Philosophy of Biology Cafe

There is an interesting review article just published in Science and Education on the state of the art, such as it is, of young earth creationism --

Heaton, Timothy. 2009. “Recent Developments in Young-Earth Creationist Geology”, in Science and Education, Vol. 18, No. 10, October 2009, pp. 1341–1358. URI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11191-008-9162-6

There are some wonderfully ad hoc hypotheses described. One is designed to explain the fossil record -- before the flood, some young earth creationists believe, there was a continent-sized floating forest containing species strictly confined within concentric circular bands, which the flood delicately deposited one by one into the strata. Carbon dating? No problem -- varying rates of nuclear decay, with the excess heat carried off by the expansion of space.

Could be a nice paper to use in an introductory philosophy of science class...

Thanks for the tip! It's helpful to build up a good critical literature on these sorts of things.

It is interesting, like the author to follow both sides of the debate. Intelligent debate is healthy rather than just berating the other side's arguments.