#159 – Answers-in-Genesis are getting a new leader …. and a Tower of Babel theme park!?

Recovering Evangelicals

Recent developments in the YECist world, according to a scientist who’s been watching them closely for two decades

In this episode, we talk to Dr. Joel Duff: a professor doing biological research at a secular state university, and teaching students that come from the Bible belt of the USA. He’s been a popular blogger for twenty years, and more recently the host of a YouTube channel with an impressive following, both of which are focused primarily on examining and pushing back on YECist claims. If there’s any arm’s-length expert on all-things-Ken-Ham-and-Answers-in-Genesis (AiG), Dr. Duff is the one.

We covered a lot of ground in our discussion with Joel:

• his recent introspective posts on his own identity, his core theology, and his goal/mission for the blogs and videos he produces
• why is he so focused on AiG and Ken Ham? … answer: “because they’re the ten-ton gorilla in the YECist game”
• in 2022, AiG reported $62M in annual revenue (roughly three times Eerdman’s; almost as much as Zondervan’s) plus $112M in assets … they’re building a multi-media empire!?
• with so much excess cash on hand (~$20M above expenses, every year), why don’t they invest in some high-quality scientific experts who can speak with actual expertise and authority to the YECist topics which they address? [answer: such experts with a YECist worldview don’t exist!?]
• instead, in addition to the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter, they’re using the extra cash to build a replica of the Tower of Babel. Literally! Seriously! Here are two posts that AiG themselves released in 2021 and in 2022 announcing this development.
• despite not having qualified experts to promote the scientific claims they make, they are nonetheless able to comprehend the criticisms against their claims (in other words, they’re not just blind to their own folly); Joel told an interesting story about how a colleague transformed one of AiG’s posts ridiculing Flat Earthers by replacing the word “flat” with “young” and turned AiG’s own article into a perfectly cogent argument against YECism!? Here’s a link to the original story and a link to Joel’s own unpacking of that story.
• how does Joel deal with the frustration of YECist leaders/speakers who do not work within the scientific areas on which they pontificate, while he himself does?
• why was YECism introduced, and why has it become so widely accepted and popular? [the answer lies in some history from the 1800s]
• AiG’s primary motivating factor is that the Theory of Evolution is the root of all of society’s problems (homosexuality; abortion; crime; corruption)
• is YECism growing, or dying out? While the numbers might be going down, the fervor of those persisting has not!
• is home-schooling part of the problem? It was, but fewer people are opting for that: however, AiG are stepping into the gap by creating all kinds of educational curriculum for school systems!?
• young people are being recruited and groomed to become YECist ambassadors, but in the process of dissecting the arguments for Evolution in order to come up with counterarguments …. they end up becoming convinced and then leave that YECist worldview (often even rejecting Christianity entirely)
• recent changes in the leadership level at AiG: Ken Ham isn’t getting younger, so who’s standing in the wings?
• recent changes in some of their talking points:
  • growing emphasis on societal issues
  • hyperspeciation (hundreds of millions of years of evolution being condensed down into a few thousand years!?)
  • a greater appeal to miracles in order to deal with scientific criticisms
• recent changes at the membership / adherents level? …. diminishing? … youth today are changing their focus
• how do we respond to YECists in our personal, daily interactions (family, friends, colleagues)?
• a few words about the Institute for Creation Research, and the Discovery Institute (headquarters for Intelligent Design).

As always, tell us your thoughts on this topic …

Find out more information about Dr. Joel Duff at his university profile page, his blog-site Naturalis Historia, and his YouTube channel.

If you enjoyed this episode, you may also like others which are focused directly on YECism, listed in our Thematic page “Young Earth Creationism.”

Episode image by Andrew. Thanks Andrew!

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