• The reason that the Top Six killed the ID scam on TO

    From RonO@rokimoto557@gmail.com to talk-origins on Fri Apr 17 13:27:54 2026
    From Newsgroup: talk.origins

    When the ID perps put out their Top Six god-of-the-gaps arguments in the
    order in which they must have occurred in this universe (back in Nov.
    2017) most of the IDiotic creationist still posting on TO quit the ID
    scam or stopped posting. They all realized that they had never wanted
    any valid ID science to be produced because it would just be more
    science for them to deny. MarkE and Glenn started running from them and
    would not address them in an honest and straight forward manner. MarkE refuses to address them to this day.

    1.
    https://evolutionnews.org/2017/11/ids-top-six-the-origin-of-the-universe/

    2. https://evolutionnews.org/2017/11/ids-top-six-the-fine-tuning-of-the-universe/

    3. https://evolutionnews.org/2017/11/ids-top-six-the-origin-of-information-in-dna/

    4. https://evolutionnews.org/2017/11/ids-top-six-the-origin-of-irreducibly-complex-molecular-machines/

    5.
    https://evolutionnews.org/2017/11/ids-top-six-the-origin-of-animals/

    6.
    https://evolutionnews.org/2017/11/ids-top-six-the-origin-of-humans/

    The Reason to Believe old earth creationists had claimed that they
    supported the ID scam science in order to help them create their
    Biblical creation model, but in 2018 they reformated their site and you
    would be hard pressed to determine that they ever supported ID. Those articles no longer come up on searches of the site. The Top six is not consistent with their creation model. A model that they claim is based
    on their literal interpretation of the Bible.

    https://reasons.org/explore/publications/articles/summary-of-reasons-to-believes-testable-creation-model-1

    They have tried to make their creation model consistent with the Top
    Six, but they had to rewrite the Bible and make claims that are not
    Biblical in order to try to do it. They ultimately failed. They tried
    to place the origin of life (#3 of the Top Six) in alignment with the
    Big Bang creation and the ID perps fine tuning argument for the creation
    of the earth 8 billion years after the Big Bang. The actual origin of
    life on this planet is not mentioned in the Bible, and the Bible
    incorrectly claims that the creation of life on earth started with the creation of land plants on the 3rd day (or period of time for some OEC
    that can't accept that the Bible claims night and day for each literal
    day). Trying to place the origin of life where it should be in the
    creation scenario makes it obvious that the Biblical description of the
    first few days is just wrong. Not just for their claims that land
    plants were not the first lifeforms created, but their denial of the
    creation of the firmament and the land masses (continents). For some
    stupid reason they still want the Cambrian Explosion (#5 of the Top Six)
    to occur after land plants were created when the Cambrian explosion
    evidence is hundreds of millions of years older than the evidence for
    the evolution of the land plants that are described in the Bible. The ancestors of the crop plants (angiosperm plants) described as being
    created during the 3rd period of time, did not evolve until Dinos were
    walking around on dry land. The Cambrian explosion gap denial argument
    is very specific. The claim is that a 25 million year period that
    occurred over half a billion years ago is not enough time for all the
    sea creatures to have evolved. Angiosperm plants (fruit and seed
    plants) evolved less than 200 million years ago, with the grasses
    (ancestors of grain plants) would not evolve until around 80 million
    years ago. Their model continues to be inconsistent with reality.

    I have numbered their summary in the order in which they claim things happened. You should compare their literal creation model with what the
    Bible claims.

    https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%201&version=NRSVUE;KJV

    1. Planet Earth is singled out for a sequence of divine interventions.
    At its beginning, Earth is empty of life and unfit for life, and light
    cannot penetrate its thick atmosphere.

    They skip the Big Bang (#1 of the Top Six) and the creation of light in
    the darkness and the fact that the Bible claims that night and day were created on the first day or period of time.

    Their claim that light cannot penetrate the initial atmosphere is not Biblical. They need to make this claim because the Biblical creation of
    the sun and moon (on the 4th day) is not consistent with the Big Bang
    scenario (#1 of the Top Six) and subsequent fine tuning of earth for
    life (#2 of the Top Six). The sun and moon were created about the same
    time that the earth was created, but the Bible claims that the sun and
    moon were made on the 4th day (or period of time for OEC) and placed in
    the firmament. The Reason to believe creationists want the atmosphere
    to be a shroud until the sun and moon would be visible from the surface
    of the earth during the 4th period of time. The early atmosphere would
    have cleared by around 3.6 billion years ago, long before the 4th period
    of time, so their non literal excuse isn't viable, and there is no
    reason why the sun and moon would not be visible to their designer, who
    would be the only being around for billions of years that would have
    been able to see the sun and moon.

    As noted the Bible makes no mention of life being created during the
    first period of time. They make that claim because it would have been
    what actually happened no matter what the Bible claims. The origin of
    life (#3 of the Top Six) is not supported by any literal interpretation
    of the Bible. It has to be added as something that was not mentioned.
    This makes the Biblical claim that land plants were the first lifeforms created on the 3rd day a false claim. The reason to believe still want
    land plants to be created during the third period of time, but they know
    that life had already existed for billions of years before that happened.

    2. As interplanetary debris cleared and early life began to transform EarthrCOs atmosphere, light from the heavenly bodies could penetrate to
    the surface.

    They are trying to make their dark shroud fictional version of the
    initial dark hazy atmosphere of earth compatible with Genesis 1-5. As
    whacked as this is, they want the shroud to thin enough so that light
    can get through, but still keep the sun and moon invisible. Only their designer was around to see the sun and moon at this time, but that
    doesn't matter to them. They do not want the sun and moon to be created during the 4th period of time as the Bible claims. They want to make
    believe that the Bible is consistent with what happened after the Big
    Bang, and the sun and moon would have been created around the same time
    that the earth was created. One of the final phases for the creation of
    the earth is when a mars sized planet may have collided with the earth
    adding to the earth's mass and ejected enough material into orbit to
    create the moon. This likely gave earth it's tilt and is the reason that
    we have seasons during our orbit around the sun.

    Nothing in the Bible claims that life was present during the first day
    or period of time. From what we have been able to determine life arose
    not long after there was liquid water on the planet, but Genesis does
    not have life created until the 3rd day. The Reason to Believe
    creationist want to make believe that the Bible just did not mention the creation of life and the fact that life was evolving for billions of
    years before land plants were created. Kalk and Bill were OEC, and they
    quit the ID scam so they may not have agreed with the Reason to Believe creationists. MarkE does not seem to want to believe when life actually
    arose on this planet either, and claims that even though the origin of
    life gap is not consistent with the Biblical order of creation that he
    does not have to face that reality until the gap is filled. The origin
    of life gap (#3 of the Top Six) is not consistent with what is written
    in the Bible. Things have to be added to the "literal" interpretation
    of Bible in order to make believe that it is consistent.

    3. As water vapor formed in the troposphere, a stable water cycle formed.

    They want to deny the Biblical firmament and claim that the water cycle
    was being described in the Genesis account of the second day, but it is obvious that, that is not the case. They understand that the water
    cycle was established on earth when liquid water formed, and that life
    likely existed on a planet with a water cycle, but they want to deny the Biblical claims about the firmament so they are lying to themselves
    about some "stable" water cycle forming during the second period of
    time. It would seem to be a stretch to have the water cycle develop
    only after their non Biblical origin of life on earth, and the Bible
    actually calls what separated the water a firmament or vault or dome.

    The ancient Hebrew cosmology had a flat earth with a solid dome above
    it. There was water found on the earth and water on the other side of
    the firmament (dome) that could be released as rain.

    4. Continental landmasses arose and ocean basins took shape.

    They understand that there was dry land as soon as there was liquid
    water on the earth to differentiate wet from dry, and that the origin of
    life likely occurred during a period of time when land masses existed,
    but they want to make believe that continental land masses only
    developed during the 3rd period of time. Trying to fit the actual
    origin of life into their literal interpretation makes their
    interpretation look like nonsense. They want land masses to only be
    created during the same period that land plants were created. Things
    just never happened the way that they want to believe it happened. It
    sounds like they want the earth to have been a water world completely
    covered by water for billions of years, but that is not the case. They
    don't seem to want to deal with the fact that there were likely several
    ice ball earth episodes long before land plants were created.

    The current continental landmasses did not exist back when the initial continents were forming. We might not have much of any of the original
    crust of the earth to study. The oldest rocks seem to be around 4
    billion years old. Some of them might be part of some ancient
    continental land masses, but not the initial continents. Most of what
    existed before 4 billion years has been buried deep or eroded away.
    There are claims that there are zircon bits from eroded ancient rocks
    that might be 4.3 billion years old. My guess is that reality doesn't
    conform to the Biblical order of creation and that the initial
    continents formed a little before life was getting started on this planet.

    5. Plants began to grow on the continental landmasses.

    Pangaea would form before the ancestors of angiosperm plants evolved on
    land, but the continental landmasses we know today would not start to
    exist until around the time that the Dinos bit the dust. A time when
    the super continent was breaking up due to continental drift.

    These are not the same continental land masses of their #4. Land plants
    were not created on the same day that the initial continents formed.
    Land plants evolved on this planet long after the initial continents had
    been buried in sediment or eroded away. Pangaea would not come together
    until around 300 million years ago. The initial land masses would have
    formed over 4 billion years ago.

    Their 5. is not consistent with the Top Six. The Cambrian explosion (#5
    of the Top Six) occurred long before the first angiosperm plants evolved around 180 million years ago. 5. is not consistent with reality. The ancestors of the angiosperms described in the Bible would not evolve
    until dinos were walking around on land, and the ancestors of the
    grasses (the grain plants) would not evolve until around 80 million
    years ago. The land plants described in the Bible would have been
    created long after sea creatures and land animals existed.

    For some reason they want to maintain the Biblical order of the creation
    of life in the face of reality even though they acknowledge that life
    was created soon after the earth was created. Trying to deal with the
    actual origin of life on this planet makes their Biblical creation model
    look silly and unsupportable.

    6. The atmosphere transitioned from translucent to occasionally
    transparent so that the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars could be seen from
    the vantage point of EarthrCOs surface.

    This is their fictional account of a shroud needing to be lifted in
    order to make the sun and moon visible instead of being created on the
    4th day. They are literally rewriting the Bible in order to take the
    Bible literally. The initial Hazy atmosphere of the early earth may
    have cleared by around 3.6 billion years ago. They need the hazy
    atmosphere to continue to exist for over 3 billion more years. This is clearly an example of the Bible being wrong about when the sun and moon
    were created. YEC claim that the Bible was not wrong and that the sun
    and moon were created the day after land plants were created. It is
    only 24 hours and no big deal for the land plants that were created the
    day before.

    The reason to believe creationists ignore the fact that the Bible claims
    that the sun and moon were made and placed in the firmament on the 4th day.

    7. Swarms of small sea animals filled the oceans.

    The order is inconsistent with the Top Six. The Cambrian explosion
    occurred long before land plants evolved. When the Reason to Believe creationists were still trying to be IDiots they acknowledged that the Cambrian explosion looked like it had occurred before land plants were created. They had their recreation notion where new species were
    constantly being recreated from existing species. They were claiming
    that the Bible may not have mentioned the initial creation of sea
    creatures in the order in which it had actually occurred, but the true
    order of the creation of life on earth supported biological evolution so
    they didn't really like that explanation. They seem to have settled on
    lying to themselves about when the Cambrian explosion occurred. The
    IDiotic gap argument is very specific Meyer makes a big deal about the
    gap being only a 25 million year period that occurred over half a
    billion years ago. The gap denial argument depends on the accurate
    dating of the event.

    8. Sea mammals and birds were created and became abundant.

    The Reason to Believe creationist believe that other parts of the Bible require that sea mammals be among the first sea creatures created on the
    5th day. They do not want to believe that the Bible was talking about
    big fish, or aquatic reptiles like mosasaurs. There are no Cambrian
    whale or bird fossils. Birds would evolve over 300 million years after
    the Cambrian explosion, and whales would not evolve from land mammals
    until after the extinction of the dinos less than 65 million years ago.

    The Cambrian explosion (#5 of the Top Six) does not fit into any
    Biblical scenario. This is likely why Sewell dropped it out of the Top
    Six along with the flagellum as a designed machine. Sewell did not want
    the Cambrian explosion in his Top Six list of the best IDiotic gap
    denial arguments, and he didn't want bacteria evolving flagella over a
    billion years before land plants were created.

    9. Three specialized kinds of animals came onto the scene: short-legged
    land mammals, long-legged, easy-to-tame land mammals, and long-legged, difficult-to-tame land mammalsrCoall three appropriate in specific ways to help meet humanityrCOs needs.

    On the 6th day all the land animals were supposed to have been created including everything that creeps upon the earth (likely invertebrates).
    The issue is that land animals existed long before the angiosperm
    ancestors of crop plants described in the Bible. The ancestors of
    mammals, birds and reptiles existed 300 million years ago. The
    ancestral angiosperms would not evolve until around 180 million years
    ago and the grasses (grain plants) would not evolve until around 80
    million years ago. The Biblical order of creation is not consistent
    with reality. It is a big reason why a lot of OEC are anti-evolution.
    Nature is not Biblical.

    10. Human beings appeared.

    Gaps in the human fossil record (#6 of the Top Six) exist as well
    defined period of time within the last 10 million years. No YEC can
    deal honestly with this gap argument. Sewell changed it to a general
    denial of human evolution and split it into two gaps to continue to fool
    the rubes: origin of intelligent humans and origin of human
    consciousness. He claimed that both were impossible to have happened by natural mechanisms. He didn't care about the transitional forms that
    created the multiple gaps that exist in the fossil record.

    As previously noted, in order to make the Top Six more palatable Sewell dropped out the Flagellum as a designed machine (#4 of the Top Six and
    it occurred among bacteria over a billion years ago) and Cambrian
    explosion (#5 of the Top Six). He split fine tuning into two gaps and
    human evolution into two gaps to create his Top Six and then placed them
    all out of temporal order in order to keep scamming the rubes with the
    ID scam god-of-the-gap denial arguments.

    The Reason to Believe OEC creationists demonstrate why the Top Six
    killed the ID scam on TO. It demonstrates why MarkE can only deal with
    them as independent bits of denial, and why he cannot deal honestly with
    the fact that his origin of life gap is not Biblical.

    Ron Okimoto

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  • From RonO@rokimoto557@gmail.com to talk-origins on Tue May 5 21:33:07 2026
    From Newsgroup: talk.origins

    Apparently, there are still conservative flat earth Biblical
    creationists (both Jewish and Christian) that believe that the firmament
    was created on the second day of the 6 days of creation. This is in
    spite of the fact that the firmament does not exist. Less conservative Orthodox Jews seem to have adopted the firmament as being something like
    a cloud layer rather than the solid dome that is claimed in the Bible.

    I found this account by someone that claims to have been raised as an
    Orthodox Jew. He writes as if he is no longer a Biblical literalist, at least, not as literal as the flat earthers. In this article he
    describes the cosmology of the ancient Hebrew that wrote the Bible, and
    notes that the existence of a firmament was nearly universal across the
    world in multiple different cultures.

    The Reason to Believe creation model wants to pretend that the firmament
    was not created on the second day or period of time. The Jewish account
    just has the authors of the Bible describing the creation of what they believed existed. He also notes how historical rabbis continued to
    promote the existence of the firmament until Copernican times.

    This is a strange read. The author wants to take the Bible literally,
    and is against the existing apologetics (reinterpretation of the Bible).
    He understands that the firmament doesn't exist as described in the
    Bible, but somehow the understanding of what the ancient rabbis and
    Biblical authors believed allows him to accept what the Bible tells him
    even if the firmament doesn't exist.

    He has an account of how tragically lame apologetics can be by
    recounting something that I had never heard before. There seems to be a
    claim that only seeds were created on the 3 day, so that the sun could
    be created on the 4th day without the need for creating photosynthesis
    before there was a sun in the sky. The account that I had heard was
    that god was making day and night for 3 days before he made the sun to
    do that job, but some literalists must believe that daylight only
    existed after the sun was created to do that job.

    He doesn't like the fact that the firmament is not discussed more
    openly, and thinks that the students should not have to figure things
    out for themselves, but be guided to a non apologetic response to reality.

    ANE is ancient near eastern literature. Rakia is the firmament.
    QUOTE:
    It has been a few decades since my high school experience, and it is no
    longer difficult to find information about what the Bible means in its
    ANE context that will quickly contradict whatever apologetics one may
    hear in yeshiva. Perhaps the community of educators within the system
    should consider a new strategy. After all, a lazy lunchtime Google
    search will bring anyone with a passing curiosity a dozen sources with everything the yeshiva educators were hoping students would never find
    out about the rakia and many other challenging topics. If this piece can
    be a source for a young student such as I was, trying to figure out a
    path through the contradictions, for my part, IrCOm happy to add one more.
    END QUOTE:

    https://www.thetorah.com/article/my-encounter-with-the-firmament
    This web site claims to be Modern Orthodox.

    Ron Okimoto

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