Wednesday, August 7, 2013

#656: Tom Estes


Pastor Tom Estes is a creationist and blogger who has declared his blog “an atheist-free zone”. At the blog he displays his erudition and sense of logic (“This is why Biblically based logic and rationality will always work. It begins with God. It has a foundation that cannot be shaken” – take that, you who know what you are talking about when you think that logic and mathematics are based on axioms rather than empirical assumptions). So for instance, to the argument “Well, if God created the universe, than [sic] who created God?” Estes has a response: “there must be a reality that causes but is itself uncaused (or, a being that moves but is itself unmoved). Why? Because if there is an infinite regression of causes, then by definition the whole process could never begin – Do you see what I'm saying? It's all circular. If God was created, then someone had to create who created God, etc, etc, etc. And if that logic were true, nothing would exist.” Even a freshman struggling with Aquinas would be stumped by that one, methinks. (And in case you don’t see it, here is a hint: putting a problem in slightly different words is not the same as solving it).

He also claims that Ken Ham is able to disprove evolution without Bible-thumping (by using “sacred science”), but has apparently not seen AiG’s mission statement. Yes, Estes is a big fan of Ken Ham and the Creation Museum, but intellectually their arguments and claims still seem to blow his mind a bit.

Apart from that his blog contains the usual creationist canards – including the ones even Ken Ham warns against using, such as the myth that Darwin recanted on his deathbed.

Diagnosis: Exasperatingly dense godbotter, of the kind that even the AiG people would presumably be uncomfortable being caught associating with. 

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