Evolutionist Sees AiG as a Threat

A writer for the journal Nature recently wrote an item that accused an AiG writer of misrepresenting a paper in Nature. When I read it, I asked AiG researcher Steve Golden to help me write a blog post about it. I believe this situation in academia shows clearly that many ardent evolutionists just don’t want people to know if another secularist disagrees with what they are saying. In fact, we’ve found that many evolutionists get upset when creationists use their own arguments against them—and then they claim we misrepresented what they said. See for yourself as you read this item that Steve Golden and I have written.

The “Creationist Threat”

Looks like we’ve struck a nerve with the evolutionists! In the April 5 issue of Nature it was announced that China is the home to a fossil of an alleged “feathered” dinosaur. Dr. Elizabeth Mitchell, an AiG writer, offered a response to this article in our weekly web publication, News to Note.

In her response, Dr. Mitchell pointed out that, “Despite the tendency of the media and many evolutionists to continually refer to the existence of feathered dinosaurs as an established fact, not all evolutionists agree with that claim.” Dr. Mitchell goes on to make the point that “calling a genuinely feathered fossil a dinosaur does not make that creature a dinosaur,” and that the same is true of what may look like fossilized feather structures.

It looks like a writer with Nature saw AiG’s stand on the supposed feathered dinosaur, and he decided to give a response of his own titled “Reach out to defend evolution.” Russell Garwood, a paleontologist at the University of Manchester in the UK, claimed that there is “widespread agreement” that dinosaurs evolved from birds, with the exception of a few skeptical scientists. Furthermore, he wrote that Answers in Genesis “exploited this disagreement.”

What seems to be the problem here, however, is not that Dr. Mitchell “exploited” any disagreement with evolutionary ideas—she simply pointed out that there is disagreement. Rather, it seems that the problem is that she mentioned any disagreement at all. Indeed, Garwood treated the feathered dinosaur belief as though it is settled. “[AiG] had presented an exciting discovery and a genuine scientific debate (albeit one that has almost run its course) as evidence against evolution, rather than as attempts to refine knowledge in this interesting area.”

Garwood continued, claiming that Dr. Mitchell “misrepresented the Nature paper and disagreement about the equivalence of dinosaur feathers and bird feathers.” Yet Dr. Mitchell quoted the findings directly from the paper. She also directly quoted Alan Feduccia, a paleontologist at the University of North Carolina, who disagrees with the feathered dinosaur idea, saying it is based on “unsound and misleading information.”

Garwood addressed some other arguments against evolution in his column and finally closed his response by saying, “Ignoring the creationist threat will not make it go away. As scientists, we owe it to the schoolchildren of Tennessee and elsewhere to find another way to beat it.”

The question that always comes to mind when we read statements like that from evolutionists is this. If you believe creationism is false and evolutionary ideas are correct, then creationism isn’t a threat, so why treat it like it is?

It’s amazing to us that so many evolutionists downplay the disagreement among their own peers on ideas like dinosaurs evolving into birds, as though there is no doubt about the truth of these claims. Of course, we know from Genesis 1:21 that God created “every winged bird according to its kind.” God’s Word is our authority. Viewing this discovery through the lens of Scripture means we see that dinosaurs could not have evolved into birds. It also means that fossils like the one described in Nature require a non-evolutionary explanation. In fact, all the evidence we find in paleontology, archaeology, and other areas of science only serves to confirm the Bible’s account of Creation, the Flood, and rest of history.

Dr. Mitchell has written an article responding to Garwood’s claims. You can read it on the Answers in Genesis website.

Transit of Venus Today!

The transit of planet Venus—when Venus crosses between the sun and Earth—begins around 3:00pm Pacific time and will last for a few hours. This is a rare but exciting event—it won’t happen again until 2117! I encourage you to watch it.

An important reminder: You must wear solar glasses or use a telescope with solar filters to view the transit. (For safety information, read this article.)

If you don’t have access to solar glasses or a telescope with solar filters, you can watch the transit on a live NASA webcast.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken