Deep Time

As a geologist I try my best to understand deep time. Deep time refers to the history of the planet that we find in the fossil record as well as within the rock record and in what we can see in outer space about the formation of the universe. I try to reach out to make it accessible to everyone who is a reader of this blog and try to make it accessible in some of the long running series that I have such as the National Park Service series in which I try to incorporate geology as best I can for parks that don't always deal with geology at all. One of my favorite blogs, Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs, does science outreach in a more fun and interesting way. That is why when I saw this post over there yesterday I knew I had to link to it, seriously read their post, and share the video of David Christian discussing the importance of understanding deep time, what he calls big history, during a TED talk. This is why I blog what I do, we need to understand our place in the universe to truly understand who we are!

Taking on Creationist Books

Today's Vintage Dinosaur Art post over at Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs featured images from Duane T. Gish's, the creator (although maybe not the perfecter) of the Gish Gallop, Dinosaurs by Design. As I read through the article I found this:

Update: Check out the comments below to links for the Stupid Dinosaur Lies posts on this title and others. Also added excerpt from the book on Michael Barton's kind suggestion.

I had to check out the site, I will admit I had not read the comments so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. What I found made me excited the author of the articles on the webpage takes time and, in most cases, goes page by page through creationist books and refutes the lies and misinformation that is often found within them. Take this excerpt from Ken Ham's kids book The Dinosaurs of Eden (here):

Ham's Hypocritical Accusation

Ham, on page 52, falsely and hypocritically accuses 'evolutionists' of being "willfully ignorant" of the truth, like what II Peter 3:5 tells us. Creationists have long asserted that the verse in II Peter was warning the reader about evolution and the people who advocate it according to the passage. This is false. Peter is not referring to evolution when he wrote that passage. He never knew what evolution is, let alone what is science back then. The verse when put in full context warns the reader against those living in the End Times who refused to believed that Jesus was coming back to earth soon. They acknowledged that the earth was created by God, but thinks everything have stayed entirely the same since then. Peter, on the other hand, objects to this. Peter wrote that in the beginning, the same water that God cause land to rise from was the same water that brought along the Flood to the world, the known world, not the global world mind you, to punished mankind for his sins.

The bible is not only neutral of evolution (meaning "unfolding"), it's entirely irrelevant to it. Although I admit I get real mad when people at church claims that evolution didn't occurred when God created everything, in a way they're right. Evolution has zero to do with origins. Instead, it has only everything to do with after god created everything. Evolution simply means "to unfold and change." When God made the Heavens and the Earth, He made all things possible for all things to change over time. Just because an animal, plant, or human is fully formed to perfection doesn't mean they can't change and modify over a period of time. All around us we see evidence of evolution at work in the past as well as in the present. The nylon bug is the best example of evolution being witnessed at work.

I fully support this site and will probably be coming back there on multiple occasions.