Friday Night Report

Back at my brother's house for the evening after the first few hours of the conference. Rob Pennock and I met at the exhibit hall and got our booth set up with our banners and posters and a very nice set of hominid skull casts. We have chimpanzee skull, A. africanus, H. habilis, H. erectus, H. neanderthalensis and H. sapiens. As expected, they drew some attention, including several people who wanted to take pictures of them. The exhibit hall was only open for 2 hours tonight and tomorrow morning the real conference starts, so it will be much busier then.

After about an hour, Rob went around to explore the other booths and while he was gone I got a couple of young creationist teachers from a private Christian school who wanted to argue with me. Very nice guys but hopelessly clueless about evolution. One of them thought the earth was supposed to be 20 billion years old according to "uniformitarian" geologists. I have to be up far too early tomorrow morning so I'm going to bed.

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I wonder what he's going to do if they come by again tomorrow. Call security?

By FishyFred (not verified) on 02 Mar 2006 #permalink

One of them thought the earth was supposed to be 20 billion years old according to "uniformitarian" geologists.

This is hilarious. That would make about 5 billion years the age of the earth about five billion years older than the age of the universe.

They are clueless.

After you're done resting up, Ed, let us know what else they tried to argue and how you answered them. I'd be interested in reading about the whole exchange!

Ocellated wrote:
"I always loved that word. Uniformitarianism. It sounds like a good word for a religious denomination."

The best thing about being a Uniformitarian, of course, is the outfits.

Yeah, I saw that, Matthew. It's a sad day for Liberty. But hopefully there will be others who step into a leading role.

As for Ed, I look forward to hearing about the conference.

Ocellated wrote:
"I always loved that word. Uniformitarianism. It sounds like a good word for a religious denomination."

Sastra wrote:
The best thing about being a Uniformitarian, of course, is the outfits.

I just love a woman in uniform (as they used to say on Deep Space Nine). It's enough to get me to go to church, almost.

By countlurkula (not verified) on 03 Mar 2006 #permalink

Overheard at a creationist conference: "Uniformitarianism? We have our kids in khakis and white polo shirts. I don't see anything wrong with that."

By Ed Darrell (not verified) on 03 Mar 2006 #permalink