Bronze-level articleJason Lisle

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#The Bible must be true.
 
#The Bible must be true.
  
No. Really. That's all he basically says in the entire thing. Quite wall-bangingly [[circular logic|circular]] for someone with a degree in advanced physics.
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No. Really. That's all he basically says in the entire thing. Quite wall-bangingly [[circular logic|circular]] for someone with a degree in advanced physics. Lisle is highly confident in his hypothesis, stating that "''So far, no one has published in a peer-reviewed journal any criticism of this model.''"<ref>[http://blogs.answersingenesis.org/blogs/jason-lisle/2011/01/03/asc%E2%80%94still-going-strong/ ARJ 3 Jan 2011]</ref> But considering his hypothesis is based on something last considered scientifically sound decades ago, it's highly unlikely that someone would come forward to publish, in a mainstream academic journal, a criticism of Lisle's work.
 
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Further: "''So far, no one has published in a peer-reviewed journal any criticism of this model.''" <ref>[http://blogs.answersingenesis.org/blogs/jason-lisle/2011/01/03/asc%E2%80%94still-going-strong/ ARJ 3 Jan 2011]</ref>
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==Further comments ==
 
==Further comments ==

Revision as of 16:57, 16 January 2011

1. If the Bible were not true, logic would not be meaningful.
2. Logic is meaningful.
3. Therefore, the Bible is true.
—Jason Lisle[1]

Jason Lisle is a former astrophysicist who now works full time for the creationist organization Answers in Genesis as both a soporific speaker and researcher.

Contents

So, an actual PhD

Yes, Dr. Lisle is one of those rare creationists who didn't get their qualifications from a diploma mill. His postgraduate research concentrated on solar dynamics, utilizing NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)[2] to monitor the surface of the sun. His PhD thesis "Probing the Dynamics of Solar Supergranulation and its Interaction with Magnetism." is available from the University of Colorado[3] and he has also published numerous papers in the scientific literature (something that AiG insists on calling secular literature) concerning convection cells in the sun.[4]

Contrary to what is commonly claimed in creationist propaganda such as the film Expelled, Lisle wasn't thrown out of University by evil secular atheists for holding creationist beliefs, even though members of his Thesis Panel were aware of his young Earth beliefs - they simply didn't have a problem with him as his actual research was sound and actually quite good.[5]

Dr Lisle is one of AiG's top argument from authority trump cards. As we presume they know that most of their workers' qualifications are almost outright shams, they are really lucky to have Dr Lisle on board.

Creationism and starlight

Especially considering his qualification in astrophysics (although to be fair, by the time you get to postgraduate research, "astrophysics" is a very broad term) he has found himself well equipped to take on the starlight problem in creationist circles. However, his explanation for how distant starlight is compatible with a 6 day creation only a few thousand years ago is very, very weak. It essentially consists of immediately throwing out the conventional science just because it conflicts with scripture and then proposing that "creation was supernatural, therefore cannot be understood scientifically".[6] Most of Lisle's points just begin with the claim that the Bible must be true, cannot change and so can explain everything.[7] It shouldn't need to be stated that this is the opposite of what a good scientist should do. So, while he may be a published and qualified scientist, the remarks he makes regarding creationism aren't actually very scientific - indeed, for AiG to use him as a leading scientist is practically a sham, as it leads their audiences to think that his ideas - which aren't really his ideas, just the same old tired arugments - automatically have credibility due to his real PhD. Although he has done research with genuine merit into the sun's heliosphere, Lisle has yet to perform, yet alone publish, credible work into starlight or creationism.

ARJ paper

In July 2010, Lisle announced that he was working on a research paper that would be published in the Answers Research Journal, a creation science journal controlled by Answers in Genesis.[8] He claimed that this paper would fully solve the starlight problem, and that publishing it in a peer reviewed journal would make it legitimate. However, considering he is publishing in the ARJ and not Science or Nature where such Earth-shattering revelations about physics belongs (although Lisle denies this should be the case), some might suspect his "idea" isn't up to much. And an "idea" it is, as Lisle has admitted that he is just using "research that has already been published in secular journals" - quite a backtrack from his earlier blog posts that seemed to indicate that he was actually doing original research himself. Lisle responded to the "pre-publishing" critics (hilariously overusing the word "embarrassing", and never really naming any of them) by basically saying people should have an open mind until they read the paper.[9] Despite pimping and hyping his publication on the AiG blog and was noncommittal to the idea of a "non-technical writeup".

The paper was finally released on September 22nd, and it didn't take long for people to spot the problems.[10] The basic outline of Lisle's premise is as thus:

  1. The Bible must be true.
  2. Genesis says the stars were created simultaneously, on Day Four, 6000 years ago.
  3. This conflicts with relativity.
  4. Therefore relativity is wrong.
  5. The Bible must be true.

No. Really. That's all he basically says in the entire thing. Quite wall-bangingly circular for someone with a degree in advanced physics. Lisle is highly confident in his hypothesis, stating that "So far, no one has published in a peer-reviewed journal any criticism of this model."[11] But considering his hypothesis is based on something last considered scientifically sound decades ago, it's highly unlikely that someone would come forward to publish, in a mainstream academic journal, a criticism of Lisle's work.

Further comments

Lisle is clearly a smart guy who knows a bit more than most creationists, particularly about space. He is a confident speaker and quite passionate about science education when he isn't trying to replace science textbooks with the Bible. However, some of the points put into his essays and talks - to highlight perceived problems in "secular" theories - have been considered as highly misrepresented, or even non-existent. Some of them are, in fact, well known creationist arguments rehashed by someone who, frankly, should damn well know better. As someone who is torn between the worlds of science and Biblical literalism, Lisle mostly ends up shoehorning various random points into an ad hoc framework of bullshit that supports a recent creation regardless of what his scientific training must be screaming at him on a daily basis. A summary of some of Lisle's dumber points are outlined below.[5]

  1. Earth’s magnetic field is decaying - This is a well known creationist argument, the dipole component of the Earth’s magnetic field is indeed decreasing, but other components are not necessarily decreasing. The magnetic field is due to a dynamo effect in the Earth interior, and has fluctuated and changed polarity many times in the geological past. At the moment it happens to be decreasing.
  2. Recession of the Moon - He is making uniformitarian assumptions about its recession rate, and conveniently did not mention other lunar processes. However, he did mention that the creationist dust on the Moon argument should not be used.
  3. Most of the 150 known extra-solar planets are more massive than Jupiter and close to their parent star, quite different to the solar system - This is simply because we can detect such planets much more easily than lower mass planets in longer period orbits. How many planets which are similar to our own in existence is still unclear. Until recently, creationists denied that extra-solar planets even existed.

See also

Footnotes

  1. Feedback: Not Sound Logic? (Jason Lisle, AiG-US, 8 Jan 2010). This one made the Fundies Say The Darndest Things top 100.
  2. NASA - Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
  3. Creation.com - Dr Jason Lisle
  4. Answers in Genesis - Dr Jason Lisle's biography
  5. 5.0 5.1 Jason Lisle's Visit to Tucson
  6. YouTube - Dr. Jason Lisle- The Distant Starlight Mystery
  7. Theology Web - When astrophysicists go bad: Jason Lisle
  8. AiG Blogs - Research at Answers in Genesis
  9. AiG Blogs - Pride and prejudice
  10. The Sensuous Curmudgeon - Jason Lisle’s “Instant Starlight” Paper
  11. ARJ 3 Jan 2011
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