Todd's Blog

The weirdness of 2020 continued last week with our first Origins conference conducted entirely online.  It was my first time in 20 years that I didn't travel somewhere and meet up with people for this conference, but this was a pretty decent facsimile all things considered.  I need to pause here and give a gigantic thank you to CBS president Matt McLain and his army of students who pulled this thing off in basically a month.  We were scrambling to get everything edited and recruit speakers, and frankly, it turned out well.  It was far and away the biggest attendance we've ever had at an Origins conference!  I was very encouraged by the whole thing, even though I missed the personal time hanging out and talking about anything and everything. The format was pretty simple.  There was a regular schedule of pre-recorded lectures that was punctuated by meetings and Q&A sessions conducted on Zoom.  So we'd meet in the morning on Zoom (usually about 40-50%...

Remember that you have one week from Sunday to turn in your abstracts for the Origins 2012 conference . We should have ticketing information available very soon (maybe next week). Feedback? Email me at toddcharleswood [at] gmail [dot] com.

Just a quick reminder that the deadline to submit biology and geology abstracts to the annual conference of the Creation Biology Society and Creation Geology Society is less than three weeks away on April 1 .  See the full call for abstracts here: 2012 Call for Abstracts Feedback? Email me at toddcharleswood [at] gmail [dot] com.

Times are changing, and so is the Creation Biology Society. Recently, our long-time treasurer Tim Brophy resigned his position to pursue other callings in his personal life. At the same time, our long-time editor Roger Sanders has taken on additional responsibilities at Bryan College, and he was also looking for relief from his editorial duties. As a result, the Executive Council of the Creation Biology Society elected Roger as the new treasurer and Joe Francis of The Master's College as executive editor. Roger served faithfully as our editor for ten years, and we definitely want to thank him for his service to the CBS. Remember also that abstracts for Origins 2012, to be held on the campus of Patrick Henry College, are due April 1, 2012. Godspeed to Joe Francis, who will be overseeing the editing of all of these abstracts this year! Call for Abstracts Feedback? Email me at toddcharleswood [at] gmail [dot] com.

Origins 2012, the annual joint conference of the Creation Biology Society and the Creation Geology Society, will be held at Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, VA on July 25-28, 2012.  The CBS and CGS invite abstract submissions for Origins 2012. We seek submissions relevant to the life and earth sciences and the issue of origins.  Submissions must offer positive, constructive interpretations or criticisms.  Abstracts that are primarily negative or destructive in tone will not be accepted.  All abstracts will be reviewed by an editor and at least one other specialist.  Submissions will be judged on scientific merit, adherence to the guidelines, and relevance to creationism. Abstracts are due  April 1, 2012 For complete information, check the Origins 2012 call for abstracts . Feedback? Email me at toddcharleswood [at] gmail [dot] com.

From the website of the Creation Biology Society : Journal of Creation Theology and Science Series B: Life Sciences Special Issue: Baramins Call for Papers The editorial board of JCTSB is planning to publish a special issue in summer 2012 with the theme of identification of baramins. Papers suitable for this issue include reviews of the hybridization literature of particular groups or full-blown original statistical baraminological analyses. Methodological papers or critiques will also be considered. Longer papers will be published as research articles; shorter papers (e.g., former abstracts expanded to include more detailed methods, data, and results, as well as brief discussions) will be published as research reports. Each paper should be written according to the standard JCTSB formatting requirements. We invite researchers to submit appropriate papers via the User Home Page of the JCTSB website ( http://www.bryancore.org/jcts/ ) upon registering with the journal. Questi...

On the final day of Origins 2011, we tried something new: a conference specifically designed for the general public. I think it went well, and we learned a lot of things that will hopefully improve next year's conference tremendously. The final panel discussion on Already Compromised was especially intriguing and eye-opening. I think folks experienced a bit of discomfort with the revelation that most Christian colleges (even the creationist ones) teach about evolution. We don't teach that evolution is true, of course, but we definitely teach information about evolution so that our students will be prepared when they encounter it after graduation. Here's a few images from our final days in South Dakota: Joe Francis talking about microbes (one of his favorite topics): Some of the posters presented at the conference: Paul Garner at Mt. Rushmore (or a reasonable facsimile thereof at the Reptile Gardens ): Feedback? Email me at toddcharleswood [at] gmail [do...

The second day of the Origins 2011 conference was dedicated to the technical geology presentations. We got an update on the Coconino sandstone project from John Whitmore, and we had a lively session on the Flood/post-Flood boundary. Since we had a few talks cancelled, we decided to use the extra time to tour the Museum of Geology at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. We closed the day with John Morris's reflections on The Genesis Flood . That was a great opportunity to recall the importance of the book, and we learned that Walter Lammerts was tough to sit next to in the car. Who knew? At our business meeting, we voted in a new member of the Executive Council of the Creation Biology Society: Tom Hennigan. Welcome, Tom! We also announced next year's conference venue, Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, VA. We've got one more day of the conference, beginning with my plenary on "Frontiers in Creation Biology." Feedback? Email me at to...

The first day of Origins 2011 was a great success! The technical talks sparked a lot of interesting discussion and debate, and Art Chadwick's plenary on his dinosaur dig at the Hanson Research Station was well received. The crowd was also one of our biggest. Of special interest to me was Lantzer and Daniels's survey of Christian high school biology textbooks. They argued (shockingly) that when discussing origins (i.e. creation/evolution), Christian texts spend too much time on apologetics rather than science. Remedy? Talk more about science. What a brilliant idea. I'm looking forward to seeing their full paper. Feedback? Email me at toddcharleswood [at] gmail [dot] com.

I went on my first geology field trip today, which was fascinating. Perhaps more culturally fascinating to me than scientifically fascinating, but I still enjoyed myself. (I admit that a lot of the geological detail was over my head.) Here we are at an outcropping of the "Great Unconformity:" Speaking as a biologist, I thought the Unconformity was pretty good. I don't know about "great," but that's probably because I haven't seen it across most of the continental United States, which I guess would make it pretty great. Steve Austin interpreted the Great Unconformity in the Grand Canyon as the onset of the Flood, where the initial Flood waters eroded off the existing rocks from the pre-Flood world. Meanwhile, the conference abstracts are available at the JCTS website , along with a short editorial from Tim Clarey on the launch of JCTS Series C: Earth Science . Creation Biology Society 2011 Abstracts Creation Geology Society 2011 Editorial an...

Despite an unscheduled 24-hour layover in Chicago, I have safely arrived in Rapid City for Origins 2011. It's a little overcast, but otherwise fairly pleasant. In about two hours, I will head off to the Black Hills to look at rocks with a bunch of geologists, which I think will be more fun than it sounds. Check back later for a brief rundown of the field trip, and then tomorrow we start the conference. Feedback? Email me at toddcharleswood [at] gmail [dot] com.

Back in February, I announced that we'd rebranded the BSG as the Creation Biology Society , since that makes more sense than an acronym that doesn't stand for anything. By dropping BSG, we also needed to change the name of our journal Occasional Papers of the BSG . We decided to use this name change as an opportunity to update the software to Open Journal Systems, and while we were making those changes, we invited the Creation Geology Society to join us in publishing this new online journal. We settled on Journal of Creation Theology and Science for the new name, with the CBS publishing JCTS Series B: Life Sciences and the CGS publishing JCTS Series C: Earth Sciences . Where's JCTS Series A ? We're earnestly hoping and praying that within the next year or two, we'll be able to launch a new journal devoted to theological and biblical studies, and we've reserved Series A for that purpose. The debut issue of JCTSB is now available (hosted by CORE at Bry...

Some of you probably remember that I announced a special bonus to this year's CBS/CGS conference, Origins 2011. Here's the original announcement: Post-Meeting 2-day Public Conference: ORIGINS 2011 Date: July 29-30 (Friday evening, Saturday) Another exciting announcement: in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the publication of The Genesis Flood, the CGS and CBS are pleased to announce their first-ever public conference. Friday night and all day Saturday, speakers in the fields of theology, biology, geology, and other disciplines will commemorate the impact of The Genesis Flood, and update the public on significant advances in young-Earth creationism. The finalized speaker list will be posted as soon as possible. We haven't yet finalized the speaker list, but I can give you a sneak peak of what you can expect. Our intrepid conference organizer Marcus Ross has confirmed these speakers: John Morris Randy Guliuzza Steven Austin Art Chadwick Joe Francis We're st...

Registration for Origins 2011, the annual joint meeting of the Creation Biology Society and the Creation Geology Society, is now available at the CBS website (scroll past the Call for Abstracts, which are due April 30). This year, our conference chair is Marcus Ross, and he wants us to know about several extras available in addition to our regular meeting: Pre-Meeting Geology Field Trip Date: Wednesday, July 27, 2011 In addition to our society meetings, the CGS will host a pre-meeting field trip of the geology of the Black Hills. This will be a day-long trip with van transportation, and we will visit a number of prominent geologic features and locations in the Black Hills, including Precambrian basement rocks, the Great Unconformity, vast marine deposits, and more. Here’s a great opportunity to see some beautiful geology up-close, and have a great time of discussion with trip leaders and fellow participants. Cost includes transportation, a boxed lunch, snacks, and drinks. P...

The formal call for abstracts for Origins 2011, the CBS/CGS joint conference, is available at the CBS website . Here's the full text: Origins 2011: Call for Abstracts The summer conference of the Creation Biology and Creation Geology Societies will be held at South Canyon Baptist Church in Rapid City, South Dakota on July 27-29, 2011.  We invite abstract submissions relevant to the life and earth sciences and the issue of origins.  Submissions must offer positive, constructive interpretations or criticisms.  All abstracts will be reviewed by an editor and at least one other specialist.  Submissions will be judged on scientific merit, adherence to the guidelines, and relevance to creationism. Guidelines Abstracts should not be longer than 700 words. Examples of published abstracts can be found in the Conference Proceedings issues of the Occasional Papers of the BSG . Abstracts may include references (which are counted in the 700 word limit). A...