Countering the Critics Questions and Answers

Responses to attacks against creationists’ arguments

Do anti-creationists have a scientific case?

• Be Skeptical About the Skeptics!
• Who’s really pushing ‘bad science’?
  Detailed Response to: Good Science, Bad Science by L.S. Lerner
  (Semi-Technical, available in Russian)
• A brief response to anti-creationist books
• 15 ways to refute materialistic bigotry: A point by point refutation of Scientific American
  (Semi-Technical, available in Russian)
• Fuzzy feathers and walking whales (More reasons to be skeptical of the Skeptics)
• The strange recurring case of the feathered reptile
• Red-Blooded Evidence: Refuting the evolutionary ‘sea water’ argument
• Livoniana—have they (finally!) found a missing link?
• Eviscerating Eldredge (Semi-technical, refutation of Niles Eldredge’s anti-creationist book The Triumph of Evolution and the Failure of Creationism)
• Mutilating Miller (Semi-technical, refutation of Kenneth Miller’s anti-creationist book Finding Darwin’s God)
• The ‘Indoctrinator’
• When will Europe wake up?
• Creationism, Science and Peer Review
• Science, Creation and Evolutionism
• Little Green Footballs dredges ‘15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense’
• Atheopathy vs Science: Refuting New Scientist’s agitprop about evolution
  The Darwin–Hitler connection
• Atheopathy vs Science: Refuting New Scientist’s agitprop about evolution
  Evolution v natural selection
• Refutation of New Scientist’s Evolution: 24 myths and misconceptions: Modern evolution
• Refutation of New Scientist’s Evolution: 24 myths and misconceptions: Creation alternatives and intermediate forms?

Are the secular media biased against Christianity? How can Christians counter this?

• Refutation of PBS-TV Evolution series (Seven articles—one per episode)
• Time and Newsweek blatantly attack Christian doctrine: Christians use Internet to refute mainstream media misochristism—and be heard!
• New England Journal of Medicine promotes anti-theism
• Intelligent Design—‘A War on Science’ says the BBC
• War on creation, continued (response to critic of above article)
• The naturalist attack on the Virginal Conception and Resurrection
• Response to all-comers on the Washington Post Online Forum, 28 September 2001
• Yes, Noah did build an Ark! (Refutation of anti-Ark BBC program)
• Refutation of Thomas Hayden’s U.S. News and World Report article
• Creationists attacked in Ireland!
• Refutation of Boyce Rensberger’s pro-evolution article in The Washington Post
• Atheists blast Christianity. Yet another misleading anti-Christian assault from Australia’s taxpayer-funded TV station, ABC (covers the origin of science, big bang, evolutionary compromises, death and suffering)
• Aussie press does major beat-up on CMI’s Super Camp
• CMI scientist refutes atheistic evolutionist in Wellington’s (New Zealand) major newspaper

How do skeptics answer creationists’ design arguments? How do creationists respond?

• Cheating with Chance
• The Second Law of Thermodynamics: Answers to Critics (Semi-technical)
• Some thermodynamics criticisms (by anti-creationist science writer Jonathan Sherwood)—and answers (Technical):
  • Part 1
  • Part 2
• Refutation of Richard Dawkins’ anti-creationist book
  Climbing Mount Improbable (Semi-Technical)
• Refutation of Richard Dawkins’ anti-creationist book
  Unweaving the Rainbow (Semi-Technical)
• Weasel Words: Refuting a common ploy to persuade people that evolution has been ‘proven by computer’
• Dawkins’ weasel revisited (Semi-technical)
• Weasel, a flexible program for investigating deterministic computer ‘demonstrations’ of evolution
  (Semi-technical) download program (895 KB zip file)
• The problem of information for the theory of evolution: have evolutionists really solved it? Technical refutations by Dr Royal Truman (on True Origins website) of the antitheists:
  • Dr Richard Dawkins
  • Dr Tom Schneider
• Atheist with a mission a review of The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
• Dawkins’ Delusion (continued)
• Misotheist’s misology: Dawkins attacks Behe but digs himself into logical potholes
• Does Richard Dawkins Exist? A parable (David Anderson, off-site)
• New plant colours — is this new information? CMI scientist answers a skeptic
• That depends on what your definition of “information” is (Semi-technical)
• How is information content measured? (Technical)
• Is antibiotic resistance really due to increase in information? (Technical)
• Behe rebuts critics (Technical — posted on True Origins, originally from the Discovery Institute)
• Rebuttals to common criticisms of Michael Behe’s book Darwin’s Black Box
  (Semi-Technical — by Dr Robert DiSilvestro, published on Leadership University)
• A scientific critique of evolution [mutations and information]
  Dr Lee Spetner refutes Dr Edward Max; on True Origins website (Technical):
  • Part 1
  • Part 2
• See also:
  • Design Q&A
  • Thermodynamics Q&A
• Bacteria ‘evolving in the lab’?
• Book review: A Devil’s Chaplin: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love by Richard Dawkins

Are there really vestigial or badly designed structures in living organisms?

• Refuting ‘bad design’ arguments (including the allegedly ‘backwardly wired’ retina, from a review of Dawkins’ Climbing Mt Improbable)
• Is Our ‘Inverted’ Retina Really ‘Bad Design’? (Technical)
• The panda thumbs its nose at the dysteleological arguments of the atheist Stephen Jay Gould (Technical)
• Vestigial Organs: What do they prove?
• Male nipples prove evolution? (response to critic)
• A vestigial tissue (finally)? What about male breast tissue? (response to critic)
• CMI misuses the term ‘vestigial’? (response to critic)
• Rats! A toothless argument for evolution
• Useless horse body parts? No way!
• Fibre optics in eye demolish atheistic ‘bad design’ argument
• See also ‘Vestigial’ Organs Q&A
• The Prostate Gland–is it ‘badly designed’?

What about skeptics’ arguments for billions of years and against the biblical time-scale and Noah’s Flood?

• Geology and the Young Earth
• The Karoo vertebrate non-problem
• Problems with a Global Flood? ((Semi-Technical) by CMI scientist, published on the True Origins site)
• Diseases on the Ark
• Cuddly cold-cures counter critics (koalas and their diets)
• Church leader ‘aghast’ at belief in a worldwide Flood?
• Evolutionist questions CMI report—Have red blood cells really been found in T. rex fossils?
• Doubting doubts about the Squishosaur
• ‘Schweitzer’s Dangerous Discovery’
• Dino proteins and blood vessels: are they a big deal?
• Too Much Coal for a Young Earth? (Technical)
• Rapid Cave Formation by Sulfuric Acid Dissolution (Technical)
• Limestone Caves … a result Of Noah’s Flood?
• Caving in to creation: Carl Wieland interviews Romanian geologist and world cave authority Dr Emil Silvestru
• National Geographic magazine joins the dating game
• Rapid Stalactites?
• Stalactites in Kelly Caves grow at rates of up to 1/2 inch four years
• Tas Walker not familiar with material science?
  (Do large crystals in granite prove very slow cooling? Semi-technical, response to critic)
• Granite grain size: not a problem for rapid cooling of plutons
• Starlight Wars: Dr Russell Humphreys answers the critics of his cosmological model proposed in Starlight and Time (contains links to articles from the Technical Journal, posted on the True Origins site. See also his earlier rebuttal to Hugh Ross)
• Responding to Hugh Ross’s ‘corrections’
• Critique of the introductory chapter of Hugh Ross’s new book A Matter of Days: Resolving a Creation Controversy
• Trilobites on the Ark? Hugh Ross’s latest bungles on the created kinds
• Analysis of the Hovind–Ross Debate, John Ankerberg Show, October 2000 (Semi-Technical)
• Analysis of the Lisle–Ross Debate, ‘Dr Bob Grant’ radio program, December 2004 (Semi-Technical)
• Hold on, Mr Holzmann: Leading homeschool supplier misleads about biblical creationist exegesis
• Russell Humphreys refutes agnostic Joe Meert’s claims about helium diffusion
• Russell Humphreys refutes atheistic apostate Kevin Henke’s claim about the effect of pressure on helium diffusion rates in zircon (True Origins site) Round 1 Round 2
• Russell Humphreys refutes anti-creationist Glenn Morton's claim about albitization as a solution to the salty seas argument
• Noah’s Flood and the Gilgamesh Epic
• Anti-creationist Glenn Morton’s misuse of John Woodmorappe’s list of discrepant isotopic dates—Woodmorappe’s refutation (True Origins site)
• Paleosols: digging deeper buries ‘challenge’ to Flood geology
• See also:
  • Flood Q&A
  • Geology Q&A
  • Radiometric Dating Q&A
  • Young Age Evidence Q&A

Genesis and ancient Chinese: is there really a connection?

• CMI misrepresents ancient Chinese language?
• CMI still misrepresents ancient Chinese language?

Anti-creationist lobby, Skeptics, etc.

Are evolutionists/anti-creationists really as unbiased as they claim? Are they really ‘neutral towards’ Christianity?

• A Who’s Who of evolutionists
• How Religiously Neutral are the Anti-Creationist Organizations?
• The Skeptics and their ‘Churchian’ Allies
• The Ian Plimer Files
• Be Skeptical About the Skeptics!
• Critique of John Stear’s website (by CMI scientist, published on the True Origins site)

How reliable are skeptics’ personal attacks on creationists? What does this teach about skeptics’ integrity?

• Do Creationists Publish in Notable Refereed Journals?
• Skeptics choke on Frog: Was Dawkins caught on the hop?
• Richard Dawkins and the 11 Second Pause (Twin Cities Creation Science Association website)
• The Ian Plimer Files
• More nonsense from Professor Plimer
• Judas II (Nathan Z.)
• Response by one of the skeptics’ ‘churchian’ allies, plus response by CMI scientist
• Pseudonyms: A Long, Honorable Tradition (True Origins website)
• Dawkins’ Ironic Hypocrisy
• A skeptic falsely accuses creationists of lying about human and ape similarities

Bible ‘contradictions’ and ‘errors’

What Biblical errors do skeptics claim to have found? How can these claims be answered?

• Biblical ‘Contradictions’ Refuted (Tekton Apologetics Ministries)
• Harmonization: The Issue of Complimentary Accounts (Tekton Apologetics Ministries)
• Lenny Flank (Refuting an anti-creationist nuisance writer’s village-atheist–style attacks on Biblical inerrancy — Tekton Apologetics Ministries)
• Unequal weights and measures: a critique of the methodology of the [Jewish] anti-missionaries (by Messianic Jew, Dr Michael Brown, UMJC Theology Forum, 1991)
• Do Rabbits Chew Their Cud?
• Does the Bible Say pi equals 3.0?
• Cainan: How do you explain the difference between Luke 3:36 and Gen. 11:12?
• Does Genesis hold up under critic’s scrutiny?
• Does the Bible Wrongly Call the Bat a Bird? (Tekton Apologetics Ministries)
• How could the days of Genesis 1 be literal if the sun wasn’t created until Day 4?
• How could Adam possibly have had enough time to name all the animals on the 6^th day of the creation week?
• Do the genealogies of Christ in Matthew and Luke contradict each other?
• Did Jesus tell His disciples to take a staff or not? (Christian Think Tank)
• The Unicorn: The Bible does not refer to fantasy animals
• Ian Plimer’s Bloopers (a selection)
• Is the raqiya‘ (firmament — KJV) a solid dome? (Technical)
• Jonah and the great fish
• Daniel: Defence of its Historical Reliability (Tekton Apologetics Ministries)
• Evidences Relating to the Date of the Book of Daniel (by David Conklin (long!), posted on Tekton Apologetics Ministries)
• Does Genesis 30:25–31:13 teach magical genetics? (Tekton Apologetics Ministries)
• Why do all four Gospels contain different versions of the inscriptions written on Jesus’ cross?
• Where did Cain find his wife?
• Does the bible teach error?
• See also: Genesis Q&A: Do Genesis 1 and 2 contradict each other? and the Documentary (JEDP, Wellhausen–Graf) Hypothesis
• Roger Bolton Discovers Sliced Bread

Anti-Christian/anti-Bible authors: how can they be answered?

• Survey: refuting Christophobia
  • Countering Christophobia: A Review of Christianity on Trial: Arguments Against Antireligious Bigotry by Vincent Carroll & David Shiflett (2001)
  • Mostly masterful defence of Christianity; pity it’s slack on creation: A review of What’s So Great About Christianity? by Dinesh D’Souza
  • What good is Christianity?
  • Christianity's Real Record (Greg Koukl)
• Hector Avalos
  • Still a Child Evangelist: A Survey of the Temper Tantrums of Hector Avalos (Tekton Apologetics Ministries)
  • Time to Trim the Bible? (Bill Muehlenberg)
• Dan Brown
  • The Da Vinci Code: Fiction masquerading as fact
  • The Da Vinci Code apostate challenges CMI
  • The Da Vinci Code movie
  • The Da Vinci Code: Secret hidden truth?
  • Darwin drives Da Vinci’s Dan?
  • Leonardo’s last supper errors
• Sam Harris
  • Letter to a Maladjusted Misotheist (Tekton Apologetics Ministries)
  • An Apology: The Case Against Atheism: Atheism does untold damage to our society. A Christian’s Response (RTF, Tekton Apologetics Ministries)
  • Answering the ‘new atheists’: interview with Doug Wilson, author of Letter from a Christian Citizen
• Christopher Hitchens
  • Christopher Hitchens—blind to salamander reality: A well-known atheist’s ‘eureka moment’ shows the desperation of evolutionists
• Jesus Seminar
  • Are “The Jesus Seminar” criticisms of the gospels and Jesus Christ valid? (Christian Answers Network)
• Michael Martin
  • The Case Against Christianity by Michael Martin (A Summary Critique — Christian Research Institute)
  • The Case Against Christianity by Michael Martin (More detailed critique in several parts — Tekton Apologetics Ministries)
• Bishop Spong
  • What’s Wrong With Bishop Spong?
  • Why Christianity Must Change or Die by John Shelby Spong (refuted on Tekton Apologetics Ministries)
  • Sins of Scripture by John Shelby Spong (refuted on Tekton Apologetics Ministries)
  • Liberating the Gospels by John Shelby Spong (refuted on Tekton Apologetics Ministries)
• Barbara Thiering
  • Barbara Thiering: A short critique
• Others
  • Refuting the Skeptics’ Annotated Bible (Tekton Apologetics Ministries)
  • George M. Lamsa: Christian Scholar or Cultic Torchbearer? (Christian Research Journal)
  • Essays on a Jewish ‘Anti-Missionary’ site (Tekton Apologetics Ministries)
  • Who really wrote Genesis? Documentary (JEDP, Wellhausen–Graf) Hypothesis; Refuting ‘Copycat’ claims

How can the bloodshed inflicted upon the Israelites’ enemies in the OT be reconciled with an all-good God? What about slavery? Or atrocities committed by professing Christians?

• Anti-slavery activist William Wilberforce: Christian hero (see also review of the film Amazing Grace)
• Genocide, evolution and the Bible: Focus magazine’s answer to the question: ‘What is the most important book of all time?’
• The Bible v slavery and apartheid (response to sceptic)
• Does God condone slavery in the Bible? (Christian Think Tank)
• Can Christianity Be Faulted for Opposing the Use of Lightning Rods? (Tekton Apologetics Ministries)
• An Inquiry on the Inquisition (Tekton Apologetics Ministries)
• The Real Murderers: Atheism or Christianity? (Stand to Reason)
• Extermination of the Amalekites (Christian Think Tank)
• Extermination of the Canaanites (Christian Think Tank)
• Was God being evil when He killed all the firstborn in Egypt? (Christian Think Tank)

Is the Bible anti-female? Is evolution good for women?

• London Times reports that the Bible is not anti-female: is this news?
• What’s in a pronoun? The divine gender controversy
• Abortion: an indispensable right or violence against women?
• The history of the teaching of human female inferiority in Darwinism
• ‘Female inferiority’ raises questions (reply to critic of above paper)
• Offended by previous feedback response on abortion

Does the Bible really teach a flat earth?

• Did Bible writers believe the Earth was flat?
• Did Bible writers believe the Earth was flat? (Christian Answers Network)
• The Myth of the Flat Earth (Summary by historian Prof. Jeffrey Burton Russell, author of the book Inventing the Flat Earth: Columbus & Modern Historians (ISBN 027595904X, 1991), off-site)
• Flat-Earth Hey Day came with Darwin
• The Bible refers to ‘the four corners of the earth’. How can a spherical earth have corners? (Christian Answers Network)
• Are (biblical) creationists ‘cornered’?—a response to Dr J.P. Moreland (The Bible talks of ‘the four corners of the earth’. Does this mean the days of creation could be non-literal, too?)
• What Shape is the Earth In? An Evaluation of Biblical Cosmology (Tekton Apologetics Ministries)
• Is the ’erets (earth) flat? Equivocal language in the geography of Genesis 1 and the Old Testament: a response to professing evangelical Paul Seely (Semi-technical)
• Seely’s response to above, plus author’s reply
• ‘Pillars of the Earth’ — Does the Bible teach a mythological cosmology?
• Rodney Stark on this myth, from For The Glory of God
• Who Invented the Flat Earth? (Flat earth myth revisited)
• Creation and the Flat Earth (Dr Danny Faukner, Creation Matters, 1997)
• The flat-earth myth and creationism

See also:

• Geocentrism Q&A