Someone brought to my attention the other day a recent …

Comment on Bringing the Real World to Genesis: Why Evolution is an Idea that Won’t Die—IV [A Review] by Professor Kent.

Someone brought to my attention the other day a recent book written by a Seventh-day Adventist I had not heard of before. The book is Evolution Impossible, by Dr. John Ashton. This book has far more customer reviews (23, generally very positive) at Amazon than other books on origins issues authored by SDAs, including:

– Faith, Reason, and Earth History, by Leonard Brand (0 reviews)
– Understanding Creation: Answers to Questions on Faith and Science, by James Gibson and Humberto Rasi (0 reviews)
– God, Sky and Land: Genesis 1 as the Ancient Hebrews Heard It, by Brian Bull (2 reviews, very positive)
– Dinosaurs – An Adventist View, by David Read (7 reviews, generally very positive)
– Turtles All the Way Down, by Sean Pitman (3 reviews)
– Origins, by James Gibson (5 reviews, generally very positive)

So who is this John Ashton dude? I gather he is now regarded as THE authority on origins in the Church, yet I don’t recall anyone ever mentioning his name at this website.

Professor Kent Also Commented

Bringing the Real World to Genesis: Why Evolution is an Idea that Won’t Die—IV [A Review]
Thanks, Pauluc, for the details. I totally agree with your assessment: “none derive their literal creationism from an understanding of the data but are first Christians and subsequently feel compelled to justify that position in a post hoc selective reading of the literature”. And would add that very few, including Sean himself, have access to anything more than a tiny portion of the original literature. Unless they have university status, the journals can’t be accessed.


Bringing the Real World to Genesis: Why Evolution is an Idea that Won’t Die—IV [A Review]

George&#032Evans:
@Professor Kent: Ten years ago when I was active at talk.origins I used the Loma Linda University and the University of California Riverside libraries.

I have visited the UCR library many times, but haven’t done so in the last decade or more because of the outstanding digtal access I now have. I’m told that Loma Linda’s access, both hard copy and digital, pales in comparison to UCR and what I have access to.

In times past, Sean clearly lacked access to recent material, as he nearly always quoted internet-based stories–which leaves much to be desired. And this highlights and handful of ENORMOUS problems Christians have in trying to base their beliefs on evidence:

1 – They lack access to original material.

2 – They lack formal training to understand and interpret it.

3 – The material out there is immense and an honest soul can claim to have good understanding of only a minute fraction of it.

Consequently, for the vast majority of Christians who strive to base their beliefs on science rather than the fideism of scripture, they can only rely on what people they choose to believe are experts have to say on it. In other words, they’re basing their beliefs on human wisdom rather than scripture. Hurrah for apologetics!


Bringing the Real World to Genesis: Why Evolution is an Idea that Won’t Die—IV [A Review]

George&#032Evans: I have never found University libraries closed to the public.

Um…what do you know about journal availability and access at libraries?


Recent Comments by Professor Kent

Gary Gilbert, Spectrum, and Pseudogenes
Nic&#032Samojluk: No wonder most creationist writers do not even try to submit their papers to such organizations.
Who wants to waste his/her time trying to enter through a door that is closed to him/her a priori?

You have no idea what you’re writing about, Nic. As it turns out, there are in fact many of us Adventists who “waste” our time publishing articles through doors that open to us a priori. Even Leonard Brand at Loma Linda, a widely recognized creationist, has published in the top geology journals. I mean the top journals in the discipline.

The myth that creationists cannot publish in mainstream science is perpetuated by people who simply do not understand the culture of science–and will remain clueless that they do not understand it even when confronted with their misunderstandings. Such is human nature.


Southern Adventist University opens Origins Exhibit
Pauluc,

Your questions about conservation genetics are very insightful. I don’t understand how all these life forms were able to greatly increase in genetic diversity while simultaneously winding down and losing genetic information to mutations. Sean seems to insist that both processes happen simultaneously. I had the impression he has insisted all along that the former cannot overcome the latter. But I think you must be right: God had to intervene to alter the course of nature. However, we can probably test this empirically because there must be a signature of evidence available in the DNA. I’ll bet Sean can find the evidence for this.

I’m also glad the predators (just 2 of most such species) in the ark had enough clean animals (14 of each such species) to eat during the deluge and in the months and years after they emerged from the ark that they didn’t wipe out the vast majority of animal species through predation. Maybe they all consumed manna while in the ark and during the first few months or years afterward. Perhaps Sean can find in the literature a gene for a single digestive enzyme that is common to all predatory animals, from the lowest invertebrate to the highest vertebrate. Now that would be amazing.

Wait a minute–I remember once being told that SDA biologists like Art Chadwick believe that some animals survived on floating vegetation outside the ark. Now that would solve some of these very real problems! I wonder whether readers here would allow for this possibility. Multiple arks without walls, roof, and human caretakers.


Southern Adventist University opens Origins Exhibit

Ellen White said, “In the days of Noah, men…many times larger than now exist, were buried, and thus preserved as an evidence to later generations that the antediluvians [presumably referring to humans] perished by a flood. God designed that the discovery of these things should establish faith in inspired history…”

Sean Pitman said, “All human fossils discovered so far are Tertiary or post-Flood fossils. There are no known antediluvian human fossils.”

Ellen White tells us that humans and dinosaurs (presumably referred to in the statement, “a class of very large animals which perished at the flood… mammoth animals”) lived together before the flood. Evolutionary biologists tell us that dinosaurs and humans never lived together. You’re telling us, Sean, that the fossil record supports the conclusion of evolutionists rather than that of Ellen White and the SDA Church. Many of the “very large animals which perished at the flood” are found only in fossil deposits prior to or attributed to the flood, whereas hunans occur in fossil deposits only after the flood (when their numbers were most scarce).

Should the SDA biologists, who are supposed to teach “creation science,” be fired if they teach what you have just conceded?


La Sierra Univeristy Fires Dr. Lee Greer; Signs anti-Creation Bond
For those aghast about the LSU situation and wondering what other SDA institutions have taken out bonds, hold on to your britches. You’ll be stunned when you learn (soon) how many of our other schools, and which ones in particular, have taken out these bonds. You will be amazed to learn just how many other administrators have deliberately secularized their institutions besides Randal Wisbey, presumably because they too hate the SDA Church (as David Read has put it so tactfully).

Be sure to protest equally loudly.


Gary Gilbert, Spectrum, and Pseudogenes
@Sean Pitman:

So clearly you believe that science can explain supernatural events. Congratulations on that.