“Creation Scientists Aren’t Real Scientists and Don’t Do Real Research.”

Such statements are often heard from evolutionists when confronted with creationist objections against their theory. It is a classic ad hominem argument—in other words, attack the person in lieu of refuting his argument. But besides that, it is simply false. And the International Conference on Creationism (ICC) held near Pittsburgh, PA, USA, 3–9 August, is one piece of evidence of that fact.

Attended by 325 people, this was the fifth ICC. The Creation Science Fellowship in Pittsburgh has been organizing and hosting this conference about every four years since 1986. Its purpose is to stimulate the development and refinement of a scientifically detailed model of the origin and history of the world consistent with the truths of Genesis 1–11. Most of the 55 papers at this year’s ICC were in the Technical Track. The twelve papers in the Basic Track were designed for people wanting an introduction to the creationist view at a relatively non-technical level. Each presenter had one hour for the lecture followed by 30 minutes of Q&A.

Some of the most well attended technical papers (which were all peer-reviewed) were from the scientists in the RATE group. RATE stands for Radioisotopes and the Age of The Earth. This international group of seven scientists (with PhD’s in physics, geology, atmospheric physics and geophysics) is in the fifth year of an 8-year research project involving theoretical, laboratory and field studies. For many years creationists have cited plenty of evidence that these dating methods are not reliable, but this current research is trying to establish just what these decay processes are telling us. The RATE scientists presented some very exciting research results that will strengthen Christians’ confidence in the literal truth of Genesis and put evolutionists on the defensive on this issue.

Besides the RATE papers, there were presentations on the place of caves in the post-Flood world, Fibonacci numbers in nature, tree-ring dating, worldwide myths about Creation and the Flood, creation of elements from water, cutting edge research on nautiloid fossils in Grand Canyon, the 19^th century origin of old-earth geology, Hebrew and geological analysis of Genesis 7–8, the historical roots of the idea of progress, biological classification of the original created kinds and many other interesting topics.

In addition to papers during the day, evening sessions were open to the public. On the first night Dr John Morris, president of the Institute for Creation Research, addressed the necessary future of creation science. Later in the week, Ken Ham, founder/president of AiG–USA, gave a powerful message to about 600 people on the foundational importance and practical relevance of the origins issue, and in particular the significance of scientific research in the ‘big picture.’

At least one staunch evolutionist attended the conference. He was so impressed with the scientific excellence of the papers that he admitted to one of the presenters that he was going to have to do some hard thinking about what he heard. He also lamented the fact that more evolutionists were not there to hear the results of creationist research.

There is one other strange thing about the evolutionists’ charge that creation scientists are not real scientists doing real research. That is the fact that all these creation scientists obtained their PhDs under the tutelage of evolutionists, in some cases quite prominent evolutionists. So by labeling creationists as non-scientists the evolutionists are actually attacking the scientific and teaching competencies of their fellow evolutionists!

AiG thanks the Creation Science Fellowship for sponsoring the ICC conferences. They have been a great help to the church and contributed much to the cause of truth. Interested readers may obtain the published proceedings of the technical papers with a CD of PowerPoint^® slides for each lecture from our bookstore.

May God raise up an increasing number of young people with advanced scientific degrees to further explode the myth that creation scientists are not real scientists doing real research and to further confirm and illuminate the truth of God’s holy Word.