Core Faculty Development               2006 Workshop         THEME:  “Creation & Evolution”

Readings for Day 4:  Age and History of Earth – June 2, 2006

Part I : The History of Views on Earth History and Evidences of Deep Time

DT1)  http://www.asa3.org/ASA/resources/Wiens.html : Wiens, R., Radiometric Dating: A Christian Perspective, Online resource reproduced from Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith – Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation, 1994 and revised 2002  N.B.: This document is available as a .PDF file.

DT2)  Changing views of Earth History:  http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/geohist.html

Suggested readings:

DT3)  Age of Earth FAQs: http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-age-of-earth.html

DT4)  Isochron Dating: http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/isochron-dating.html

DT5)  The Geological Time Scale: http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/dating.html

DT6)  YEC^* claim that the “Geologic Column” is fiction:  http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CD/CD101.html

DT7)   …and petroleum geophysicist (and former publishing YEC^* !) Glenn Morton’s informational response: http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/geocolumn/

DT8)  A Criticism of ICR’s (Institute for Creation Research – a major YEC^* “ministry”) Grand Canyon Project:  http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/icr-science.html

Part II: Plate Tectonics – The Unifying Theory of Geology

PT1)  Bibliography of references supporting PT as the unifying theory of geology: http://www.talkorigins.org/origins/biblio/plate_tectonics.html

PT2)   This Dynamic Earth:  the Story of Plate Tectonics (from the official website of the U.S. Geological Survey):  http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/dynamic.html

Part III: Ideas about Abiogenesis (Chemical Evolution) – A Segue to Biological Evolution

CE1)  Lies, Damned Lies, Statistics, and Probability of Abiogenesis Calculations:  http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/abioprob/abioprob.html  N.B.  This will be a short (15-20 minute) session on the “frontier” science of abiogenesis research. 

Suggested supplemental readings for Day 6 (June 9) – “Evolving Creation” 

D61)  Book recommendations representative of various origins views: http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/reading-list.html

D62)  You may want to check out Dr. Christopher Sharp’s (astrophysicist at the University of Arizona) concise and comprehensive Powerpoint presentation on Creationism:   http://www.saintjoe.edu/~dept14/environment/rogero/ppt/creationism_cmsharp.ppt

D63)  This anthology is not available online, but it’s a wonderful analysis of the CrEvo^** issue from a Christian perspective:  Miller. K.B. (editor), Perspectives on an Evolving Creation, Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2003, ISBN 0-8028-0512-4     N.B. (1)  Chapter 7 is especially relevant to the geological issues of this workshop  (2)  this opus is in the SJC library stacks.

Key

*  YEC = Young Earth Creationist, i.e., one who holds that her/his particular interpretation of Genesis 1-11 implies Earth and Cosmos are no more than, say, 100 thousand years old (more likely 6-10 thousand years as per “begats”.)

** CrEvo = Creation/Evolution, Creation OR Evolution, or (as we prefer!) Creation & Evolution