Acts & Facts & Answers

I'm back from my holiday travels, and what a time I had! It's always good to get away and get refreshed for the new year. I thought I'd kick things off by drawing your attention to some interesting items in recent creationist publications.

First, the latest issue of Answers magazine is themed around fossils. As usual, they've got actual experts writing about their own fields. Marcus Ross and Kurt Wise have several articles on various paleontological topics. I was also pleased with the coverage of the dinosaur dig at Hanson Research Station on pp. 56-59 by John Upchurch. It's so encouraging to see outstanding creationist research being celebrated and valued. I hope it continues.

Also delightful - and surprisingly pointed - was Andrew Snelling's article "Order in the Fossil Record" (pp. 64-68). Andrew tackles head-on the claims that the geologic column is a false, evolutionary, uninformitarian idea imposed on layers of rock that do not support it. This is basically George McCready Price's core "doctrine" explained in his many geology books. It was repackaged for a wider protestant audience (Price was SDA) by Whitcomb and Morris in their classic The Genesis Flood, and it endures among a number of self-styled geologists and a tiny minority of trained creationist geologists. Andrew pulls no punches, citing directly individuals who have recently espoused this view. He then explains just one location where the column can be found pretty much intact and how the Flood can provide a framework for understanding the column. Fun stuff.

Speaking of Andrew Snelling, I see the latest issue of Acts & Facts has a two-page spread advertising his new book Earth's Catastrophic Past. As I've noted before, it's a two-volume monster that retails for $59.95. Since it will undoubtedly become a classic of creationist geology, I'm eager to get my hands on a copy. Shock of all shocks?!?!? It's finally available to order!! (It wasn't there yesterday when I checked.) ICR has it for $59.95. Amazon and Barnes & Noble don't have listings for it yet, but I'll let you know when they show up.

There were many other interesting articles published while I was away, and I still owe you something on the maize genome, which is really interesting. I'll be commenting on those items in the coming days/weeks. Stay tuned.