Todd's Blog

Working at Core Academy, I spend a lot of time thinking (and praying) about the next generation.  I am well aware of the loss of young believers that's been going on for decades now.  I know that the reasons are actually quite complicated, far more than just a failure to indoctrinate them adequately.  Of course, one issue that gets raised a lot in the creation debate is evolution.  Based on lots of anecdotal evidence, when young people encounter evolutionary concept, some of them bail on believing in creation, and some even bail on Christianity altogether.  What you think evolution is doing depends on what side of the creation/evolution debate you're on.  Some, like me, find evolution fundamentally incompatible with Christianity, and therefore those persuaded by evolution are more likely to fall away from the faith.  Others believe that creationists are misleading Christian young people and setting them up for failure when they learn "the truth" abo...

Really?  A fossilized shoe?  Maybe not...  Check out the strange story of John Reid's crusade to have a peculiar rock recognized as a spectacular fossil in the days before the Scopes Trial. 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. Have you read my book?  You should check that out too!

Hey, what's it been, a month?  I'm teaching a new course this year, and that's taking up a lot more time than I expected it would.  So things have been pretty quiet around here.  During fall break, I had a chance to finish up the video of my September public lecture at Core Academy, and here it is! 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. Have you read my book?  You should check that out too!

Does the existence of hybrids between Neandertals, Denisovans, and modern Homo sapiens demonstrate that they're all one species?  I addressed this previously quite a few years ago: Human species Human species? There I addressed the weird hangup creationists have over multiple species of humans.  This is still my position: So we have a morphologically different form of Homo (Neandertal) with a different development and evidence of low interbreeding. That's a good species. That's not the case with modern humans, which are genetically very similar, morphologically uniform, and can and do freely interbreed. Modern humans are all one species. With all the hubbub over that Neandertal/Denisovan hybrid, I thought it was time to examine the question of human species again over at Human Genesis .  How many human species are there?  [Hint: this new discovery does not change my position.]  Check out the full article there. How many human species? Feedb...

I've written an article on the latest discovery from Denisova Cave on Human Genesis . What do these discoveries mean for our theology?  How does this hybrid girl affect the image of God?  Honestly, she doesn’t really change anything.  We’ve always known that humans were diverse, and these new discoveries have shown us that we’re actually even more diverse than we thought. Check out the full article at Human Genesis . 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.

People waiting to ask questions at ICC. The Q&A at ICC was a bit of a revelation to me.  It's true that some folks expressed their usual opinions, which were mercifully succinct this time, but there were several people we heard from who seemed genuinely confused.  Sometimes they just asked for clarification, and other times, they expressed opinions that seemed to be completely out of sync with the talk that was presented.  I noted one of these questions in my comments on Neal Doran's dinosaur talk, but there were others.  There was another talk all about how X  causes Y , and one person got up and complained rather strenuously that the author had discounted the role of X  in causing Y .  Yes, I left that intentionally anonymous to protect everyone involved, because it was that bizarre.  It's too bad too, because that was one of the more outstanding presentations of the conference. All this strangeness got me thinking about the specializ...

Biology panel with Kurt, me, and Jean. This year, the ICC tried something a little different with three panel discussions added to the mix, all focusing on updating research that was initially presented at past ICCs.  The intention was also to focus on areas of uncertainty or disagreement among creationists.  I wasn't sure what to think about it, and I still have some reservations.  But overall, I thought it went fine. The first panel on Monday afternoon focused on life sciences and identifying the created kinds.  Participants included yours truly, Kurt Wise (Truett-McConnell College), and Jean Lightner (Creation Research Society).  This one was looking  back to baraminology papers from the 1990 conference.  We had a really good time talking about research, and we didn't really argue about anything.  I thought it went pretty well.  I had a good time talking with a bunch of people afterward.  I thought it was really well-received....