Creationist Paper on Heat Problems Associated with Genesis Flood

Answers in Genesis (AiG) published a new paper yesterday in their Answers Research Journal discussing how life on earth survived the massive amount of heat produced in volcanic eruptions and intrusions during “The Flood.” The paper was authored by Dr. William Worraker, a British creationist with a doctorate in mathematics and a BS in physics. To their credit, the creationists realize having the Paleozoic-to-Recent igneous rock record go from molten to crystallizing in the last few thousand years presents a big problem for Young Earth Creationism.

As usual for Answers Research Journal, it is difficult to determine who the paper is aimed at or how it was peer reviewed by any competent scientist in the fields the paper discusses. Lots of technical articles from real journals and several mathematical appendices are cited, but then there is a section of definitions taken from Encyclopedia Britannica that include basic information that an undergraduate chemistry student should be aware of, as well as descriptions of minerals at an undergraduate mineralogy class level. This paper doesn’t appear to be written with the intent of convincing a geophysicist or geoscientist studying tectonics. In reality, it seems written to impress non-scientists, including potential donors to AiG, by being “sciencey.” Much of what is put out by AiG, the Institute for Creation Research, and other creationists that looks technical is really just a parody of science, meant to impress their followers/donors.

The abstract mentions supernatural explanations, but most of the paper doesn’t do so until the concluding portion. After paragraphs of rather questionable reasoning, special pleading, attempts at physics, and creation “science,” the author finally comes clean with this total bullshit by claiming the Bible says it and God did it:

However, it is important to appreciate that our inability to identify an acknowledged mechanism for removing the excess heat deposited during and after the Flood, an issue first identified over 35 years ago (Baumgardner 1986), is only a problem in the sense that it represents the limited nature of our human understanding. In a biblical context there is no fundamental problem because God purposely brought about the Flood (Genesis 6:17) as a judgment on the wicked human race of Noah’s day and covenanted with Noah to preserve human and animal life through the cataclysm (Genesis 6:18). He sovereignly accomplished both objectives, implying that environmental temperatures could not have risen beyond biological endurance limits. The only real problem is our current lack of understanding of how this was accomplished; the Flood account in Genesis 6–9 does not tell us directly whether supernatural processes were involved, though it seems very likely that they were. The same basic issue arises in connection with the topics to be covered in Parts 5 (heat due to Accelerated Nuclear Decay) and 6 (heat due to bombardments from space) of this series, and will be considered at greater length in Part 7.

The author could have saved a great deal of time if he had just said a miracle occurred rather than subjecting the reader to all of the arm waving and special pleading.