Below is the online edition of In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood,
by Dr. Walt Brown.
Copyright © Center for Scientific Creation. All rights reserved.
Click here to order the hardbound 8th edition (2008) and other material.
What Is the Recorded and Transcribed Telephone Debate Offer?
The hydroplate theory, explained in this book, shows how a catastrophic, global flood rapidly produced 26 otherwise mysterious features of the earth and solar system. The theory also explains where all the flood water came from and where it went. Failure to understand the flood led to the mistaken belief in evolution over billions of years.
If you know any credible individuals who disagree with the hydroplate theory, but are unwilling to enter a written, publishable debate as explained on pages 470–472, here is their opportunity to show, before a potentially large audience, that they have a scientific case. This is also your opportunity to see if their criticisms have merit. Critics—with your urging, if necessary—should send an email to
phonedebate@creationscience.com
(1) requesting a recorded telephone debate with Dr. Walt Brown, followed with written exchanges as necessary, and (2) stating that they have read the hydroplate theory (Part II of In the Beginning and pertinent cross-references and technical notes). Please include full name, address, phone and FAX numbers, present job, and academic credentials. No particular academic credentials are required.
Walt Brown is able to participate in a 60-minute conference-call debate once a month. The debate will be recorded by goconferencecall.com and will be available to anyone immediately afterward. The recording, in MP3 and WAV format (and its transcription), can be distributed—or broadcast—anywhere by anyone if done in its entirety. Participants may also record the call.
If more than one person wishes to debate Dr. Brown in a given month, the individual with the strongest scientific credentials will be selected. Participants will be notified at least one month before each conference call, and a mutually agreeable time for the call will be arranged. CSC will post a transcript and an audio version of each month’s phone debate at
www.creationscience.com/podcasts/csc_phonedebate_podcasts.rss
Others can do the same at their websites. (As of this writing, no one has accepted this offer.)
A neutral debate moderator, jointly selected by both debaters, will be a debate instructor/coach from a randomly selected university or college in the United States. The conference call will begin with the moderator introducing both participants to the listening audience and summarizing the debate rules—namely, that all of the hydroplate theory has been read, and that no religion (only science) will be discussed. The “no religion” rule would be violated in this telephone exchange by
After introducing the two debaters, the moderator will ask the hydroplate critic two questions:
Then Dr. Brown will respond and the discussion will focus on the critic’s topic and related issues. The moderator’s role is not to interview participants, but to listen to the exchange, enforce the rules, and ensure that both sides have about the same speaking time and questioning opportunities. If necessary, the moderator will intervene or edit out statements about religion or unprofessional comments (yelling, repeated interruptions, etc.).
If, in the moderator’s opinion, the hydroplate critic has not carefully read the theory, as previously claimed, the moderator will end the conference call. Obviously, a debater’s credibility falls apart if it becomes clear that he has not read what he is criticizing. (Dr. Brown cannot take his limited debating time to explain relevant portions of the theory to someone who has chosen not to read it.)
Also, the breadth of the hydroplate theory—purportedly explaining the origin of mountains, volcanoes, coal, oil, earthquakes, the Grand Canyon, ocean basins, the ice age, the frozen mammoths, fossil sorting, layered strata, the rapid drift of the continents, earth’s inner and outer core, earth’s magnetic field, comets, meteorites, asteroids, earth’s radioactivity, and dozens of otherwise strange features on earth—makes a thorough reading even more imperative. The events that formed each feature relate to and support those that formed all other features—and a global flood. Dr. Brown will be happy to read before the debate any of the critic’s specific, written objections to the hydroplate theory. If complex issues are raised, a follow-on debate could be scheduled for a future month with written exchanges occurring in the interim.
Part II of this book, pages 104-320, explains the hydroplate theory. Scientific information in other parts of the book, such as the Technical Notes, also relates. All are referenced in Part II. A 170-word summary of the hydroplate theory is on page 47, and a one-chapter summary of the theory begins on page 106. Almost all critics of the hydroplate theory have not read it, choose to be anonymous, will not put their science to the test before Dr. Brown (as he will before them), or are scientifically uninformed.