Catastrophism

Ted Holden, a talk.origins catastrophist, has claimed that dinosaur sauropods would be too heavy to carry themselves about in current gravitational conditions. He proposes that the "felt effect of gravity" was reduced in the not-too-distant past, allowing such large beasts to walk around. This FAQ explores Holden's claims and illustrates their absurdity.

An examination of the catastrophist claim that preserved mammoth remains indicate the occurrence a great catastrophe (as described by catastrophist Immanuel Velikovsky).

Is Venus the young planet the Velikovskians say it is? Could it be only a few thousand years old, as opposed to the few billion that standard theories would imply? The age of Venus is considered from three lines of evidence: atmosphere, surface, and interior.

An article allowing comparison between geological and paleontological data from the Jurassic, Triassic and Cretaceous eras with what would be predicted by Ted Holden's "Golden Age" ("reduced felt effect of gravity") model.

Catastrophists, not content with conventional explanations for the motion of the Earth's continents, have suggested that the Earth was egg-shaped with Pangaea sitting sunny-side up. This article challenges this notion, showing that Velikovskian tectonic models solve none of the imagined problems of conventional models.

A discussion of the methods for determining the ages of ancient ice cores. Ice cores found in Antarctica date back about 160,000 years, presenting somewhat of a problem for young-earth creationists and catastrophists.

Immanuel Velikovsky, the late pseudoscientist whose cult followers have made themselves visible on talk.origins, has made a large number of incredible claims about the origins of the solar system as well as the origins of humans. This article takes a scientific look at many of Velikovsky's claims.

Creationists and catastrophists have attempted to justify a global flood by claiming that there are fossils cutting through many geological strata. A number of so-called "polystrate" fossils are examined here.

Ted Holden claims that a series of questions he periodically posts are "avoided", that no reasonable answers have been given. Ted is incorrect. This article is a brief summary of the answers that have been given in the past, and which have been extensively discussed on the newsgroup.