home1.gif (2214 bytes)

Ham's Hat
Michael Suttkus

"Hats are very important to creationists as they are always talking through them.  That's when they are not talking through their arses."
(Barry Williams, Editor, the Skeptic)

KEN HAM ON EDUCATION! -- A fossil hat--why is it frightening?
(February 22, 2002)

Well, the thought that such a bad argument might sway someone is quite frightening.  The possibility that people so dishonest as to produce nonsense like this might gain political power is terrifying.  The idea that such absolute nonsense and lies masquerading as "God's Truth" might become the enforced dogma of tomorrow should be enough to make every honest person shiver in utter horror.

Do you think that's what Ham means?  Probably not.

Ken Ham:    QUESTION: If most fossils were formed during Noah's Flood, a few thousand years ago, is there any evidence that fossils can form quickly?

Ken Ham:    ANSWER: My favorite fossil is a miner's hat.  It's rock hard. 

And I'll lay you 99 to 1 odds that it's a concretion, not a fossil. Not that it matters much. 
Scientists are well aware that fossils can form quickly.  We are also aware that concretions can form quickly.  My favourite example is a spark plug
with a mass of rock around it which is loved by creationists as evidence of "fast fossils".   Scientists consider it a minor example of a well known phenomena and have even identified the make and model of spark plug.

But people desperate to shore up crumbling beliefs will take whatever "evidence" they can find and make mountains out of grains of sand.

Scientists know that certain kinds of rock formations can take a long time.   Scientists know that other types of rock can form very quickly.  Creationists, meanwhile, lump the whole thing together as "fossils" and declare that if *that* forms quickly, then all of them can!  This is pathetically stupid, even by creationist standards.  Cement can set overnight into rock, so all rocks can!   And yet, such fuzzy thinking is rife in creationism.  This fish could survive the Great Flood, so all fish could!  Some plants don't die when submerged underwater for a few weeks, so all plants could survive the Flood for over a year unscathed!

 If anyone (apart from creationists) believe this kind of "logic", let me know, I have some investments I'd like to interest you in.

Ken Ham:   The hat was found in a mine in Australia where it had been covered with water for more than 50 years.  During that time the minerals in the water turned the soft hat into a "hard hat" of stone.  This process is called calcification: solid calcium carbonate replaced the original material in the hat. 

Oh, I doubt that.  More likely, it's just stuck around the outside.  In any event, the inside of a mine presents a very specialised set of characteristics, namely still water, full of minerals, minimal life.    These wouldn't really be found in a flood.

Ken Ham
:     Today, this hat is on display in a mining museum in Tasmania.

Ken Ham:    I jokingly tell children at our seminars that this fossil is "frightening'.   But the children let me know that it isn't scary at all.  I then explain that it might not scare them, but I believe it's frightening to an evolutionist.  You see, it confirms the statements of creation scientists that fossils and rocks don't take thousands or millions of years to form!

Yeah, we're all shaking.

Ken Ham
:    There are many other examples that show us that the event of Noah's Flood formed most of the fossil record 4,500 years ago - not by slow process over millions of years as evolutionists insist!

Real scientists try to determine how different kinds of fossilisation work.  Creationists ignore the details and make broad declarations based on minimal evidence.

Once again, we find ourselves wondering if Ham would like to address any of the evidence against the flood that scientists actually present rather than inventing nonsense like the above?  Oh, right, he can't.  But what else is new?

arr01.jpg (1314 bytes)

home1.gif (2214 bytes)