Rabble rouser Ken Ham and his biased Facebook fans

[a_haworthroberts]

"If there really was life on Earth in the unseen past, you would find billions of dead things buried in sedimentary rock layers that have been laid down slowly under the oceans, or on land through wind, ice, severe local flooding events or landslides - all over Earth. And we do!"

[a_haworthroberts]

https://answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken- ... nt-aliens/
"The first thing that I predict will happen is that all those non-Christians (and even some Christians) who claim Answers in Genesis should be using the money for the poor when I post articles on our life-size Noah’s Ark construction project will now be making the same comments on all these news sources reporting this—and of course they will also be contacting Stephen Hawking and Yuri Milner to make the same comment."

Some might.

But even if they don't (and even if the same people who don't think that the ark park is a stunt) that is not the real issue. Hawking and co are in pursuit of testing the hypothesis that intelligent life MIGHT have arisen elsewhere in the Milky Way galaxy and the project conceivably COULD unearth (pun unintended) 'cutting edge' scientific knowledge (or help rule out life anywhere 'close' to Earth).

The project is pro-scientific. Unlike Mr Ham who is systematically attacking science whilst hypocritically claiming to 'love science'.

No doubt Mr Ham has also decided that if there is nobody sending radio signals from Kepler 452-b that is further confirmation of the truth of the Bible and his website's young earth creationist claims including his insistence that throughout the known universe aliens are 'non-existent'.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33641648

Gosh is that the time. The Sky at Night is just starting.

[a_haworthroberts]

https://answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken- ... n=20150806
"And the evidence confirms that Lucy and her kind were nothing more than extinct apes. The evolutionary idea that Lucy was a human ancestor is largely based on a set of footprints found at Laetoli in Tanzania, almost 1,000 miles away from Lucy’s final resting place." Utter falsehood. It is based upon fossil evidence and the dating of fossils. This fraud would like to pretend that there is just ONE fossil of Australopithecus afarensis - the one named 'Lucy' - though he does go on to admit that "more members of Lucy’s species have been found". Without telling the truth about them. "But as more members of Lucy’s species have been found, it’s become evident that despite the artwork that portrays Lucy as vaguely human-like and walking upright, Lucy was just an ape [by which he means very similar to today's gorillas or chimpanzees]".

This man is a disgrace to humanity.

Obligatory plug for the fraudulent 'Lucy' display at the Creation Museum follows...

[a_haworthroberts]

Message as sent to AiG:


https://answersingenesis.org/christiani ... to-return/
https://answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken- ... oundation/

Ken Ham's solution to bring people back to the church, or stop them leaving the church. More lying and brainwashing to kids, Christians and potential Christians. Such as the garbage "Ham and his co-authors spend time reinforcing the historicity of a global Flood, posing the most oft-asked questions, and providing answers showing how observable science underscores the reality of this historic event."

No in case you have not guessed already I won't be ordering this book.

[a_haworthroberts]

But I think he was born too late.

https://answersingenesis.org/christiani ... eneration/
"When a generation no longer builds its worldview on the foundation of the absolute authority of God’s Word, the new generation begins to question everything it says, including its morality";
"children are being contaminated as a result of their secular education, the secular media, and their secular friends";
"There are now generations of adults who attend church but are so contaminated by the world that they think like the world";
"using the Bible to understand science, parents can teach children how to defend the faith by giving them answers to skeptical questions of the age."

This influential extremist Christian - who wants parents to indoctrinate their own kids - also lumps together acceptance of deep time and evolution with acceptance of gay 'marriage'. I am sure that many Christians who accept both the former (because they are true) are nevertheless opposed to the latter (which is clearly not biblical). For Ham, a Christian accepting what science has clearly and consistently revealed is as terrible as a Christian adopting or endorsing a 'secular lifestyle'. Everything is white or black to this ENEMY of science, history and knowledge. Apparently all Christians 'must' refuse to believe that the Bible could possibly contain errors and 'must' insist that any science, history or knowledge which contradicts scripture is a wicked 'lie'. A lie which must be replaced by FAITH-building 'science', 'knowledge' and 'history' which START firmly with rigid acceptance of Bible dogma and doctrines rather than observable reality, non-Bible written accounts or material evidence. And which all are clearly fake and unscientific - whenever you examine them closely and after setting aside the pre-existing bias that they 'must' be true simply because they are based upon 'infallible' scripture.

Ham is trying to make Christians think the same way that Jesus apparently did. Excuse me Ken, Jesus lived 20 centuries ago and it is now 2015.

And still Jesus has not returned. (Why the delay?)

[a_haworthroberts]

During September Ham has:

- reacted in a kneejerk fashion to the news of the Homo naledi bones by disseminating the falsehoods that "evolutionary scientists only believe there were intermediate evolutionary links between an ape-like ancestor and man because they have disregarded God’s Word and substituted their own fallible opinions in its place" and that "the only way to find an ape-man—or a “bridge” between apes and humans—is to misinterpret fossils of either an ape or a human as something in between" (Answers in Genesis later unilaterally suggested that these bones must most likely have belonged to some some sort of 'ape' even though like the scientists who actually examined the bones they never saw the creatures whilst alive):
https://answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken- ... tor-found/

- attacked Bill Nye over his new book entitled 'Unstoppable: Harnessing Science to Change the World', accusing him of disseminating 'untruths', even though Ham has not even read the book and is uncertain about its exact contents:
https://answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken- ... ious-book/

- dismissed as 'empty' a series of detailed arguments (made by Bill Nye in the big 2014 debate) that the Earth is very old and that the Genesis account of a mountain-covering flood and Noah's ark is not feasible - even though he failed whilst debating Nye over models of origins to address directly any of the arguments in question at the time they were originally made - despite having an audience of millions hoping to hear his 'answers':
https://answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken- ... ous-movie/

- exploited a lunar eclipse - a 'free of charge' phenomenon which based on his blog post Ken Ham does not have a clue about - by using it to make money for the Creation Museum with a night of Q and A and indoctrination about the moon 'from a biblical perspective' and also a simulcast of the eclipse (due to cloudy conditions that were actually experienced on the night) even though doubtless such could have been watched free of charge online by those with cloudy skies:
https://answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken- ... on-museum/

- deliberately misrepresented and belittled new findings of NASA scientists with respect to strong evidence that briny liquid water is seasonally present on parts of the surface of Mars:
https://www.facebook.com/aigkenham
"Mars Water: Much Ado About Very Little
As you will find out, there could be, perhaps, maybe, we don't really know, possibly be, maybe, evidence of water on Mars—well, could be! At least this possibly maybe news about the maybe existence of water on Mars really excites the secular world! What they really need to get excited about is that "the heavens declare the glory of God." Read AiG astronomer Dr. Danny Faulkner's interesting appraisal of this maybe perhaps great scientific breakthrough below:
https://answersingenesis.org/blogs/dann ... ry-little/"

Ken Ham's dazzling 'love' for 'science' just shines through.

Or - Ken Ham and co arrogantly use the Bible as a weapon to bash science and scientists that they do not like - without ever engaging in the least with the actual scientific evidence in question. Whilst refusing to address on their website or facebook pages difficult questions about their claims that are raised by people like myself (they only answer the less difficult questions that are sometimes raised by their supporters whilst any sceptical questions are normally either censored or simply ignored). And whilst also indoctrinating teenagers (and adults who don't know any different or do not care) that 'science confirms the Bible':
https://answersingenesis.org/outreach/event/ukmega15/

[a_haworthroberts]

Just come across THIS from the stable of Ken Ham:
https://answersingenesis.org/bible-ques ... n=20151009
Genesis 1:28, referring to humanity, reads as follows (NIV): "God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.""
But according to Answers in Genesis: "The command was to populate until the earth was full, and then reproduction would cease."

Is Genesis 1 predicting the development of some kind of infallible contraceptive for an un-dying, immortal, eternally sinless humanity? (Or the early return of Jesus to end everything?) No - Bodie Hodge has the real answer! God would have suddenly said "stop reproducing".

Or is Genesis 1 a myth from a pre-scientific era rather than a scientific statement.

[a_haworthroberts]

Ken Ham thinks using the Bible (and his made-up claims loosely based upon the Bible) in order to indoctrinate kids AGAINST science regarding dinosaurs is absolutely fine.

Ken Ham HATES science.

https://answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken- ... tion-kids/

[a_haworthroberts]

Hypocrite Ken Ham decrying censorship of other scientific viewpoints and the shutting down of "scientific enquiry"- whilst heading up a noisy unscientific organisation that refuses any process of commenting under its website articles and blogs, whilst frequently hiding any informed criticisms that might be posted under such articles on its Facebook pages.
https://answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken- ... te-change/
Ham will almost certainly be safe from jail - if he can persuade that he really 'does' believe in climate change (so long as you blame the mythical 'recent' Noah's worldwide flood and its alleged after-effects, the aftermath of a fictional 'post-flood' and 'rapid' ice age, and various natural causes such as solar activity levels or a lack of major volcanic eruptions during the past 20 years - but refuse to believe that man-caused rising greenhouse gas emissions will be ANY kind of future problem for humanity and the wider environment).

[a_haworthroberts]

https://answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken- ... alarmists/

Lies? Yes. 'Hot air' would be too kind. Ken Ham is a deliberate committed liar on this subject - and his lies are not even particularly biblical either. He is a deceitful ideologue and charlatan. He also contradicts himself. And where is any discussion in this anti-scientific fundamentalist polemic of the known physical impact of rising levels (caused by Man) of greenhouse gases, notably carbon dioxide and methane, in the atmosphere? The greenhouse effect. Nowhere. And this hardline fraudulent science denier ignores the fact that the last time carbon dioxide levels were as high as now, around 400 ppm, our species of human did not yet exist (no - Noah's 'worldwide' Flood less than 5,000 years ago NEVER happened it is MYTH) thus we have not had to cope with much much higher sea levels, never mind with over 7 billion people to feed and protect. The only acknowledgment Ham makes of higher past sea levels (apart from the fictional Flood) is in geologically very recent 'historical' times ie when he mentions local cases of recent sea level fall in Ephesus, Italy and England.

So how do Ham and his rather incompetent researchers try to 'diss' Bill Nye and others concerned for humanity's future in this polemic?

Well, he pretends he is being biblical and therefore cannot be contradicted by anybody. By quoting Genesis 8:22 (the claimed words of God AFTER Noah's Flood):
"While the earth remains,
Seedtime and harvest,
Cold and heat,
Winter and summer,
And day and night
Shall not cease".

And then insists that AFTER the Flood ie less than 5,000 years ago there was an 'ice age'! An ice age 'caused' by Noah's Flood (and by the unbiblical massive volcanism that YEC ideologues claim accompanied the Flood). But an ice age that God apparently forgot to mention would be coming. Either God lied when claiming that harvests would never cease (how could there be a harvest in eg northern England if it was covered in snow, ice and large glaciers)? Or the kind of 'ice age' God would be sending would be the kind of 'ice age' that would never interfere with harvests in temperate latitudes thus God did not think it necessary to warn that Flood would be followed by Freeze?

By the 'logic' of Ken Ham, Genesis rules out any problems with harvests despite an alleged impending 'ice age'. Whilst also ruling out any problems with harvests - because - according to him - massive sea level rise, stronger hurricanes and more intense heatwaves (resulting from Man's unintended actions) would cause problems with harvests but God has promised that harvests will never cease - therefore such catastrophic global warming will never happen (well not before the return of Jesus presumably).

Oh, and: "If Nye accepted God’s Word and God’s sovereignty, he would know that the all-powerful God would not allow humanity to die off by climate change or anything else".

If people listened to Ken Ham (thank God if he exists that many do not) no government would do anything to try and limit greenhouse gas emissions, or try and deflect any asteroid that was headed for Earth, or try and reduce the risk of nuclear war (accidental or deliberate). After all, the Bible has promised that no such event will render humanity extinct. And if such occurred - because governments and scientists were complacent - and if millions or even a billion people died, THAT DOES NOT MATTER as long as society adopted a 'biblical worldview' back in 2015.

So how many different deliberate falsehoods and deliberately misleading arguments and slurs did I count in this article? Ten.

How many can you count?

If you judge Christianity by the behaviour of Ken Ham - and he wants this - you will rightly conclude that Christianity is all about reactionary denial of reality.

But NO Christian - not even Ken Ham - can be very biblical, despite his protestations that he is more biblical than thou oh compromiser or unbeliever, when they wish make the Bible a weapon with which to bash science and scientists that they do not like. Despite the fact that the Bible was written in a pre-scientific era and does not discuss scientific topics. Notably some unbiblical reality can be directly observed and thus not denied even by a sane YEC. So liar Ham and other young earth creationists adopt either of two broad strategies. Either pretend that the reality in question was 'in the Bible all along' (a 'post-Flood ice age' which is certainly not in the Bible but YECs have been forced to accept that Earth really has been glaciated in the past so they claim a 'biblical' explanation for one whilst lying that it only happened 'once' and only lasted a few hundred years). Or they pretend that whilst the Bible indirectly addresses the issue it draws a different conclusion (climate change now is real but it cannot be caused by Man therefore it is either nothing to worry about or it is something to worry about but we can do nothing to stop it - take your pick).

CHRISTIANS AND OTHERS SHOULD NOT, I CONTEND, LISTEN TO KEN HAM AND HIS ILK UNCRITICALLY. THEY ARE CRANKS. BUT PERHAPS THE BIGGEST DANGER POSED BY THEM IS TO THE REPUTATION OF CHRISTIANS AND EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANITY. UNLESS OF COURSE THE CHRISTIANS - I USED TO BE ONE BUT DID NOT LOOK AT THE WIDER PICTURE(AND HAD NOT YET EXPERIENCED A MENTAL BREAKDOWN THAT I LATER RECOVERED FROM) - ARE QUITE COMFORTABLE WITH BEING PERCEIVED BY EVERYONE ELSE AS LIARS, BIGOTS AND REALITY-DENIERS (ALONG WITH OTHER KINDS OF FANATICS, FUNDAMENTALISTS, CHARLATANS AND CRANKS).

Yes, I've written a polemic too. But I would challenge anybody to identify any lies in mine.

[a_haworthroberts]

A Christian who believes in honesty speaks:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/bibleandcu ... est-truth/ (the latter part of this is not about young earth creationist Christians but in the first half Dr Witherington identifies how YEC zealots are on 'shaky ground')

The newest (and British) Answers in Genesis recruit seeks to discredit the Dr Witherington blog (because AiG value 'truth' - their Bible inspired science 'refuting' dogma - over actual facts ie they may sincerely believe their own claims but they are intellectually dishonest because whenever their claims are shown to be pseudo-science and denial of facts they carry on regardless and also accuse everyone else of having been brainwashed):
https://answersingenesis.org/countering ... -truthful/

The response by Turpin falsely accuses Witherington of 'misrepresentation' of Answers in Genesis. And he alleges - without offering much in the way of evidence to back up his claim - that Witherington has failed to take the time to "interact with the information available at Answers in Genesis". (I for one have taken much time to do just that - and have found their 'information' wanting and disingenuous.)

In his (1) Turpin presents false conclusions by alleging that carbon 14 dating 'refutes' a very old Earth with respect to diamonds and coal - even though many of its results, which are known to be accurate because of correlations with known historic events such as large eruptions, are much older than 6,000 years (which of course AiG always dispute merely because their 'worldview' has been upset). I suspect he is also attempting to play the YEC game of quietly redefining 'scientific' to mean 'That Which Does Not Conflict With Our Religion'. And Turpin's claim at (2) that"the reason that the majority of scientists do not accept biblical creation is not because of the evidence" is plain false (how could he even know the mind of all those scientists to make such a claim). It IS because of the evidence (I know this because I know how science is taken forward - outside of 'fringe' groups such as YEC apologists). In fact the reason YECs disagree is NOT because of evidence but because of their 'worldview' and their dogma. They either ignore evidence or else cherry pick it or twist its meaning to fit with their conclusions - which were decided at the outset.

I think Witherington is incorrect on one point - that the Bible "says nothing about the age of the Earth". True it does not directly address the topic. But you can deduce a 'young' Earth from it. The Bible is plain wrong. But it is not a science text, it is a pre-scientific text, so perhaps this does not much matter.

Turpin presents NO evidence that Witherington has not properly checked out what YECs believe. I suspect he has. What he either has not checked - or has checked but dismissed as worthless - are the half-baked responses made by the likes of AiG when they are shown to be scientifically wrong on topics such as the many eg radiocarbon dating results which point to a world a good deal older than just 6,000 years. YEC responses in such cases always involve much special pleading along with allegations that everybody else has a wrong 'worldview' and is deliberately trying to undermine biblical creation.

Meanwhile another Patheos blogger, not a Christian, has concluded that Ken Ham is not a charlatan - he sincerely believes his messages and is not deliberately deceiving people for financial gain (Ham has quoted from this blog, without identifying it, in his rant this week about political correctness and er Donald Trump):
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/danthropol ... onference/

But I am not so sure. If Ham's position was intellectually honest, he would have (a) learnt that his claims about the past cannot be correct (unless there is a God and that God is a deceiver) and (b) admitted that he was sincerely wrong in the past (many have done that and held onto the Christian faith and their belief that the Bible is inspired by God). But Ham is a fanatic who simply responds - whenever even Christians show his 'science' to be in error and his view of the Bible to be unduly narrow and falsely 'scientific' - by concluding that they 'must' be wrong because they are 'unbiblical' and brainwashed by either evolutionary 'lies' or Satan himself.

[a_haworthroberts]

On his Facebook page today:
"We are in a spiritual battle right now for the hearts and minds of our young people. It is so vital that we raise our children with a biblical worldview so that they know that God’s Word is their authority and so they can judge everything by that standard...". And guess what - Answers in Genesis have published just what parents need to accomplish this task, and it can be purchased right NOW: https://answersingenesis.org/answers-bible-curriculum/

Meanwhile, this cult-leader has also written a new blog about how evolutionists recognise the intelligence of ancient Man (something those clever modern creationists have been referring to for some time apparently):
https://answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken- ... cient-man/
Unfortunately I know of nothing in the BIBLE that explicitly says, as Ham would have it, that "Mankind has always been intelligent from the very beginning" (other than the implication from the Bible and the evidence from reality that Homo sapiens are more intelligent than any other species). Just that verse, which Ham does deploy, about how one Tubal-Cain was an instructor of every craftsman in bronze and iron. Proof of ... what?

Thus the evolutionists are not 'agreeing that the Bible was right all along' as Ham would have us believe (that's what he REALLY means by findings that confirm "a biblical worldview"). They are simply doing science and increasing our understanding of the (still limited) abilities of ancient Man (and other Homo species).


"Don't know much about history
Don't know much biology
Don't know much about a science book
Don't know much about the threat from truth

But I do know that I love Answers in Genesis
And I know that if you love Answers in Genesis, too
What a wonderful world this would be

Don't know much about pre-Flood geography
Don't know much pre-Flood trigonometry
Don't know much about pre-Flood algebra
Don't know what a slide rule was for before the Flood

But I do know one and one is "in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth"
And if this biblical creation model could be with you
What a wonderful world this would be

Now, I don't claim to be an Apologetics student
But I'm trying to be
For maybe by being an Apologetics student, baby
I can win your love for the Creation Museum

Don't know much about history
Don't know much biology
Don't know much about a science book
Don't know much about anything much

But I do know that I love Answers in Genesis
And I know that if you love Answers in Genesis, too
What a wonderful world this would be"

(With apologies to Sam Cooke.)

[a_haworthroberts]

Poor persecuted Answers in Genesis. They are being slated, in fairly measured tones, for pushing pseudo-scientific nonsense at a Christian 'museum':
https://answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken- ... thbusters/
If Savage visits the Creation Museum or otherwise debates them he would be giving them 'oxygen' - and I suspect that he will not bother. But Ken Ham did NOT appear to enjoy (either at the time or subsequently) being given 'oxygen' last year by Bill Nye.
"Well, I’ve got news for Adam Savage: the real myth busters are found at the Creation Museum. If Savage came to the Creation Museum, he would meet some academics and scientists who powerfully bust the myth of molecules-to-man evolution". The usual Ken Ham hubris. From a man who failed to convince even the Bible believing world that he could demonstrate in an open debate watched by millions that young earth creationism is a viable model of origins in today's scientific era.

[a_haworthroberts]

"She’s just an extinct variety of ape. There is nothing about her to suggest that she’s a transitional form between ape-like and human-like."
"But Lucy didn’t walk upright!"
https://answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken- ... ucy-today/


http://www.sciencemag.org/content/331/6018/750.abstract (2011)
"A complete fourth metatarsal of A. afarensiswas recently discovered at Hadar, Ethiopia. It exhibits torsion of the head relative to the base, a direct correlate of a transverse arch in humans. The orientation of the proximal and distal ends of the bone reflects a longitudinal arch. Further, the deep, flat base and tarsal facets imply that its midfoot had no ape-like midtarsal break. These features show that the A. afarensis foot was functionally like that of modern humans and support the hypothesis that this species was a committed terrestrial biped."

Hadar is the same region where the 'Lucy' fossil was discovered in 1974.

[a_haworthroberts]

Email as just sent:

"'Answers in Genesis': aggressive pseudo-science accompanied by arrogant bigotry.

https://answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken- ... -creation/
"Dr. Nathaniel Jeanson, the newest addition to our research staff here at AiG, shared in a recent interview why he thinks so many scientists reject biblical creation, despite the evidence that confirms God’s Word:"

"Sadly, many people are blinded to the truth of the history recorded in God’s Word because they are actively suppressing the truth in unrighteousness, as Romans 1 makes clear. It’s not that they need more evidence—they have all the evidence they need, but they suppress it."

If Answers in Genesis were genuine and open - and not dishonest, evasive and profoundly and of necessity anti-science - they would actually interact with serious critics (Christian and non or ex Christian) who HAVE read and HAVE understood their claims that supposedly provide 'evidence' - and deal with those critics. They WON'T. We all know WHY they won't. They might have to admit that their claims are pseudo-scientific and do not stand up to serious scrutiny. (Or further incriminate themselves as happened when they rarely did attempt to brush off claims by a non-YEC Christian blogger regarding numerous human artefacts found Africa by absurdly suggesting that the apparent 'artefacts' were fashioned by 'Noah's Flood'.) The 'answers' put out by AiG at their facilities and on their website are religious apologetics and nothing more. And Christianity will probably survive without the cult-like sciencey and reactionary claims put forth by AiG.

Should AiG wish to repent of their almost total refusal to engage with serious critics, including from committed Christians, perhaps they could start with the unanswered science questions contained at the link below or contained within the pro-science blogs by various Christians and non-Christians copied into this message (they do not need to name their critics and give them publicity but that does not stop them from actually getting their PhD experts to address the claims and questions they have placed online):
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=2967&start=1650 (Unlike most of the AiG team apart from Ken Ham I do not have a PhD.)"