The Minimal-Facts Fallacy

Posted on November 28, 2024 by Duane Caldwell — Leave a reply

Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden with a Therapod dinosaur

Adam, Eve and a therapod dinosaur in the garden of Eden (Gen 1.24-30)

Having just dealt with similar issues in the previous article on Hugh Ross’ mis-directions, I felt a twinge of déjà vu as I read through an “A Minimal-Facts Case for Genesis”[1]. The author appears to have a problem with the teachings of origins as laid out in Genesis. He summarizes the main points of the Biblical origin account as:

1. God created the universe, Earth, and all life in six 24-hour days.
2. The Earth is only 6000 years old.
3. Common descent (i.e. “evolution”) is false.
4. Humans coexisted with dinosaurs.
5. Noah fit the ancestors of all present-day animals on the Ark.
6. The Flood covered the entire Earth, killing all other humans and land animals.[2]

Fujianvenator Prodigiosus – New Dino find puts Evolutionary Storytelling on Display

Posted on September 30, 2023 by Duane Caldwell

Fujianvenator Prodigiosus (artist impression) Credit: Chuang Zhao

The prestigious science magazine Nature featured[1] a curious newly discovered dinosaur called Fujianvenator Prodigiosus which is causing a stir concerning their ludicrous theory that certain therapod dinosaurs evolved into birds. They’re quite serious about that story though and the fact that they don’t quite know where to place this dinosaur into that fictional setting is causing problems forcing a “rethink of bird evolution” as the title puts it. But it does make a good case study for our purposes to see how evolutionists weave their tales of fiction by misconstruing the evidence by building on their previous lines of fiction.

A Dinosaur by any other name …

Posted on October 29, 2021 by Duane Caldwell

A Therapod dinosaur, AIG's Creation Museum, KY

The title is of course a play on the line from Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, where Juliet laments the fact that her new found love Romeo is from the family of Montague. The two families, the Montagues and Juliet’s family, the Capulets, have been feuding for some time, which sometimes erupted into dueling. The animosity between the two families sets the background for the play. Juliet expresses her dismay with the famous discourse that begins with “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” and includes the lines:

‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What’s Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;

Juliet’s well put and clear meaning being that Romeo would still be Romeo if he were called by any other name. Which is where we pick it up concerning dinosaurs.

Dinosaurs by Any Other Name are Still Dinosaurs

I originally wanted to call this article “Dragons are Dinosaurs.” But dinosaurs are also called by other names and perhaps just as importantly the term “Dinosaur” is limited to land-dwelling creatures, but I want to cover flying and swimming creatures as well. Continue Reading

The Self-Refuting Dino to Bird Theory

Posted on July 19, 2021 by Duane Caldwell

Sinosauropteryx fossil Note dark region on along the back – claimed by evolutionists to be feathers.

Don’t laugh, but dyed-in-the-wool evolutionists believe that therapod dinosaurs like T-Rex evolved into birds. In fact they don’t stop there. They also believe that dinosaurs didn’t really go extinct. They’ll tell you when you’re looking at birds, you’re looking at dinosaurs. “We don’t have to talk about how dinosaurs went extinct anymore because they’re all around us. Once you realize that, you can never look at a bird the same way again”[1] says ornithologist and evolutionary biologist Rick Prum. A recent article on the topic of dino to bird evolution states in the subtitle “Birds aren’t descended from dinosaurs, They are dinosaurs.”[2] So yes, they really believe dinosaurs evolved into birds. Continue Reading

Is the Bible full of fantastic creatures? Part 8: The Dragon and The Beast

Posted on March 30, 2020 by Duane Caldwell

On May 9, 2012 a Russian-made Sukhoi Superjet 100 on a demonstration flight with 45 souls aboard slammed into Mount Salak south of Jakarta, Indonesia killing all aboard. What has that got to do with the dragon – the red seven headed dragon – you wonder? Bear with me a bit and I’ll make the connection. But before going into that, for this final installment of the series, let me remind you of a couple of points made in the opening article of the series.

First, the list of items (reproduced verbatim) that this atheist finds objectionable and unbelievable that this series has addressed:

“He follows a holy book with a jealous & genocidal god, ghosts, zombies, seers, devils, demons, witches, satyrs, unicorns, talking animals, a man who lived in a fish and a 7 headed dragon.”[1]
(Not listed but also covered: The Cockatrice; and thrown in with this article: The Beast of Rev 13.)

As I said in the initial article, it doesn’t concern me that an atheist has a problem with these things. It does, however, concern me that believers in God and those seeking the truth might be challenged by charges like this leveled by unbelieving atheists. So I wanted to demonstrate there is a clear, rational answer for each item in the list. In this series, the biblical intent behind each item – if it exists – is explained; and those that don’t exist are identified. Continue Reading

Is the Bible full of fantastic creatures? Part 1: Jealous God and Unicorns?

Posted on August 13, 2019 by Duane Caldwell

An atheist on twitter was frustrated that I was following my own advice about not providing evidence to mockers.[1] So in his frustration he did what mockers do: engaged in ridicule and mocking. In an attempt to deride and ridicule the faith he proceeded to tell others what he thinks I believe:

“He follows a holy book with a jealous & genocidal god, ghosts, zombies, seers, devils, demons, witches, satyrs, unicorns, talking animals, a man who lived in a fish and a 7 headed dragon.”[2]

Clearly he takes exception to all of these. But since he is an atheist, that neither surprises, nor concerns me. The question I do want to address however is what are we believers and people who are seeking the truth to think about what many would consider mythical creatures in the list? With that in mind let’s look at what the Bible has to say about each of these items, plus one that is usually questioned, but not in his list: a talking snake. So let’s look at these one by one in the light of what the holy book – the Bible – says about them. But before I start, let me highlight the main problem: Continue Reading

Are young earth evidences needed to defend Christian Faith?

Posted on July 18, 2019 by Duane Caldwell

10 Young earth evidences and why they’re needed

Does the age of the earth matter to your faith? The witnessing approach known as Evangelism Explosion was known for its diagnostic questions[1], so let me take that approach and ask a few diagnostic questions. Answer yes or no to the following:

Question 1: Does the account of the creation of the universe as presented in Genesis depict literal events in a historical manner the way the gospels present the life of Jesus in a historical manner?

Question 2: Is it important to stand up for a “literal” understanding of the creation of the universe as depicted in Genesis the way we stand up for a “literal” understanding of the death and resurrection of Jesus?

Question 3: Are you as proud and willing to stand for and defend the doctrine of creation as depicted in Genesis – in 6 days – as you are to stand for and defend the resurrection of Jesus on the third day?

Human and Dino tracks and Why Atheists Can’t Find Evidence of God – Part 2

Posted on September 10, 2018 by Duane Caldwell

Alvis Delk Human Dinosaur footprints at the Creation Evidence Museum

Before we get to the meat of the matter, I’m sure some are wondering “Where is Part 1?” Sometimes a better name for an article occurs to you after you’ve already published it. Such is the case with the previous article, which should have been titled something like:

Why Atheists Can’t Find Evidence of God (Part 1)
or
Why Atheists Can’t Find Evidence of Intelligent Design
or
Why Evolutionists Can’t Find Evidence of Creation

And while in this digital age of online publishing though it is possible to change the title, it still seems a bit unseemly, so I have left it with the original title. But for those who are wondering where Part 1 is, that’s where it is, titled with a question meant to get you thinking about one of the main reasons why atheists can’t find evidence of God (and why evolutions can’t find evidence of intelligent design.)

Part 1 lays out two reasons why atheists can’t find either evidence of God or Intelligent design; and in similar fashion why evolutionists can’t find evidence of Creation. Those reasons are: Continue Reading

UnMasking Mistakes in Memes of Evolution – Part 2

Posted on March 19, 2017 by Duane Caldwell

Unmasking Mistakes in Memes 2

As I explained in the opening article of this series, the purpose of this series is to unmask the faulty logic and science behind defenses given for evolutionary thought. These faulty reasons wind up in memes presented as pseudoscientific (read false) explanations for why creationists are supposedly wrong when pointing out the various and numerous problems of evolution. So in this series I’ll point out why the claims evolutionists use to defend their faulty theory are wrong and why such explanations actually provide no defense for the failed theory of evolution.

In this group of evolutionary memes we’ll see primarily three types of problems:

1. Denials of basic evolutionary belief
2. Claims with no evidence, and/or no defense
3. Claims which avoid the issue and never address the problem that has been pointed out

Okay, so here we go. Links are provided for easy sharing Continue Reading

Why have so many humans seen dinosaurs?

Posted on July 17, 2016 by Duane Caldwell

The full title of this article is too long to use for a blog article (which is why the shortened version appears), so let me put the full title here:

If dinosaurs died out 63 million years before humans existed
Why have so many humans seen dinosaurs?

Evolutionary theory claims that the age of dinosaurs began about 250 million years ago and ended 65 million years ago when they were wiped out by what many secularist believe was a huge asteroid strike. Humans, the theory claims, only came on the scene 2 million years go. (For a pictorial, see this timeline.) So according to evolutionary theory, the last dinosaurs died out some 63 million years before humans existed, and no human should ever have seen a living dinosaur. If that is the case why have so many humans in all countries in all ages persistently claimed to have seen dinosaurs? This article suggests that the reason is two fold: 1. The earth is not that old, it is about 6,000 years old so the evolutionary time frame is entirely off, and 2: Humans and dinosaurs were both created on day 6 (Gen 1.24-26; 31) when God made all the other land creatures. We will examine the evidence for item 2: that humans and dinosaurs were created on the same day, and thus have lived together concurrently on the earth for as long as the earth has existed.

But before we get started, let’s clear the path of red herrings. Continue Reading