>Hi Glenn of Purghermeugatatory Fame,
>Isn't this interesting, and I always thought he was a geologist! Why is
>it that many of the world's leading (and vocal) opponents of evolution are
>from non-biological disciplines?
>
>Henry Morris--hydraulic engineer
>John Morris--engineer
>Hugh Ross--astronomy
>Phil Johnson--lawyer
>
>If any of their followers had a sore tooth, I am sure they would find a
>dentist. But why do they trust the assessment of biological origins by
>these non-biologists?
>
>Oh, oh . . . was that a 'priestly robes' argument??? Awaiting the BELL to
>ring ;-)
I had a much bigger reason for raising this. As I had mentioned to Randy,
John's Masters was concerned with
building a tidal Dam across the Bay of Fundy and referenced
exactly 1 geological book. His PhD dissertation concerned
compressing coaldust into pellets so it could be burned. It also
references exactly 1 geological reference. The degree was
granted by the engineering department, not the geological
department.
This is unfortunately a rather prevalent habit on the part of lots of
young-earth creationist leaders-- the habit of claiming to be what they
aren't.Years ago, when I was a young earth creationist, I had a letter
exchange with Bob Schadewald, who was an anti-creationist writer. He told
me of a Minnesota speaker for Campus Crusade who claimed to have an
anthropology degree from Stanford but had only attended Stanfornd for 1
semester and no degree was awarded. The guy was saying things like, he saw
Java Man in Java when he went there. The problem was that Java man is in
the Netherlands and he could not have seen it in Indonesia. That was during
the time I was writing the stuff for Josh McDowell. I asked Josh to check
these things out. Josh did, and he found out that this was all true. The
guy was removed from speaking for Campus crusade. However, I was told a
couple of years ago, that he is back speaking at their meetings again.
I met the local Dallas area young-earth creationist leader about 10 years
ago. I went to one meeting. he gave me a card whcih said "consulting
geologist" I tried to find out what he did, what area of geology he worked,
and who he worked for. He was very vague about it all. I started asking
him geological questions and he had no idea what I was talking about.
A couple of years ago, I went to another meeting. His card now read, "...,
Ph.D, Consulting Geologist." I was curious about the Ph D part. I asked
him where he got his degrees. He got vague again. I took him to lunch a
few weeks later. I found out that he got his PhD from Pacific College. I
finally pinned him down and found out that the degree was for Geological
Education. I asked him where this college was. The college was in
Australia and was run by Clifford Wilson, another young earth creationist.
I asked him what he had to do to get his PhD. when did he have time to go
to Australia. He told me that all he had to do was write a paper. He never
spent any amount of time on the "campus" He justified all this by saying
that he had had all the requisite course work for a PhD. However, since he
didn't know what a normal fault was I seriously doubt that statement.. (If
you don't know what a normal fault is, you aren't a geologist)
Carl Baugh lives at Glen rose. He is the preacher who came here to prove
that man lived with the dinosaurs. He got a Masters Degree in Archaeology
from Clifford Wilson's school.(see the back of the book _Dinosaur_. He got
a Doctorate of Anthropology from another School like Pacific college, The
College of Advanced Education in conjuction wity Pacific International
University.
According to Glen Kuban on the Talk Origins archive,
http://earth.ics.uci.edu:8080/faqs/paluxy/degrees.html
"Baugh gave the location of the College of Advanced Education (CAE) as
Irving, Texas; however, the Chamber of Commerce, and
Department of Taxation, and phone directory in Irving have no record of the
school.[16] When pressed by an assistant for the address of
CAE, Baugh gave it as "2355 West Pioneer, Irving, TX, 75061" and indicated
that its dean was Dr. Don Davis.[17]. The address
appears on a small house in Irving, located next to Sherwood Baptist Church,
whose pastor is Rev. Don Davis. Davis indicated that CAE
is a "missions" school, with no science classes or facilities.[18] The
school is not accredited by any national or regional agency, nor
certified by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (which must be
obtained to legally grant degrees in Texas). In fact, none of
the educational organizations that I contacted had ever heard of the
school.[19] "
and Kuban further states:
Pacific College Incorporated (a.k.a Pacific College of Graduate Studies and
Pacific International University)[26], from which Baugh
claims a master's degree in archaeology, traces to a small, private,
religious school in Australia, whose president is Clifford Wilson.[27]
Ian Plimer, a member of the Australian Research Council and professor of
geology at Newcastle University, reported that PCI is not
accredited or authorized to grant degrees. Plimer stated, "Any degrees from
this 'College' are illegal in Australia and are clearly being used
fraudulently in the U.S.A.[28]
Of course this is all done with the best of intentions.
Wilson has real degress and wrote a book for Probe Ministries. The bio
given there does not mention his presidency of Pacific College. That is
mentioned on the back of the book he wrote with Carl Baugh. But I do know
this, I have trouble trusting the facts given by a man who runs such a
school as Pacific College.
Much more can be found on the talk.origins archive
http://earth.ics.uci.edu:8080/faqs/credentials.html
The sad thing is, if a guy can not tell the facts about his own background,
how can he be trusted to tell the facts about the earth. Young-earth
creationism is full of this type of bogus milarky and Christians are too
willing to let it go by because we don't want to offend a brother.
This type of behavior is only one reason I began to doubt my YEC views.
glenn
Foundation, Fall and Flood
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm