Although many of my fellow Intelligent Design/Creationism debunkers think of
Kent Hovind as the most colorful personality in the lot, I personally feel the good DR Professor Rev.
Carl Baugh should hold that title. Baugh is another Young Earth Creationist who sports not just one advanced degree of questionable validity, but a whole shifting slew of them. A friend of mine once summed it up as, "He's like an academic hydra who sprouts a new Doctorate as the circumstances require".
[TalkOrigins] The specific science degrees claimed by Baugh (or attributed to him) have varied somewhat from account to account. In recent years Baugh has claimed a "Masters Degree in Archaeology from Pacific College" and a "Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Anthropology from College of Advanced Education."
And, if you've ever been told that evolution or radiometric dating have been 'disproved', because scientists have found human tracks in the same fossil beds as dinosaurs, you've encountered a fan of Carl Baugh. So, if you'd like a short break from current politics, read on and Yaba-daba-dooo ...!
Young Earth Creationists (YEC) prefer to interpret Genesis literally. The defining characteristic of this belief is that the Earth is on the order of 6,000 to 10,000 years old, rather than the billions of years derived by a variety of scientific methods. YECists more or less ascribe to the notion that the universe was made in seven, twenty-four hour days, and that most of geology including all extinction events can be best explained by a massive, global flood along the lines of the Noachian Deluge (Circa 3000 BC). In their view then, humans and every other fossil species would have all lived at the same time in the relatively recent past
Flintstones style. Therefore any evidence that humans were coexistent with ancient animals, no matter how flimsy or suspect, might be uncritically accepted as vindication for this belief.
Unlike the tirelessly traveling Hovind, Baugh's modus operandi is to stay put and draw the paying customers to him. He operates a park/museum of sorts called the Creation Evidence Museum in the town of Glenrose, not too far, in Texas miles, from Dallas. The museum features a number of attractions which allegedly cast doubt on the age of the earth as well as supposedly discrediting bio-stratigraphy and radiometric dating methods. There are the infamous dino mantracks, which are purported to be human footprints concurrent geologically with dinosaurs (debunked Here by Glen Kuban), the Ordovician Hammer, and my favorite the Meister Print.
Some of Baugh's claims are so laughable you'd think it was satire. I would have to say the title of 'looniest shit I've ever heard from any creationist' would have to go to Baugh hands down, if even half of it is accurate. A few are so far out that even his fellow Young Earthers at Answers in Genesis have distanced themselves publicly from the good Reverend. Just a few examples: He is reported to have claimed he saw pterodactyls in Asia that were glowing at night; that Noachian Flood 'Physics' can be explained in a scenario in which the earth is encased in a shell of metallic hydrogen; that eggs cannot hatch outside of the earth's magnetic field; or that before the 'flood' stars made audible sounds detectable on earth which he calls 'singing'.
Baugh is also purported to argue that higher oxygen levels before the Fall of Man or the Flood of Noah made humans more intelligent, much larger, and led to vastly longer lifespans. There was a tank of ozone on his property a few years back causing some concern that he was thinking about experimenting with animals or people living inside an atmosphere of pure O3, perhaps in the belief that if two oxygen atoms are good when joined, three would be even better. If so, hopefully someone clued him in ...
It's tempting to write this guy off as a loon. But Carl Baugh is soft spoken, charming fellow completely at ease in front of a large audience. He can be seen from time-to-time on religious channels pitching his wares to unsuspecting Christian viewers. One rather hilarious schedule has Baugh appearing right before or right after old earth Creationist Hugh Ross; Ross proposes a version of creationism inconsistent with Baugh's Young Earth nonsense by about six orders of magnitude. Baugh has also appeared on several prime time network programs. Many of his exhibits were featured on NBC's The Mysterious Origin of Man hosted by Charlton Heston.
Just like astrologers, psychics, cryptozoologists, or UFOlogists, Mr. Baugh is well within his Constitutional Rights in advertising his personal beliefs and making a case for them using whatever lawful means he chooses. Unlike Hovind, who many view as a businessman out to make a lucrative living, Baugh might sincerely believe his own spiel. But regardless if he believes it or not or where the abstract legal limits lay, Young Earth Creationism is a specific religious perspective and fails utterly as a science. This isn't something appropriate for public science classes--assuming parents and churches wish to take care of religious instruction themselves or that parents care about the education and future prospects for their children. And if there is some kind of 'faith based' riders or special giveaways to 'alternative views' in any future science/education legislation, many of us worry that Mr Baugh's views or something like them may become an official part of the scientific curricula in K-12 schools.
