Q. 0: Introduction

101 Questions and Answers Concerning Catastrophic Plate Tectonics

Introduction – 101 Q&A on Catastrophic Plate Tectonics

The following series is a web-adaptation of a PDF document (original), some 157 pages in length, which I found on the biography page of Dr. John Baumgardner, entitled: 101 Questions and Answers Concerning Catastrophic Plate Tectonics. Many years back, I (Nicholas Petersen) followed this flood review process while it was ongoing with great interest, and the potential Flood movie to be made on it. While the full review process had much more valuable information, that perhaps someday will be just as easily accessible (many thanks to IJNP and to Joe Bardwell for facilitating this whole review!), I was impressed with how much information Dr. Baumgardner fit into this particular, condensed Q&A document, where he answers many common questions on the CPT model.

I hope the following web version of Dr. Baumgardner’s answers will prove helpful. Sometimes it is easier for me, and I’m sure for some of you, to dig into a given topic through the FAQs or Questions and Answers format, over simply reading through a large formal paper or book on the topic. While this PDF document was already online, PDF documents do not flow with web page size, among many other things, and needless to say, this information is at the moment basically a lost link on the web. I hope this online edition will help to better disseminate this important research. Dr. Baumgardner kindly gave me permission to post this material, and I’m grateful to say that he expressed enthusiasm for this as a nice and appreciated improvement over the original format.

Introduction

This set of questions and answers is an outcome of a peer review process that began early in 2009 and continued through the summer of 2011, initiated and led by Joe Bardwell, president of In Jesus’ Name Productions. The review itself included six different Flood models and involved five rounds of questions from a ten-member review panel and answers from the authors of the respective models. The chief objective of the review was to evaluate the technical underpinnings of each of the models. This was by far the most probing investigation of the science behind the various attempts to explain the physical aspects of the Genesis Flood undertaken to date. The questions and answers pertaining to the catastrophic plate tectonics (CPT) portion of the review are included here.

PDF Introduction

This set of questions and answers is an outcome of a peer review process that began in early 2009 and continued through the summer of 2011. The review was initiated, organized, and directed by Joe Bardwell, president of In Jesus’ Name Productions (IJNP). As described on the IJNP website at www.IJNP.org, IJNP is:

“a not-for-profit ministry created to be the world’s first Christian movie studio. The IJNP vision is to bring together the worldwide body of Christ and leading Hollywood filmmakers to create and release films designed to be both compelling entertainment and high-quality ministry tools for the purpose of maximum spiritual impact throughout the world.”

One IJNP movie project currently under development and consideration is a scientifically accurate feature film on the Genesis Flood. As a preliminary step in this project, to explore more fully the science behind the Flood, IJNP hosted a scientific peer review of the leading Flood models and pre-Flood world concepts.

On IJNP’s website you can find more details on this peer review process as follows [ed. IJNP has since rebranded from injesusnameproductions.org to ijnp.org; the links below now point to its current pages]:

In summary, the peer review process involved, first, the posting of materials describing each Flood model on a special website by the author who would represent the model in the review process. The next step involved the selection of ten scientists to serve as review panelists. The third step was the determination of the set of Flood models to be reviewed. Six models were chosen. These included the vapor canopy model, the catastrophic plate tectonics (CPT) model, the hydroplate model, the solid canopy model, the impact vertical tectonics model, and the collapse tectonics model.

The next step was the actual review. For this process, each review panelist provided a written question to each of the six Flood model authors. Each author then had a specified amount of time, generally a month, to respond in writing to each of the ten questions. Each of the panelists and authors could then review all the questions and answers prior to the next round of questions and answers. There were four such rounds. In the fifth and final round, the panelists could ask as many questions as they desired of each author.

This document is derived from the set of questions and answers pertaining to the catastrophic plate tectonics model which was generated by this review process. Editing mostly involved a shortening of the questions to make them more succinct, since some panelists sometimes included commentary and background which was peripheral to their actual question.

It is hoped that these questions and answers will help elucidate many points which have previously not been so clear for those who have had an interest in the mechanisms associated with the Genesis Flood in general and CPT in particular.

What is not included in this document are my own critiques of the other Flood models, the other author’s critiques of CPT, and the panelist’s questions to the other authors. Should you desire to download the full Flood Science Review (download) [ed. link updated — IJNP now sends the full eBook on request; see its Flood Science Review page], it is available at IJNP, free of charge for a donation of any size to the IJNP ministry.

John Baumgardner

April 2012

Original Document

The original PDF version (157 pages) is available in the docs folder.