My Two cents on the Answers in Genesis Creation “Museum” and why YEC gets Mount St Helens wrong!

In the Flood Geology room of the recently opened Answers in Genesis Creation “Museum,” is a relatively recent photograph of Mount St Helens. Above the photograph is the header, “The Key: God’s Word, the present is not the key to the past.” Below the photograph is this explanation, “Noah’s flood and times following involved more violent catastrophism than anything known in the present. At best, only modern catastrophes provide only clues about those times.”

What a curious thing to say, because the Mount St Helens eruption was a geologic success.

The recently opened Answers in Genesis Creation “Museum” have all the outward appearances of your standard natural history museum. Inside you can find displays on dinosaurs, fossils and I even understand the place has a halfway decent planetarium. But, I also understand you do not need to tread very far to discover the true purpose of the $27 million, 60,000 square foot complex. The message of the “museum” isn’t to advice science, but rather dispensationalist theology.

You perhaps noticed I did not say “Christian” just now. Yes, AiG like to present themselves off as the true Church and defenders of the faith, but to use the term “Christian” to exclusively define the purpose and mission of the AiG “Museum” would be insulting to other Christians, including this one. Frankly, I am tired of the far religious right hijacking Christianity and the true gospel message of Jesus Christ. So I prefer to describe AiG and other YEC organizations by the theology they advocate, dispensationalism.

Young-earth creationists’ fixation on Mount St Helens began, almost as soon as the dust had settled after the 1980 eruption. During the early 1980’s, Steve Austin with the Institute for Creation Research and Harold G. Coffin with the Seventh Day Adventist Geosciences Research Institute obtained permits to study the debris field at Mount St Helens. While Coffin remained fairly focused on the trees that had washed into nearby Spirit Lake (in 1979, Coffin wrote a paper proposing that petrified trees at Yellowstone National Park had floated to their location), Austin took a more generalist approach (Austin would later claim that the Spirit Lake study was his idea, even though there is not a single paper with his name on it, except from Coffin expressing his appreciation to Austin for his assistance).

Coffin’s study of the Spirit Lake trees did find its way into two peer reviewed (Geology and Palios) geologic journals (only because Coffin was careful to not associate his work at Spirit Lake to his YEC beliefs), which stirred some controversy. Austin’s paper, Rapid Erosion at Mount St Helens though, read more like a tourist field trip guide, than a paper that had any real study quality to it. The problem with the YEC movement since Austin’s paper, they really have not attempted to expand on the “findings” Austin made and just about everything published since then (Austin, Morris and Sarafarti) had been merely a regurgitation of Austin’s 1984 paper. So I was not surprised, when reviewing photographs taken at the Creation “Museum” to find another regurgitation of Austin’s 1984 St Helens “study,” plastered along the walls and displays in a room dedicated to flood “geology.”

The Flood “Geology” room seeks to convinced the visitor that the planet was completely inundated by a global flood and it is the by products of this flood and not a prolonged time span of an ever changing Earth that we see in the geologic record today. The use of Mount St Helens is not so much as to establish positive evidence that favors a flood “geology” theory, but rather a series of negative arguments against modern geologic sciences.

The room begins with a display titled, “The Key to Understanding God’s Word.” In this case the flood.

Mount St Helens becomes “a clue,” to establish evidence that there was a flood. In two panels, AiG lists 10 “observations” from Mount St Helens, based somewhat on a 1991 video Mount St Helens: Explosive Evidence for Catastrophe, where Austin declared the 1980 eruption of Mount St Helens as the defining moment that placed a death nail to Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and Gradualism Geology in a single stroke. The 10 so-called observations, except for one, appeared in other YEC publications (including a book written by Austin and ICR President John Morris Footprints in the Ash, the Explosive Story of Mount St Helens).

Typically, AiG does not place the “observations” drawn from Mount St Helens into context with other volcanic eruptions that take place around the world. The accumulation of sediment from the massive landslide and pyroclastic surges, the subsequent erosion of the volcanic deposits to form canyons, the deposition of trees into Spirit Lake and even the discovery of wood bark at the bottom of Spirit Lake are each presented as a “surprise” to mainstream geologists and beyond the mental capacity of those trained in gradualism geology. In turn, we are expected to accept that each “observation” represents a “miniature” example of how Noah’s Flood caused rapid accumulation of sedimentary rocks on a global scale, the rapid formation of canyons, like the Grand Canyon in Arizona and how peat and coal could rapidly develop in a post-flood world.

There is really no effort made to demonstrate how the “observations” drawn from St Helens can become expanded to explain a global flood.

AiG’s treatment of Mount St Helens at the Creation “Museum” is really disingenuous, misleading, if not downright false. Considering the importance AiG and other YEC organizations emphasis on the St Helens eruption, one needs to wonder why they have not established their own version of a volcano observatory or created an institute dedicated to catastrophic geologic research. And even assuming they did establish a volcano observatory, similar to the Cascade Volcano Observatory the United States Geological Survey established, one would wonder AiG’s capability to keep people safe.

Most volcanic eruptions are relatively minor and their impact is limited to a localized area. Thankfully, the type of eruptions on the scale that Mount St Helens demonstrated occurs on average of about 1 per decade. But, large or small, studying volcanoes is an important function for geologists because of the potential for the lost of life and property damage will always be present. This is one reason why we study volcanoes.

However, volcanoes also represent a fascinating geologic process. Since Pliny the Younger, who gave us the first eyewitness account of a volcanic eruption when he provided very vivid detail of the 79 AD eruption of Vesuvius, through the 1883 eruption that destroyed Krakatoa and killed over 36,000 people, to Mount St Helens today, volcanism continues to amaze us and challenge us to learn more.

Mount St Helens was a geologic success story. It was through the experiences of volcanologists and geologists for the past 150 years that allowed us to anticipate the dangers Mount St Helens might pose in 1980 and prepare for the eventuality of a major explosive eruption in time.

And after 1980, the study of Mount St Helens did not stop. Mount St Helens is just one of 13 potentially active Cascade Volcanoes between British Columbia and California. Recognizing the ongoing danger, the United States Geological Survey established the Cascade Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, Washington in 1981 to monitor all of the Cascade monsters. And through the CVO, experienced geological teams had assisted with the monitoring of other potentially dangerous volcanoes around the world.

None of this would have been possible if, as AiG and other YEC organizations insisted that geologists were somehow befuddled by the eruption. Worst, by failing to properly educate people about volcanoes, their wonders and their dangers, they place lives at risk.

In the end, the Creation “Museum” is really wrong!

Who said that crime doesn't pay.

It was not that long ago when Republicans couldn’t wait to haul Bill Clinton in front of the US Senate to face articles of impeachment for obstruction of justice and for committing perjury. The claim then, no one – including the President of the United States was above the law. Of course, the concern Republican had had little to do with national security or cases of government corruption. Instead the issue involved a statement the President gave in a deposition hearing, on a privately initiated sexual harassment law suit, who’s the party only claimed injury was, then Governor Bill Clinton had skipped her when he was passing out flowers on Secretary’s day. But that did not matter. Bill Clinton violated his oath of office claimed the Republicans and he ought to be punished for what he had done.

I wonder where are those same virtuous Republicans now?

It really comes as no surprised that George W Bush, the successor to President Clinton did, what he had been unable to exercise after so many opportunities came up while he was Governor of the State of Texas and for what he has done so sparingly since arriving to the White House, more than six years ago. Tonight, he commuted the prison sentence of Vice President Dick Cheney’s former Chief of Staff, I Lewis “Scooter” Libby.

Before anyone takes issue, I will concede the point that the President had every right to commute the sentence of a person convicted of a federal crime. I will even concede the point that past Presidents, including Clinton had issued questionable pardons and commutations of prison sentences issued to friends and political allies. Although in these past cases, the President had the good graces of waiting until the end of their terms before exercising the most blatant round of favoritism. However one does need to wonder now, is exercising a presidential power an act of obstruction of justice?

Conservatives may disagree, but last March guilty verdict in the case of the United States versus I Lewis Libby was fair and just. The case was born out what had been obvious to some, of an effort by this White House to discredit political friends of the President when it became apparent they will not play ball and support some of the lunatic affairs committed by this White House. In this case, the issue went to the very heart for why we went into war in Iraq. Among the claims this President gave for justifying a war was alleged evidence that Saddam Hussein was trying to secure “yellow cake” uranium, which could possibly be used for building a nuclear bomb.

“Not true,” said Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador to Iraq and an ally with the Bush Administration, who was sent to Niger to investigate the claim by the Central Intelligence Agency. Not long after Ambassador Wilson wrote an opinion piece on this very issue in the New York Times, word came out about Ambassador Wilson’s wife Valerie Plame, who was then a covert operative with the CIA and whose job it was, to monitor the development of weapons of mass destruction in Iran.

Federal law prohibits the disclosure of covert CIA operatives and for very good reason. If you want to discover what your enemies are doing, then you need covert CIA operatives to do the dirty work to find out. Exposure can mean the death of the operative and the loss of a vital source of intelligence, like truly finding ourselves one morning waking up with a mushroom cloud over one of America’s cities. By exposing Valerie Plame’s identity to the world, the United States loss a vital avenue of intelligence tracking the activities of the Iranian government and their quest to develop nuclear weapons; a government that this Administration stressed in 2002 as one of the members of the so-called “axis of evil,” and a country which this Administration is giving every strong indication of attacking within the next 567 days when this nightmare is finally through.

A two year long investigation followed the leak, which the neither the Administration nor the Press were overly willing to cooperate. It was evident from the testimony given during the Libby trial that had instigated the leak, which showed that the actual source came from Karl Rove and the Vice President Dick Cheney himself. It was also apparent that Libby was the preverbal fall guy, who was taking a bullet for the team. But, none-the-less, the evidence also showed that Libby had lied to prosecutors about his involvement in the leak of Valerie Plame’s identity and as a result of that leak, he had obstructed justice.

As a part of Libby’s punishment, he was sentenced to serve 30 months in prison, which is fair when considering what Libby had done. And today, Libby lost his appeal to stay out of prison, while his criminal conviction was appealed.

It was hoped that as reality finally sank in and Scooter Libby was about to share a prison bed with Kent Hovind, a young-earth creationist charlatan who decided that he did not need to pay taxes to the federal government and sentenced in 2007 to serve a 10 year prison term that Libby will finally give up his co-conspirators. You see this sort of thing on Law and Order all of the time. You go after the small fish, knowing they will lead you to the big fish on a promise on a reduce sentencing.

The real problem, this Administration has taken obstructing legitimate investigations into its behavior into a fine art form. Whether it is discovering who in this administration was actually responsible for the firing of eight US Attorney’s whose commitment to the law did not match with this Administration’s desire to suppress Democratic votes; or discovering the scope of warrantless domestic spy program that this administration was so determined to continue, they had to disturb the US Attorney General who was recovering in a Washington, DC intensive care unit; and a Vice President who claims on one day that he is a part of the Executive Branch of Government and therefore not obligated to disclose anything and the next day he is a member of the Legislative Branch and therefore not subject to disclose anything.

So here is a President who laughed on the day when he declined to issue clemency to Karla Fay Tucker as she was led to the Texas Death Chamber, despite appeals from Jerry Farwell, Pat Robertson and Pope John-Paul II. And here is a President who snickered when he refused to grant clemency to a great-grandmother who killed her husband after years of abusive treatment, as she too was lead to Texas Death Chamber. And here is a President who has detained American Citizens and Foreign Nationals incommunicado, denied them access to the writ of habeas corpus and whose solution to the detainees problem is to established kangaroo courts that does not make any pretenses to following the rule of law. And here is a President, who has issued fewer pardons than his predecessors, has found it in his heart to issue clemency on behalf of Scooter Libby.

I suppose it pays to be friends with this administration.

And so much too, for the moral authority asserted by Republicans as they sought to impeach the previous President of the United States.

Good night and good luck.

Lance

A Giant Leap Forward

For three years, I have bugged my family and friends with a newsletter that I called the Mount St Helens Watch.

Mount St Helens had been a long time fascination of mine and when the Cascade Volcano awoke again on October 1, 2004, I started the Mount St Helens Watch to report news and information on the eruption and interesting tidbits on the mountain. As this dedicated quest continued, I soon expanded the newsletter to include family information, my travels and even my political interest (just about everything under the sun).

This service is now being expanded to the blogoshpere.

Although I have studied geology at Oregon State University in Corvallis, OR, I am actually an occupational safety and health specialist (an OSHA type of person). For about nine years, I applied my trade with a environmental and geotechnical drilling company located in Tualatin, OR. For the past year, I have served as the Safety Specialist for a non-profit organization that provide job training and jobs for the disabled in Portland, OR.

What to expect from this blog?

• News and views on Mount St Helens
• My views and commentary on young-earth creationism, especially their false claims on the eruption of Mount St Helens.
• Progressive leaning politics
• Anything impacting Portland and the Pacific Northwest
• Photographs
• And more

So for anyone who read this, welcome aboard.

Lance Wilson