Todd's Blog

So I joined Facebook recently.  I've been a holdout for years, the grumpy old man that refused to join this pointless and invasive timewaster.  But I've been considering the advantages for some time now, especially for someone trying to build a ministry and an audience, and so I finally just took the plunge. I admit that it's fun reconnecting with people I haven't seen for years, and my personal Facebook has a different audience than Core Academy's.  The fun and novelty has quickly worn off, though.  I continue to be shocked almost every day at the cruel and wicked things that people post.  I see things from the "right" and the "left," and they're all just terrible.  What happened to videos of kittens and little kids doing silly things?  What happened to kindness and compassion?  What happened to "love your enemy?" Creationists get a lot of flak for refusing to allow comments on their websites, like this one for example.  Sup

For those who like to keep up with what I'm doing, I've got three big events in the next three months that you might be interested in.  First up, I'll be in Colorado in two weeks for a public creation discussion with Darrel Falk.  We'll be at Front Range Christian School in Littleton, CO on January 27 at 6:30 pm.  The event is open to the public.  For more information, visit the FRCS website: In February, I'll be in California for the debut of Is Genesis History?  and to speak at the 2017 Science Summit at the Master's University.   Is Genesis History?  is a documentary film featuring yours truly talking about created kinds, along with a bunch of other creationist researchers talking about their research.  It will be in theaters only on February 23.  Check their website for theater information and tickets. During the same trip, I'll be speaking at the Master's University for their Science Summit, "God's First Man."  My presentatio

Monday, I posted my response to David MacMillan at the Panda's Thumb for his criticism of AIG's peer review of an exchange I had with O'Micks over the finer points of statistical baraminology.  Now I don't really want to get into a stupid argument over the internet, but there have been some responses in the comments to that article that are so perfect that I think we have an opportunity to learn a little more. So let's learn a little more. To review: MacMillan wrote his article to criticize  Answers Research Journal for editorial shenanigans.  According to MacMillan, "Posting a concurrent rebuttal demonstrates that ARJ’s claims of academic integrity and peer review are pure nonsense." In my response I pointed out a number of factual errors in MacMillan's article, most awkward of which was that sentence above.  Publishing a critique and rebuttal concurrently is extremely common .  There's absolutely nothing about that singular act that says

My recent exchange with O'Micks in ARJ  has drawn some outside attention at the Panda's Thumb blog .  For those not up to speed on such things, Panda's Thumb is a popular anti-creationist blog.  The author at PT is David MacMillan, who has a degree in physics and writes publicly against creationism.  I was struck first by the title of his article, "Disagreement over Homo naledi offers fascinating peek into creationist peer review."  Before I read the piece, I wasn't sure exactly what our exchange would have to do with peer review. MacMillan's article doesn't have much to do with peer review.  In fact, the author takes this disagreement as an opportunity to chastise Answers in Genesis (AIG).  He correctly noted that creationists have thus far not espoused any sort of consensus on what Homo naledi  is, and he scorned AIG's "knee-jerk response" that H. naledi  was not human.  In the interest of fairness, I should clarify here that that re

On New Year's Eve, anthropologist John Hawks asked, "What questions should paleoanthropologists be focusing on in the upcoming year?" on Twitter and Facebook.  Based on 40 responses, he quickly posted his own thoughts on New Year's Day,  Can we build a science of human evolution that people can trust? What struck me most about this exchange was one of the questions that he addresses towards the end of his post:   Why should taxpayers continue to fund our research?   Part of his response: Our field ignores the voices of the broader public. In the United States, human evolutionary scientists have been treating the voices of more than half the country with derision. If more than half the taxpayers no longer want to fund our science, it is because of our history. People don’t trust us. Wow, I think he's right.  I'm unfortunately not really accustomed to seeing such self-reflection from the scientific world.  I don't want to overgeneralize, but there is de

The time for Core Academy's  Smoky Mountain Creation Retreat  is soon upon us again, and we've set March 17-19, 2017 as the date for our annual retreat.   I've asked Marcus Ross to lead our discussions this year on the theme of "The Fossil Record."  What will we talk about?  Beats me.  It's a big topic, but it will be fun as always. This year, we had to move the venue.  For the past two retreats, we went to a really nice house in Beech Mountain, NC, but it was already booked when I tried to reserve it.  In fact, it's pretty much booked solid for the entire spring (popular place).  After looking around a bit, I think I found a suitable replacement in Pigeon Forge, TN.  It will be more accessible by highway, but it won't have quite the same mountain charm as Beech Mountain.  Most importantly, though, the new place has TEN bathrooms instead of two.  We've had some complaints about the line for the bathroom in past years, so this should help a lot