humphreys refutes atheistic apostate Kevin Henke’s claim about the effect of pressure on helium diffusion rates in zircon (True Origins site)
• Yes, Noah did build an Ark! (Refutation of anti-Ark BBC program)
• Noah’s Flood and the Gilgamesh Epic
• Anti-creationist Glenn Morton’s misuse of John Woodmorappe’s list of discrepant isotopic dates—Woodmorappe’s refutation (True Origins site)
• Paleosols: digging deeper buries ‘challenge’ to Flood geology
• See also:
  • Flood Q&A
  • Geology Q&A
  • Radiometric Dating Q&A
  • Young Age Evidence Q&A

Genesis and ancient Chinese: is there really a connection?

• AiG misrepresents ancient Chinese language?
• AiG still misrepresents ancient Chinese language?

Anti-creationist lobby, Skeptics, etc.

Are evolutionists/anti-creationists really as unbiased as they claim? Are they really ‘neutral towards’ Christianity?

• A Who’s Who of evolutionists
• How Religiously Neutral are the Anti-Creationist Organizations?
• Be Skeptical About the Skeptics!
• Critique of John Stear’s ‘No Answers in Genesis’ Website (by AiG scientist, published on the True Origins site)
• Be Skeptical About the Skeptics!

How reliable are skeptics’ personal attacks on creationists? What does this teach about skeptics’ integrity?

• Do Creationists Publish in Notable Refereed Journals?
• Skeptics choke on Frog: Was Dawkins caught on the hop?
• Aussie press does major beat-up on AiG’s Super Camp
• Atheists blast Christianity. Yet another misleading anti-Christian assault from Australia’s taxpayer-funded TV station, ABC (covers the origin of science, big bang, evolutionary compromises, death and suffering)
• Critique of John Stear’s ‘No Answers in Genesis’ Website (by AiG scientist, published on the True Origins site)
• Response by one of the skeptics’ ‘churchian’ allies, plus response by AiG scientist
• Are some prominent creationists racists? (Refutation of scurrilous accusations against demonstrably staunchly anti-racist creationists, Revolution Against Evolution website)
• Pseudonyms: A Long, Honorable Tradition (True Origins website)

Bible ‘contradictions’ and ‘errors’

What Biblical errors do skeptics claim to have found? How can these claims be answered?

• Biblical ‘Contradictions’ Refuted (Tekton Apologetics Ministries)
• Chronology Conundrums
• Harmonization: The Issue of Complimentary Accounts (Tekton Apologetics Ministries)
• Lenny Flank (Refuting an anti-creationist nuisance writer’s village-atheist–style attacks on Biblical inerrancy — Tekton Apologetics Ministries)
• Do Rabbits Chew Their Cud?
• Does the Bible Say pi equals 3.0?
• Cainan: How do you explain the difference between Luke 3:36 and Gen. 11:12? (available in Spanish)
• Does the Bible Wrongly Call the Bat a Bird? (Tekton Apologetics Ministries)
• How could the days of Genesis 1 be literal if the sun wasn’t created until Day 4?
• How could Adam possibly have had enough time to name all the animals on the 6^th day of the creation week?
• Did Jesus tell His disciples to take a staff or not? (Christian Think Tank)
• The Unicorn: The Bible does not refer to fantasy animals
• Is the raqiya‘ (firmament — KJV) a solid dome? (Technical)
• Jonah and the great fish
• Daniel: Defence of its Historical Reliability (Tekton Apologetics Ministries)
• Evidences Relating to the Date of the Book of Daniel (by David Conklin (long!), posted on Tekton Apologetics Ministries)
• Does Genesis 30:25–31:13 teach magical genetics? (Tekton Apologetics Ministries)
• The ten plagues of Egypt
• Why do all four Gospels contain different versions of the inscriptions written on Jesus’ cross?
• Where did Cain find his wife?
• See also: Genesis Q&A: Do Genesis 1 and 2 contradict each other?

Anti-Christian/anti-Bible authors: how can they be answered?

• Are “The Jesus Seminar” criticisms of the gospels and Jesus Christ valid? (Christian Answers Network)
• The Seventy-Four “Scholars”: Who Does the Jesus Seminar Really Speak For? (Christian Research Journal)
• Essays on a Jewish ‘Anti-Missionary’ site (Tekton Apologetics Ministries)
• The Case Against Christianity by Michael Martin (A Summary Critique — Christian Research Institute)
• The Case Against Christianity by Michael Martin (More detailed critique in several parts — Tekton Apologetics Ministries)
• Refuting the Skeptics’ Annotated Bible (Tekton Apologetics Ministries)
• Why Christianity Must Change or Die by John Shelby Spong (refuted on Tekton Apologetics Ministries)
• George M. Lamsa: Christian Scholar or Cultic Torchbearer? (Christian Research Journal)
• Barbara Thiering: A short critique
• Who really wrote Genesis? Documentary (JEDP, Wellhausen–Graf) Hypothesis; Refuting ‘Copycat’ claims

How can the bloodshed afflicted upon the Israelite’s enemies in the OT be reconciled with an all-good God? What about slavery? Or atrocities committed by professing Christians?

• Extermination of the Amalekites (Christian Think Tank)
• Extermination of the Canaanites (Christian Think Tank)
• Does God condone slavery in the Bible? (Christian Think Tank)
• The Bible v slavery and apartheid (response to sceptic)
• Can Christianity Be Faulted for Opposing the Use of Lightning Rods? (Tekton Apologetics Ministries)
• An Inquiry on the Inquisition (Tekton Apologetics Ministries)

Does the Bible really teach a flat earth?

• Did Bible writers believe the Earth was flat?
• Did Bible writers believe the Earth was flat? (Christian Answers Network)
• Flat-Earth Hey Day came with Darwin
• The Myth of the Flat Earth (Summary by Jeffrey Burton Russell, author of the book Inventing the Flat Earth: Columbus & Modern Historians (ISBN 027595904X), off-site)
• The Bible refers to ‘the four corners of the earth’. How can a spherical earth have corners? (Christian Answers Network)
• Are (biblical) creationists ‘cornered’?—a response to Dr J.P. Moreland (The Bible talks of ‘the four corners of the earth’. Does this mean the days of creation could be non-literal, too?)
• ‘Pillars of the Earth’ — Does the Bible teach a mythological cosmology?
• What Shape is the Earth In? An Evaluation of Biblical Cosmology (Tekton Apologetics Ministries)
• Is the ’erets (earth) flat? Equivocal language in the geography of Genesis 1 and the Old Testament: a response to professing evangelical Paul Seely (Semi-technical)
• Seely’s response to above, plus author’s reply
• Who Invented the Flat Earth? (Flat earth myth revisited)
• Creation and the Flat Earth (Dr Danny Faukner, Creation Matters, 1997)
• Is Earth Really Round? (ICR Dr. John’s Q&A article)

See also:

• Geocentrism Q&A