In 1984, Baugh started the Creation Evidence Museum in a double-wide trailer in Glen Rose, Texas, near Dinosaur Valley State Park, to promote creationism.[4] The museum exhibits have been strongly criticized by scientists as incorrectly identified dinosaur prints, other fossils, or outright forgeries.[10][11] In 2008, a descendant of a family that found many original Paluxy River dinosaur tracks in the 1930s claimed that her grandfather had faked many of them.[12] Others, such as purported dinosaur claws, were identified by University of Texas at Austin paleontologist Wann Langston as crocodile teeth.[13]
In 1996, Baugh presented his "man-tracks" in the widely criticized program The Mysterious Origins of Man.[14] Creationist Ken Ham, of Answers in Genesis, criticized the claims in a review titled "Hollywood's 'Moses' Undermines Genesis," regarding Baugh: "According to leading creationist researchers, this evidence is open to much debate and needs much more intensive research. One wonders how much of the information in the program can really be trusted!"[15] He also has been given television exposure by the tele-evangelistKenneth Copeland. He has authored several self-published books[4] on such topics as the age of the universe, dinosaurs coexisting with humans and critiques of evolution.[16]
In 2001 Baugh and Creation Evidence Museum were featured on The Daily Show where Baugh likened human history to The Flintstones and the show poked fun at his claims about the hyperbaric biosphere, pterodactyl expeditions, and dinosaurs.[17]
He is a promoter of intelligent design. In 2002 he appeared with William A. Dembski at a conference in Texas and has built his more recent web material around ID and Dembski.[18]
Claims
Both scientists and creationists have criticized Baugh's claims. Between 1982 and 1984, several scientists (including J.R. Cole, L.R. Godfrey, R.J. Hastings, and S.D. Schafersman) examined Baugh's purported "mantracks" as well as others provided by creationists in the Glen Rose Formation.[13] In the course of the examination, "Baugh contradicted his own earlier reports of the locations of key discoveries" and many of the supposed prints "lacked human characteristics."[13] After a three-year investigation of the tracks and Baugh's specimens, the scientists concluded there was no evidence of any of Baugh's claims or any "dinosaur-man tracks".[13]
On September 27, 1984, Al West, a Baugh co-worker for two years, who followed the mantrack claims since 1974, and friend of Glen Kuban, publicly announced that Baugh "never had evidence for manprints as claimed."[13] Gayle Golden, writer for The Dallas Morning News, reported that Baugh "paid $10,000 for his Moab skeleton and confirmed that Baugh knew at their purchase that the bones had already been dated at 200-300 years. However Baugh later claimed that the bones were found in Cretaceous deposits."[13]
One of Baugh's more famous claims, aside from the dinosaur tracks, is the London Hammer, an alleged out of place artifact of an "18th century miner's hammer" found in million-year-old Ordovician rock (he has also claimed it is in Cretaceous rock) found in 1934 from London, Texas.[19][20] Baugh asserted this as evidence against scientifically known ways that rocks form.[19] However, laboratory tests discounted his claim about the hammer's being formed in the rock.[19][20] J.R. Cole wrote, "The stone concretion is real, and it looks impressive to someone unfamiliar with geological processes. How could a modern artifact be stuck in Ordovician rock? The answer is that the concretion itself is not Ordovician. Minerals in solution can harden around an intrusive object dropped in a crack or simply left on the ground if the source rock (in this case, reportedly Ordovician) is chemically soluble."[21]
In July 2008, Baugh was in contact with Alvis Delk and James Bishop, who claimed to have found a dinosaur-human print fossil.[22] Baugh bought the "fossil" from Delk who used the money to pay his medical bills.[23] On the authenticity of the claims, reporter Bud Kennedy noted, "since no scientists were involved, about all we really know so far is that the museum has a new rock."[24] This was deemed "not a convincing human footprint in ancient rock" by biologist Glen J. Kuban and called a "blatant fake" by biologist PZ Myers.[25]
Creationist organizations such as Answers in Genesis have criticized Baugh's claims saying he "muddied the water for many Christians. . . . People are being misled."[4] Don Batten, of Creation Ministries International wrote: "Some Christians will try to use Baugh's 'evidences' in witnessing and get 'shot down' by someone who is scientifically literate. The ones witnessed to will thereafter be wary of all creation evidences and even more inclined to dismiss Christians as nut cases not worth listening to."[26]Answers in Genesis (AiG) lists the "Paluxy tracks" as arguments "we think creationists should NOT use" [emphasis in original].[27] Also Answers In Creation reviewed Baugh's museum and concluded "the main artifacts they claim show a young earth reveal that they are deceptions, and in many cases, not even clever ones."[28]
In his 1992 book Panorama of Creation, Baugh claims that a layer of metallic hydrogen surrounded the early Earth. Furthermore, he professes that hexagonal water, or, "Creation water" as he calls it, is capable of healing. Such claims have been addressed by scientists as pseudoscience,.[9]
Baugh has claimed several college degrees, at one point professing to earning three doctorates, when no evidence exists that he even graduated from high school.[29] All three "doctorates" are from unaccredited "schools." One is an honorary "Doctor of Philosophy in Theology" from the non-accredited California Graduate School of Theology. His claimed 1989 "doctorate" and master's degrees in archaeology come from the non-accredited Pacific International University, of which Baugh was also the president.[29] His dissertation titled "Academic Justification for Voluntary Inclusion of Scientific Creation in Public Classroom Curricula, Supported by Evidence that Man and Dinosaurs Were Contemporary" was reviewed by Brett Vickers who criticized its "descriptions of his field-work on the Paluxy river 'man-tracks', speculation about Charles Darwin's religious beliefs and phobias, and biblical evidence of Adam's mental excellence."[30] In 2005, Baugh claimed to have completed another doctorate in theology from the unaccreditedLouisiana Baptist University.[31]
An out-of-place artifact is an artifact of historical, archaeological, or paleontological interest to someone that is claimed to have been found in an unusual context, which someone claims to challenge conventional historical chronology by its presence in that context. Some people might think that those artifacts are too advanced for the technology known to have existed at the time, or that human presence existed at a time before humans are known to have existed. Other people might hypothesize about a contact between different cultures that is hard to account for with conventional historical understanding.
Young Earth creationism (YEC) is a form of creationism which holds as a central tenet that the Earth and its lifeforms were created by supernatural acts of the Abrahamic God between about 6,000 and 10,000 years ago. In its most widespread version, YEC is based on the religious belief in the inerrancy of certain literal interpretations of the Book of Genesis. Its primary adherents are Christians and Jews who believe that God created the Earth in six literal days. This is in contrast with old Earth creationism (OEC), which holds literal interpretations of Genesis that are compatible with the scientifically determined ages of the Earth and universe. It is also in contrast to theistic evolution, which posits that the scientific principles of evolution, the Big Bang, abiogenesis, solar nebular theory, age of the universe, and age of Earth are compatible with a metaphorical interpretation of the Genesis creation account.
Flood geology is a pseudoscientific attempt to interpret and reconcile geological features of the Earth in accordance with a literal belief in the Genesis flood narrative, the flood myth in the Hebrew Bible. In the early 19th century, diluvial geologists hypothesized that specific surface features provided evidence of a worldwide flood which had followed earlier geological eras; after further investigation they agreed that these features resulted from local floods or from glaciers. In the 20th century, young-Earth creationists revived flood geology as an overarching concept in their opposition to evolution, assuming a recent six-day Creation and cataclysmic geological changes during the biblical flood, and incorporating creationist explanations of the sequences of rock strata.
Answers in Genesis (AiG) is an American fundamentalist Christian apologetics parachurch organization. It advocates young Earth creationism on the basis of its literal, historical-grammatical interpretation of the Book of Genesis and the Bible as a whole. Out of belief in biblical inerrancy, it rejects the results of scientific investigations that contradict their view of the Genesis creation narrative and instead supports pseudoscientific creation science. The organization sees evolution as incompatible with the Bible and believes anything other than the young Earth view is a compromise on the principle of biblical inerrancy.
Arthur Ernest Wilder-Smith, FRSC was a British organic chemist and young Earth creationist.
The Genesis Flood: The Biblical Record and its Scientific Implications is a 1961 book by young Earth creationists John C. Whitcomb and Henry M. Morris that, according to Ronald Numbers, elevated young Earth creationism "to a position of fundamentalist orthodoxy."
The Creation Museum, located in Petersburg, Kentucky, United States, is a museum that promotes the pseudoscientific young Earth creationist (YEC) explanation of the origin of the universe and life on Earth based on a literal interpretation of the Genesis creation narrative of the Bible. It is operated by the Christian creation apologetics organization Answers in Genesis (AiG).
Xiphactinus, colloquially referred to as the X-fish, is an extinct genus of large predatory marine bony fish that lived during the late Albian to the late Maastrichtian. The genus grew up to 5–6 metres (16–20 ft) in length, and superficially resembled a gargantuan, fanged tarpon.
Dinosaur Valley State Park is a state park near Glen Rose, Texas, United States.
The Paluxy River, also known as Paluxy Creek, is a river in the U.S. state of Texas. It is a tributary of the Brazos River. It is formed by the convergence of the North Paluxy River and the South Paluxy River near Bluff Dale, Texas in Erath County and flows a distance of 29 miles (47 km) before joining the Brazos just to the east of Glen Rose, Texas in south central Somervell County.
Walter T. Brown is a young Earth creationist, who is the director of his own ministry called the Center for Scientific Creation. The Skeptic's Dictionary considers him to be one of the leaders of the creation science movement. He proposes a specific version of flood geology called the Hydroplate Theory. He is a retired army officer with a degree in mechanical engineering.
The Glen Rose Formation is a shallow marine to shoreline geological formation from the lower Cretaceous period exposed over a large area from South Central to North Central Texas. The formation is most widely known for the dinosaur footprints and trackways found in the Dinosaur Valley State Park near the town of Glen Rose, Texas, southwest of Fort Worth and at other localities in Central Texas.
Leonard Brand is a Seventh-day Adventist creationist, biologist, paleontologist, and author. He is a professor and past chair of Loma Linda University Department of Earth and Biological Sciences.
The Creation Evidence Museum of Texas, originally Creation Evidences Museum, is a creationist museum in Glen Rose in Somervell County in central Texas, United States. Founded in 1984 by Carl Baugh for the purpose of researching and displaying exhibits that support creationism, it portrays the Earth as six thousand years old and humans coexisting with non-avian dinosaurs, disputing that the Earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old and non-avian dinosaurs became extinct 65.5 million years before human beings arose.
The Mt. Blanco Fossil Museum was a creationist museum in Crosbyton, Texas, United States, opened in 1998. Its motto was "Digging up the facts of God's Creation: One fossil at a time."
A creationist museum is a facility that hosts exhibits which use the established natural history museum format to present a young Earth creationist view that the Earth and life on Earth were created some 6,000 to 10,000 years ago in six days. These facilities generally promote pseudoscientific biblical literalist creationism and contest evolutionary science. Their claims are dismissed by the scientific community.
The Moab Man is a find of several human skeletons found after bulldozing in a mine whose rock dated to the Early Cretaceous period, about 140 million years ago. The original discovery of two individuals was made in 1971 by Lin Ottinger in the Keystone Azurite Mine near Moab, Utah, and has been used by creationists as an argument for humans coexisting with dinosaurs. John Marwitt, an archaeologist and the field director for the Utah Archaeological Survey, examined the fossils and concluded that the fossils were probably only hundreds of years old, the result of burials of Native Americans.
The Mysterious Origins of Man is a pseudoarchaeological television special that originally aired on NBC on February 25, 1996. Hosted by Charlton Heston, the program presents the fringe theory that mankind has lived on the Earth for tens of millions of years, and that mainstream scientists have suppressed the fossil evidence for this. Some material included was based on Forbidden Archeology, a book written by Hindu creationists Michael Cremo and Richard L. Thompson about anomalous archeological finds reported mainly in early scientific journals. The film covers topics such as The Paluxy tracks, the Zuiyo-maru carcass, the Missing Link, the Java Man, Lucy, Tiwanaku, Stonehenge, the Giza pyramids, the Piri Reis map, Atlantis, and the Pole shift hypothesis.
The London Hammer is a name given to a hammer made of iron and wood that was found in London, Texas in 1936. Part of the hammer is embedded in a limey rock concretion, leading to it being regarded by some as an anomalous artifact. The tool is much younger than the Lower Cretaceous rock surrounding it.
Glen Jay Kuban is an American computer programmer and independent investigator from Brunswick, Ohio. He is known for his work in Paluxy River dinosaur footprints.
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