Dispatches from the Creation Wars

Hal Lindsey Still Peddling Lies

Posted by Ed Brayton on October 13, 2005
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Hal Lindsey is back with his tried and true lie about the USGS and earthquakes. Writing in – where else? – the Worldnutdaily, he says:

My friend Tom Ambrose of WorldNetDaily did a little research on the subject on Monday. He found the three largest-magnitude earthquakes recorded in recent history took place in this generation.

The 1960 Chilean earthquake measured 9.5; the 1964 Alaskan quake and the Sumatra quake last Christmas both measured 9.0. The Sumatra temblor was so powerful it moved the island off its former GPS coordinates.

It shook the entire earth like a tuning fork, making the planet wobble on its axis and actually causing time to shift slightly.

Ambrose also noted, “The U.S. Geological Survey data indicate earthquake occurrences are increasing. In 2000, there were 22,256 recorded earthquakes worldwide. That number has steadily increased to 31,199 earthquakes in 2004.”

I already debunked this one a few weeks ago. It’s simply nonsense and the USGS in fact points out that this is an increase in the number of earthquakes recorded, not the number that occured. This lie has been peddled so many times by hacks like Lindsey that the USGS has written a paper solely on that subject.

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Comments

  1. #1 mark
    October 13, 2005

    Duh…the strongest hurricanes of the last 10 years also occrred during this generation.

  2. #2 Dave S.
    October 13, 2005

    He found the three largest-magnitude earthquakes recorded in recent history took place in this generation.

    Depending on how you define “recent history” and a “generation”, the two time periods could be identical. Almost like saying that some of the most powerful hurricanes in the last quarter century occurred within the last 25 years!

    A generation is generally defined at about 25 years for humans. In the last 25 years (since 1980), only two of the 12 strongest quakes in the past century have occurred, the Acheh quake of December 2004, and a slightly smaller quake a few months later nearby.

    Dammit Mark, you took my point! *L*

  3. #3 jcw
    October 13, 2005

    It also appears that Mr. Ambrose didn’t do “a little research on the subject on Monday” but instead did “little” research on the subject. Maybe if Mssr. Lindsey and Ambrose took a geology course they might learn something about the earth but since the science might conflict with some of their Bible teachings its highly unlikely they would learn anything.

  4. #4 KeithB
    October 13, 2005

    According to *this* chart:
    http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/7up.html

    The number of earthquakes above a 7 are decreasing. Note that before 1950 there were a bunch of years with more than 30 Magnitude 7 earthquakes during the year. Since 1950 only one year had 30 Magnitude 7 earthquakes.

    Things actually seem pretty quiet this decade.

  5. #5 Mark
    October 13, 2005

    “It was cold last week, so how do you global warming proponents explain that?”

  6. #6 Ginger Yellow
    October 13, 2005

    “It shook the entire earth like a tuning fork, making the planet wobble on its axis and actually causing time to shift slightly”

    I love this claim. It sounds like something off British satire Brass Eye, it’s so insane. How stupid do you have to be to think an earthquake could cause “time to shift slightly”, whatever that’s supposed to mean.

  7. #7 Mark
    October 13, 2005

    Actually, earthquakes can cause the Earth to “ring like a bell” and can cause small changes in the Earth’s rotation. The changes are extremely small but measureable with modern equipment. The correct response is, “So what? It happens all the time. Where have you been?”

  8. #8 spyder
    October 13, 2005

    I have always been amazed that Lindsey has been able to maintain that his Late Great Planet Earth book is non-fiction. He was one of the more obnoxious nuisances back in the late 60′s at UCLA where he ran the Campus Crusade for Christ. He aligned himself during that period w/ Barry Leventhal (a UCLA Rose Bowl winning football player) who formed the Jews for Jesus sect and together they organized the young republicans in Westwood. It was scary times then, and worse now.

  9. #9 raj
    October 14, 2005

    Sorry, I had always believed that Hal Lindsay was a fiction writer. I’ll admit that I’ve never read any of his works–and, since I have better things to do with my time, I probably never will–but I have read about them.

    Does he actually believe that his rants have something to do with reality? Or is this merely more marketing?