Todd's Blog

The Origins 2017 call for abstracts is now available at the Creation Biology website: Origins 2017 Call for Abstracts This year, the conference is in sunny San Diego at San Diego Christian College on July 20-22.  The conference begins Thursday morning and runs through Friday, with a field trip planned for Saturday.  We'll open registration once we finalize the costs, but for now, get your abstracts in!  And please tell your friends, students, and colleagues.   ABSTRACTS ARE DUE MAY 5, 2017! Feedback? Email me at toddcharleswood [at] gmail [dot] com. If you enjoyed this article, please consider a contribution to Core Academy of Science. Thank you.

Tully Monster Sometimes creationists criticize theistic evolutionists because merging theology and the science of the day is always dependent on what exactly the science of the day is. Historically, we know that science changes. We know there are big "paradigm shifts" that change our perspective on every part of a field, even though such shifts are rare. Modifying theology in light of the changing landscape of science seems like a poor idea, especially if you want to mess around with more important issues of Christian theology. Perhaps it's best to leave the theology alone, and wait to see if the science modifies itself. Unfortunately, what I think is a legitimate point about the nature of science often comes across quite badly.  I've heard creationists sneering at reports of scientists changing their minds. I've heard creationists laughing at such reports and saying, "Scientists really don't know anything!" Others have exclaimed, "It...

It's been a while since I checked in with a report on our research. Things have been coming along pretty well in the trillium project . We've gotten some genomic DNA sequences from our trillium samples, but we're still working on getting the ones we're looking for. The next batch of sequences look promising, so I'm hopeful we'll start making substantial progress on that work in the very near future. Our other intern is working on created kinds of mammals , and while she ploughs through all of that, I've been playing around with beetles.  Specifically, the weevils of superfamily Curculionoidea. The tricky thing about insect created kinds is that they are so diverse. The weevil superfamily contains about 60,000 species, most of which are in the weevil family Curculionidae. That's a lot of species. Previous studies of vertebrates have hinted that the family classification might be roughly equivalent to a created kind in some instances, but we don...

Is Genesis History?  has been shown twice now, and I've been casually following reactions, mostly on social media. I've been alternately sympathetic to and dumbfounded by the negative reactions.  In this post, I want to deal with one major recurring theme, which, as you've already guessed, is the false dichotomy. The day the movie opened, Paul Nelson, one of the experts in the film, posted a dissent from the film  on the day it opened, and I got some emails asking me what's going on. Paul's concerned about what he sees as a "false dichotomy" between historical Genesis and the "conventional view," which he described in the movie as "all the complexity of life [constructed] by strictly physical processes" (his quote).  According to Paul, it's possible to question the historicity of certain parts or interpretations of Genesis and still believe that God had to intervene to create life or major groups of creatures.  The dichotomy as...

We're probably just hours or maybe a day from the official announcement, but I have a tip this morning from a "confidential source" about Homo naledi . Evidently, the rumors and hints of a second burial site are true. There's an exquisitely preserved skull, and there is a surprisingly recent date for the naledi remains. If you'd like to know more, head over to Amazon and check the "Look inside" for Berger's new book Almost Human . It contains a surprising amount of spoilers on pp. 213-217, or you can just search for "Chamber 102." You better hurry, though, before they figure out what they've leaked. On the official side of things,  SABC has a story about a new exhibition of  Homo naledi  fossils coming soon . Feedback? Email me at toddcharleswood [at] gmail [dot] com. If you enjoyed this article, please consider a contribution to Core Academy of Science. Thank you.