Skeptic Friends Network

Username:
Password:
Save Password
Forgot your Password?
Home | Forums | Active Topics | Active Polls | Register | FAQ | Contact Us  
  Connect: Chat | SFN Messenger | Buddy List | Members
Personalize: Profile | My Page | Forum Bookmarks  
 All Forums
 Our Skeptic Forums
 Creation/Evolution
 Creationism caught in the act!
 New Topic  Reply to Topic
 Printer Friendly Bookmark this Topic BookMark Topic
Author Previous Topic Topic Next Topic  

HalfMooner
Dingaling

Philippines
15831 Posts

Posted - 07/16/2007 :  00:17:06  Show Profile Send HalfMooner a Private Message  Reply with Quote
There are a few scientists (assuming a loose definition of what a "scientist" is) who are proponents of Intelligent Design and/or Young Earth Creationism ("YEC"). Some of them are have expertise in fields not directly related to the evolution-Creationism debate. Some of them are elderly gentleman of a questionable state of mind. A few were already Creationists when they went to the trouble of obtaining a scientific degree so they could use that sheepskin as "authority" to fly a false flag of science while promoting their mystical, anti-science agenda. Jonathan Wells of the Discovery Institute is one such vivid example. The wacko Moonies funded this theologian's doctorate degree in Molecular Cell Biology from the University of California.

Another such example is Tasman Bruce Walker, a YEC from Australia, who is on the full-time staff of Creation Ministries International (formerly the Australian branch of Ken Ham's Answers in Genesis).


Tasman Walker

Already a YEC, and holding a doctorate in Mechanical Engineering, late in life Walker obtained a bachelor degree in Earth Science. Yet Walker is a firm supporter of "Biblical Geology," which insists that the earth is less than ten thousand years old, and that Noah's world-wide flood actually happened, and is responsible for all sedimentary geological evidence. YECs (including Walker) also reject radiometric dating techniques, as these produce Biblically inconvenient results.

Of course, geologists know full well that "Biblical Geology" is not geology at all, but merely fundamentalist pseudoscience. As we'll see, it's quite possible that Walker knows this, too.

Walker writes:
Giant's Causeway is said to be 60 million years old, based on radiometric dating. But radiometric dating depends on assumptions and is not the absolute certainty we are led to believe it is. Even geologists will accept radiometric dates only if they agree with what they already think the age should be.
An ancient earth is as obvious and basic to geology as evolution is to biology. Scientific geological evidence utterly contradicts any literal interpretation of the Bible's creation myth.

So how did Tasman Walker get his degree in Earth Science from the University of Queensland in 1998, if he so strongly holds such bizarrely pseudoscientific beliefs in his chosen subject?

Not by being honest. In total contradiction to the YEC beliefs he has expressed both before and after getting his degree in geology, Tasman Walker wrote a straightforward, scientific bachelor's thesis. Here is an excerpt:
The age of the complex is 225 +- 4 Ma. All members have the same age. The individual ages determined using the 40Ar/39Ar (224.2 +- 4.8 Ma) and the Rb-Sr (225.5 +- 2.3 Ma) methods are within error of each other and in remarkable agreement. The results also agree within error of the previous K-Ar determinations (Webb and McDougall, 1967).
Significantly, the use of "Ma" above refers to "millions of years before the present." In order to get his sheepskin (and to thus set himself up to become CMI's pet "geologist"), Walker actually argued for the accuracy of radiometric dating of geological material that is hundreds of millions of years old.

In other words, either Tasman Walker was lying in his thesis, or he's been lying all along about a "Young Earth." Read more about this pious fraud in No Answers in Genesis.

[Edited to insert more relevant quotes from Walker than those I first used, and to generally punch up the posting.]


Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive.

Edited by - HalfMooner on 07/16/2007 09:47:01

pleco
SFN Addict

USA
2998 Posts

Posted - 07/16/2007 :  09:24:41   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit pleco's Homepage Send pleco a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Thou shall not bear false witness...unless you are "bearing" to infidels, or you think it is justified by God (see Thou shall not kill).

See! No problemo!

by Filthy
The neo-con methane machine will soon be running at full fart.
Go to Top of Page

The Rat
SFN Regular

Canada
1370 Posts

Posted - 08/11/2007 :  17:44:45   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit The Rat's Homepage Send The Rat a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by HalfMooner

There are a few scientists (assuming a loose definition of what a "scientist" is)...


They are quite plainly NOT scientists. In order to be scientists they must be working from a naturalistic basis. Since they work from a supernaturalistic basis they cannot be doing science, therefore they cannot be scientists.

Originally posted by HalfMooner

Another such example is Tasman Bruce Walker, a YEC from Australia,...


Why does it seem that Australia is a breeding ground for these whackos? Must be all the Fosters.

Bailey's second law; There is no relationship between the three virtues of intelligence, education, and wisdom.

You fiend! Never have I encountered such corrupt and foul-minded perversity! Have you ever considered a career in the Church? - The Bishop of Bath and Wells, Blackadder II

Baculum's page: http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=3947338590
Go to Top of Page
  Previous Topic Topic Next Topic  
 New Topic  Reply to Topic
 Printer Friendly Bookmark this Topic BookMark Topic
Jump To:

The mission of the Skeptic Friends Network is to promote skepticism, critical thinking, science and logic as the best methods for evaluating all claims of fact, and we invite active participation by our members to create a skeptical community with a wide variety of viewpoints and expertise.


Home | Skeptic Forums | Skeptic Summary | The Kil Report | Creation/Evolution | Rationally Speaking | Skeptillaneous | About Skepticism | Fan Mail | Claims List | Calendar & Events | Skeptic Links | Book Reviews | Gift Shop | SFN on Facebook | Staff | Contact Us

Skeptic Friends Network
© 2008 Skeptic Friends Network Go To Top Of Page
This page was generated in 0.06 seconds.
Powered by @tomic Studio
Snitz Forums 2000