Customer Reviews

The Young Earth

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

Exactly where have you 4-star and 5-star people been during the 20th and 21st centuries anyway? As another reviewer so aptly pointed out, if the "science" in Morris' book is to be accepted, then much of what modern science is founded upon must be entirely off base. Not just evolution or even simply all of biology, mind you, but geology, physics, chemistry, astronomy. If Morris is to be believed then the primary motive of the scientists of the past three or four centuries must have been to formulate one huge conspiracy to hoodwink the rest of mankind. Either that or they were all a bunch of nitwits. And, if everything they've been telling us during that time has been mostly bunk, then you'll have very good reason to be rather reluctant the next time you have to get on a jetliner (or even an elevator) or swallow the medications your doctor has prescribed because all of this and all the rest of our technology is based upon the the basic research and considered judgements of scientists.

For anyone bound and determined to justify their belief in a 6,000 year-old earth, my words and those of several other reviewers here will surely fall on deaf ears. Indeed, there are none so blind as those who will not see and, in that case, Morris' pap will suit you admirably.

On the other hand, if you're genuinely interested in finding the truth, then, by all means, get a second (or third or fourth or fifth...) opinion here. The opinions of the vast majority of real scientists out there will no doubt be at considerable odds with those of Dr. Morris.

But, then again, aren't they ALL really part of this conspiracy?

As a physician and a scientist (in Biology), I can affirm this book is an excellent work. One of the best things gleaned from reading this book is the explanation on how assumptions on your world view (old earth vs young earth) can change your interpretation of the data. Some have said that creation science is concocted. This could not be farther from the truth. There is more evidence for a young earth and scant if any evidence for an old earth with long geological ages. Modern dating techniques have too many assumptions built in to them to be definitive (like how much daughter element was there in the first place, and the closed-ness of the system which changes the dates shown). One of the best examples was a "modern" lava flow that dated billions of years old when it should date in the 100s of years.

I would like to hear an evolutionary geologist explain the Polonium 218 problem if the earth was not formed instantaneously.

What has happened at Mount St. Helen's is a testimony to what is written in this book showing processes that were formerly thought to take millions of years could actually occur in an afternoon (is it did during the explosion at Mt St. Helen's).

People who do not like this book I believe are afraid of trying to explain and confront the problems for evolutionist presented in the book.

This book attempts to challenge every discipline of science with nothing more than statements based on belief. The so called "scientific" theories presented are in direct conflict with the basic foundations and evidence of physics, astronomy, geology, and chemistry. The author uses scientific sounding statements in attempting to convince the reader that there is substance to his arguments. The so called "facts" presented in this book have long ago been shown to be based on totally faulty assumptions.

The title of this book "The Young Earth," is emblazoned on the cover in Star Trek style lettering - ironic since most episodes of Star Trek contain more science than this book.

Over the past two hundred years scientific advances in a number of disciplines, ranging from cosmology to physics and geology, have allowed researchers to determine the age of the Earth with remarkable accuracy - 4.54 billion years (plus or minus 1%). For detailed information, and the fascinating history of how multiple lines of scientific inquiry and evidence converged to support this finding, try Ancient Earth, Ancient Skies: The Age of Earth and its Cosmic Surroundings or The Age of Earth by G. Brent Dalrymple.

A Pb/Pb isochron age, determined from samples of the Earth and meteorites, is the preferred technique used to calculate the age of the Earth. This method measures three isotopes of Lead (Pb-206, Pb-207, and either Pb-208 or Pb-204). The resulting Pb-206/Pb-204 versus Pb-207/Pb-204 ratios are then plotted on a graph.

If the reservoir of matter from which the solar system formed had a uniform distribution of Pb isotope ratios, then any plot made at the time of formation for objects derived from that matter would fall on a single point.

The amount of Pb-206 and Pb-207 changes over time since any primordial Uranium decays to these end products (U-238 decays to Pb-206 and U-235 decays to PB-207). Consequently the data points inevitably diverge. Samples with higher Uranium-to-Lead ratios will express the greatest change in Pb-206/Pb-204 and Pb-207/Pb-204 values.

If the solar system also formed from source material with uniform Uranium isotope distribution ratios then a plot of the data points will fall on a single line. The slope of this line can be used to calculate the amount of time (age) since the original matter pool separated into discrete objects.

A Young Earth Creationist (YEC for short), such as John Morris, would object to the assumptions noted above. Unfortunately for Morris (and this is where he goes completely off the rails), the validity of these assumptions is elegantly tested by plotting the Pb/Pb ratio data. The actual underlying assumption is that, if these requirements have not been met, then there is no reason for the data points to fall on a line.

Every time a credible researcher or lab runs these tests on a valid sample and plots the results, the data points fall on a line. Not only is the age of the Earth determined, but the underlying assumption is verified - something the author never bothers to tell the reader. Scientific case closed. The Earth is old, immensely old, deep time old, 4.54 billion years old, but the author can't deal with the result since they overthrow his inane variant of a cherished "guy-in-the-sky" creation myth.

Even when anomalous Pb/Pb isochron dates (from invalid samples, sloppy lab work, or both) are deliberately cherry-picked by YECs the outcome is not in favor of a young Earth. One particularly notorious example (Woodmorappe, 1979, p.113) only proved that Pb/Pb dates are far more likely to be too young than too old! Morris and Wodmorappe need the dates to be too old if their viewpoint is correct. Once again reality-based science trumps myth-based creationism - even when the creationists attempt to load the dice!

(The following observations from my review of "Thousands Not Billions" are entirely relevant to "The Young Earth" as well.)

Faith alone informs the author that the Earth is only a few thousand years old. Objectively verifiable scientific facts argue for billions, not thousands, of years. How does Morris resolve this dilemma? He reacts the same way YECs always do when their illusions are shattered - invoke sophistry under the guise of apologetics, dispense with reason, ignore mountains of objective and verifiable evidence, invent evil "Darwinian" bogeymen, and dress up the result (in drag) with a seemingly impressive veneer of scientific sounding techno-babble.

Apologetics is a branch of theology devoted to defending the divine origin and authority of Christianity. Religions base absolute and immutable "truth claims" on special revelation and divine authority - none of which is observable, empirical, or measurable. The resulting beliefs and dogmas are essentially divorced from the laws of reason. Faith alone is required. Faith, in the religious sense, can never be falsified, it can only be abandoned.

Science is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena and acquiring new knowledge, as well as for correcting and integrating previous knowledge. It is based on observable, empirical, measurable evidence, and subject to the laws of reason. Scientific facts (along with hypothesis and theories) are always provisional and subject to falsification as new information becomes available.

The differences between these two disciplines explains why "The Young Earth" is such a mess.

Does the faux "science" in "The Young Earth" justify overturning two hundred years of spectacular advances in cosmology, astronomy, physics, geology, paleontology, chemistry, and biology? Absolutely not! There is no science in this book - only apologetics built on fallacious arguments from authority, fundamentalist dogma, and crank pseudo-science. An uneasy and desperate faith conjured this book into existence, not scientific discourse and debate.

Based on his lifetime experience within the scientific community, John D. Morris has masterfully put together a wealth of information. This book cuts through the rhetoric used by the media to propagate evolution as fact. This book carefully discusses and analyzes the history of the earth. Each of the conclusions allow the reader plenty of information to follow up on, in case the reader is skeptical. This is a must have in your library. Because this information is formatted to address the average layperson, we should not deem it unworthy. John is the president of ICR (Institute for Creation Research), and his research and methodology is accurate and straightforward. I have read the other lower rated reviews on this book and find they are based on the philosophical beliefs of the individual and not on fact. If you take the time to look into some of John's conclusions you will find them to be not only accurate but unambiguous. I have read many books by John D. Morris and his father Henry Morris, and through careful analysis found no fault in any of their books.

This is one book that really needed to be written. This is the only book I know of that deals specifically with the scientific evidences for a young earth. Dr. Morris presents the evidences in a clear manner and documents all of his research for further study. What I enjoyed most about this book was Dr. Morris' philosophy on science in the first few chapters. He clearly explains that it is not the evidence that he disagrees with, but the INTERPRETATIONS of the evidence. John also makes it clear that all of the "evidences" for a young earth are interpreted by fallible humans and should not be trusted dogmatically because science is always changing. Instead, he says that we should trust the authority of the bible, which is never changing, which clearly says that the earth is young. That is why I, along with many other creationists, fear for "progressive creationists" who are trusting the fallible ideas of man rather than the plain teaching of scripture.

Dr. Morris gives many of the classic arguments for a young earth, like the Magnetic Field, short-period comets, helium decay, etc. and does so in an easy to understand manner. Some of the material may require atleast a college level geology course to fully understand, but most of it is fairly simple. Skeptics may think that they have refuted all of these young earth arguments and thus declared them to be based on faulty assumptions, but what they fail to realize is that Creationists have offered rebuttals to all of the skeptic's objections. Most of these rebuttals can be found online(trueorigins.org)or in creationist journals(TJ).

Lastly, Dr. Morris dealt with the supposed "evidences" for an old earth and refutted them successfully. Many skeptics criticise creationists for dealing with areas that are outside the author's area of expertise, but this will not be the case here. John Morris is a PHd Geologist who has taught in Universities and published in secular peer reviewed scientific journals. Almost all of the scientific material in this book deals with Geology, so if anyone is qualified to have an opinion on this, it is John Morris. Overall, I would recommend this book to Christian and skeptic alike, but if someone wants a more technical approach to these evidences, look elsewhere, because this book was written for the laymen in mind. A better place to find this technical information would be the technical monographs that ICR offers(icr.org).

This is a well written scientific book that debunks the evolution and "old earth" myths. This is a book that you will want to read more than once and keep permanently in your collection. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is that the author left me wanting more. You won't be disappointed with this book. I would also recommend reading books by this author's father (Dr. Henry M. Morris).

This book has powerful visuals for copying and passing on to students or others. Many of the pages are also designed to create overheads to project for a class.

The arguments and proof here is good, but not as thorough as some of the other books by Morris and others.

You won't go wrong w/this one, though.

This is one book that really needed to be written. This is the only book I know of that deals specifically with the scientific evidences for a young earth. Dr. Morris presents the evidences in a clear manner and documents all of his research for further study. What I enjoyed most about this book was Dr. Morris' philosophy on science in the first few chapters. He clearly explains that it is not the evidence that he disagrees with, but the INTERPRETATIONS of the evidence. John also makes it clear that all of the "evidences" for a young earth are interpreted by fallible humans and should not be trusted dogmatically because science is always changing. Instead, he says that we should trust the authority of the bible, which is never changing, which clearly says that the earth is young. That is why I, along with many other creationists, fear for "progressive creationists" who are trusting the fallible ideas of man rather than the plain teaching of scripture.

Dr. Morris gives many of the classic arguments for a young earth, like the Magnetic Field, short-period comets, helium decay, etc. and does so in an easy to understand manner. Some of the material may require atleast a college level geology course to fully understand, but most of it is fairly simple. Skeptics may think that they have refuted all of these young earth arguments and thus declared them to be based on faulty assumptions, but what they fail to realize is that Creationists have offered rebuttals to all of the skeptic's objections. Most of these rebuttals can be found online(trueorigins.org)or in creationist journals(TJ).

Lastly, Dr. Morris dealt with the supposed "evidences" for an old earth and refutted them successfully. Many skeptics criticise creationists for dealing with areas that are outside the author's area of expertise, but this will not be the case here. John Morris is a PHd Geologist who has taught in Universities and published in secular peer reviewed scientific journals. Almost all of the scientific material in this book deals with Geology, so if anyone is qualified to have an opinion on this, it is John Morris. Overall, I would recommend this book to Christian and skeptic alike, but if someone wants a more technical approach to these evidences, look elsewhere, because this book was written for the laymen in mind. A better place to find this technical information would be the technical monographs that ICR offers(icr.org).

I simply wanted to urge everyone who has read this to really dig into the science of the issues. Don't take anyone's word for it. Read the science articles yourself to gain a better understanding of why the author is claiming what he claims. It may be tough for those who are not experienced in the different science fields, but I believe it is worth the time and effort.

As a Christian myself, I realize that it is important to be able to identify with others who need Christ. Ignorance in logic and understanding of science will turn off many educated atheists to Christianity. That is all, thank you.