Carl Baugh
Encyclopedia
Carl Edward Baugh is an American
young earth creationist. Along with others, Baugh has said he discovered human
alongside dinosaur
footprints near the Paluxy River
in Texas
. Baugh is a national television host, purporting to present science supporting creationism
on the program Creation in the 21st Century on the Trinity Broadcasting Network
. His claims have been rejected by the scientific community and other creationists as pseudoscience
. His educational credentials have been called into question.
, Baugh graduated in 1955 from Abilene High School
in Abilene, Texas
. He currently appears on Trinity Broadcasting Network
program Creation in the 21st Century. Baugh is also president and alumnus of the Pacific International University
, which many accuse of being a diploma mill
.
In 1984, Baugh started the Creation Evidence Museum
in a double-wide trailer in Glen Rose, Texas
, near Dinosaur Valley State Park
, to promote creationism
. All of the museum exhibits have been strongly criticized as incorrectly identified dinosaur prints, other fossils, or outright forgeries.
In 2008, a descendant of a family that found many original Paluxy River dinosaur tracks in the 1930s claimed that her grandfather had faked many of them. Others, such as purported dinosaur claws, were identified by University of Texas at Austin paleontologist Wann Langston as crocodile
teeth.
In 1996, Baugh presented his "man-tracks" in the controversial program The Mysterious Origins of Man
. Creationist Ken Ham
, of Answers in Genesis
, criticized the claims in a review titled "Hollywood's 'Moses' Undermines Genesis," regarding Baugh: "According to leading creationist researchers, this evidence is open to much debate and needs much more intensive research. One wonders how much of the information in the program can really be trusted!" He also has been given television exposure by the tele-evangelist Kenneth Copeland
. He has authored several self-published books on such topics as the age of the universe, dinosaur
s coexisting with humans and critiques of evolution
.
In 2001 Baugh and Creation Evidence Museum were featured on The Daily Show
where Baugh likened human history to The Flintstones
and the show poked fun at his claims about the hyperbaric biosphere, pterodactyl expeditions, and dinosaurs.
He is a promoter of intelligent design
. In 2002 he appeared with William A. Dembski
at a conference in Texas and has built his more recent web material around ID and Dembski.
. In the course of the examination "Baugh contradicted his own earlier reports of the locations of key discoveries" and many of the supposed prints "lacked human characteristics." After a three year investigation of the tracks and Baugh's specimens, the scientists concluded there was no evidence of any of Baugh's claims or any "dinosaur-man tracks".
On September 27, 1984, Al West, a Baugh co-worker for two years, who followed the mantrack claims since 1974, and friend of Glen Kuban, publicly announced that Baugh "never had evidence for manprints as claimed. Gayle Golden, writer for The Dallas Morning News
, reported that Baugh "paid $10,000 for his Moab skeleton
and confirmed that Baugh knew at their purchase that the bones had already been dated at 200-300 years. However Baugh later claimed that the bones were found in Cretaceous
deposits."
One of Baugh's more famous claims, aside from the dinosaur tracks, is an alleged out of place artifact of an "18th century miner's hammer" found in million-year-old Ordovician
rock (he has also claimed it is in Cretaceous
rock) found in 1934 from London, Texas
. Baugh asserted this as evidence against scientifically known ways that rocks form. However, laboratory tests discounted his claim about the hammer's being formed in the rock. J.R. Cole wrote, "The stone concretion is real, and it looks impressive to someone unfamiliar with geological processes. How could a modern artifact be stuck in Ordovician rock? The answer is that the concretion itself is not Ordovician. Minerals in solution can harden around an intrusive object dropped in a crack or simply left on the ground if the source rock (in this case, reportedly Ordovician) is chemically soluble."
In July 2008, Baugh was in contact with Alvis Delk and James Bishop, who claimed to have found a dinosaur-human print fossil. Bishop is a convicted murderer. Baugh bought the "fossil" from Delk who used the money to pay his medical bills. On the authenticity of the claims, reporter Bud Kennedy noted, "since no scientists were involved, about all we really know so far is that the museum has a new rock."
Creationist organizations such as Answers in Genesis
have criticized Baugh's claims saying he "muddied the water for many Christians. . . . People are being misled." Don Batten, of Creation Ministries International
wrote: "Some Christians will try to use Baugh's 'evidences' in witnessing and get 'shot down' by someone who is scientifically literate. The ones witnessed to will thereafter be wary of all creation evidences and even more inclined to dismiss Christians as nut cases not worth listening to." Answers in Genesis
(AiG) lists the "Paluxy tracks" as arguments "we think creationists should NOT use" [emphasis in original]. Also Answers In Creation reviewed Baugh's museum and concluded "the main artifacts they claim show a young earth reveal that they are deceptions, and in many cases, not even clever ones."
In his 1992 book Panorama of Creation, Baugh claims that a layer of metallic hydrogen
surrounded the early earth. Furthermore, he professes that hexagonal water, or, "Creation water" as he calls it, is capable of healing. Such claims have been addressed by scientists as pseudoscience
, and his hypotheses and credentials are not accepted in academia.
Baugh has claimed several degrees, at one point professing to earning three doctorates. All three "doctorates" are from unaccredited "school
s." One is an honorary "Doctor of Philosophy in Theology" from the non-accredited California Graduate School of Theology
. His 1989 "doctorate" and Masters Degree in Archaeology comes from the non-accredited Pacific International University
, of which Baugh was the president. His dissertation titled "Academic Justification for Voluntary Inclusion of Scientific Creation in Public Classroom Curricula, Supported by Evidence that Man and Dinosaurs Were Contemporary" was reviewed by Brett Vickers who criticized its "descriptions of his field-work on the Paluxy river 'man-tracks', speculation about Charles Darwin's religious beliefs and phobias, and biblical evidence of Adam's mental excellence." In 2005, Baugh completed a doctorate in Theology from the unaccredited Louisiana Baptist University
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
young earth creationist. Along with others, Baugh has said he discovered human
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
alongside dinosaur
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
footprints near the Paluxy River
Paluxy River
The Paluxy River is a river in the U.S. state of Texas. It is a tributary of the Brazos River. It is formed by the convergence of the North Paluxy River and the South Paluxy River near Bluff Dale, Texas in Erath County and flows a distance of before joining the Brazos just to the east of Glen...
in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. Baugh is a national television host, purporting to present science supporting creationism
Creationism
Creationism is the religious beliefthat humanity, life, the Earth, and the universe are the creation of a supernatural being, most often referring to the Abrahamic god. As science developed from the 18th century onwards, various views developed which aimed to reconcile science with the Genesis...
on the program Creation in the 21st Century on the Trinity Broadcasting Network
Trinity Broadcasting Network
The Trinity Broadcasting Network is a major American Christian television network. TBN is based in Costa Mesa, California, with auxiliary studio facilities in Irving, Texas; Hendersonville, Tennessee; Gadsden, Alabama; Decatur, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Orlando, Florida; and New...
. His claims have been rejected by the scientific community and other creationists as pseudoscience
Pseudoscience
Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status...
. His educational credentials have been called into question.
Biography
Born in Kenedy, TexasKenedy, Texas
Kenedy is a city in Karnes County, Texas, United States, named for Mifflin Kenedy, who bought and wanted to develop a new town that would carry his name...
, Baugh graduated in 1955 from Abilene High School
Abilene High School (Abilene, Texas)
Abilene High School is a public high school located in Abilene, Texas and is part of the Abilene Independent School District. Abilene High School is the name given to three different schools in the past 150 years. The first Abilene High was an old warehouse. Not long after that, the school was...
in Abilene, Texas
Abilene, Texas
Abilene is a city in Taylor and Jones counties in west central Texas. The population was 117,063 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Abilene Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had a 2006 estimated population of 158,063. It is the county seat of Taylor County...
. He currently appears on Trinity Broadcasting Network
Trinity Broadcasting Network
The Trinity Broadcasting Network is a major American Christian television network. TBN is based in Costa Mesa, California, with auxiliary studio facilities in Irving, Texas; Hendersonville, Tennessee; Gadsden, Alabama; Decatur, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Orlando, Florida; and New...
program Creation in the 21st Century. Baugh is also president and alumnus of the Pacific International University
Pacific International University
Pacific International University was an unaccredited, conservative, Christian university and seminary located in Springfield, Missouri. 1989 alumnus of Pacific International University Carl Baugh was the university president...
, which many accuse of being a diploma mill
Diploma mill
A diploma mill is an organization that awards academic degrees and diplomas with substandard or no academic study and without recognition by official educational accrediting bodies. The purchaser can then claim to hold an academic degree, and the organization is motivated by making a profit...
.
Creation Evidence Museum
The Creation Evidence Museum, originally Creation Evidences Museum, is a museum in Glen Rose in Somervell County in central Texas, USA. Founded in 1984 by Carl Baugh for the purpose of researching and displaying purported evidence for creationism, the museum purports to show that the Earth is only...
in a double-wide trailer in Glen Rose, Texas
Glen Rose, Texas
Glen Rose is a city in Somervell County, Texas, United States. It is the county seat of Somervell County. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 2,444. Glen Rose is part of the Granbury micropolitan area.-19th century:...
, near Dinosaur Valley State Park
Dinosaur Valley State Park
- History :Dinosaur Valley State Park, located just northwest of Glen Rose in Somervell County, is a scenic park set astride the Paluxy River. The land for the park was acquired from private owners under the State Parks Bonds Program during 1968 and opened to the public in 1972...
, to promote creationism
Creationism
Creationism is the religious beliefthat humanity, life, the Earth, and the universe are the creation of a supernatural being, most often referring to the Abrahamic god. As science developed from the 18th century onwards, various views developed which aimed to reconcile science with the Genesis...
. All of the museum exhibits have been strongly criticized as incorrectly identified dinosaur prints, other fossils, or outright forgeries.
In 2008, a descendant of a family that found many original Paluxy River dinosaur tracks in the 1930s claimed that her grandfather had faked many of them. Others, such as purported dinosaur claws, were identified by University of Texas at Austin paleontologist Wann Langston as crocodile
Crocodile
A crocodile is any species belonging to the family Crocodylidae . The term can also be used more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia: i.e...
teeth.
In 1996, Baugh presented his "man-tracks" in the controversial program The Mysterious Origins of Man
The Mysterious Origins of Man
The Mysterious Origins of Man was a television special that originally aired on NBC on February 25, 1996. Hosted by Charlton Heston, the program argued that mankind has lived on the Earth for tens of millions of years, and that mainstream scientists have suppressed the fossil evidence for this...
. Creationist Ken Ham
Ken Ham
Kenneth Alfred Ham is the Australian President/CEO of Answers in Genesis USA. He is a vocal advocate for a young Earth and a literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis, and his cross-country speaking tours and many books make him one of the better known young-Earth...
, of Answers in Genesis
Answers in Genesis
Answers in Genesis is a non-profit Christian apologetics ministry with a particular focus on supporting Young Earth creationism and a literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis. The organization has offices in the United Kingdom and the United States...
, criticized the claims in a review titled "Hollywood's 'Moses' Undermines Genesis," regarding Baugh: "According to leading creationist researchers, this evidence is open to much debate and needs much more intensive research. One wonders how much of the information in the program can really be trusted!" He also has been given television exposure by the tele-evangelist Kenneth Copeland
Kenneth Copeland
Kenneth Copeland is an American author, public speaker, and televangelist. He is the founder of Kenneth Copeland Ministries, which preaches a “prosperity gospel”: "Prosperity gospel assures followers that the more they give including in the form of tithes to the church, the more they will receive...
. He has authored several self-published books on such topics as the age of the universe, dinosaur
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
s coexisting with humans and critiques of evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
.
In 2001 Baugh and Creation Evidence Museum were featured on The Daily Show
The Daily Show
The Daily Show , is an American late night satirical television program airing each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central. The half-hour long show premiered on July 21, 1996, and was hosted by Craig Kilborn until December 1998...
where Baugh likened human history to The Flintstones
The Flintstones
The Flintstones is an animated, prime-time American television sitcom that screened from September 30, 1960 to April 1, 1966, on ABC. Produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, The Flintstones was about a working class Stone Age man's life with his family and his next-door neighbor and best friend. It...
and the show poked fun at his claims about the hyperbaric biosphere, pterodactyl expeditions, and dinosaurs.
He is a promoter of intelligent design
Intelligent design
Intelligent design is the proposition that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for...
. In 2002 he appeared with William A. Dembski
William A. Dembski
William Albert "Bill" Dembski is an American proponent of intelligent design, well known for promoting the concept of specified complexity...
at a conference in Texas and has built his more recent web material around ID and Dembski.
Claims and criticism
Both scientists and creationists have criticized Baugh's claims. In 1982–1984, several scientists, including J.R. Cole, L.R. Godfrey, R.J. Hastings, and S.D. Schafersman, examined Baugh's purported "mantracks" as well as others provided by creationists in the Glen Rose FormationGlen Rose Formation
The Glen Rose Formation is a shallow marine to shoreline geological formation from the lower Cretaceous period exposed over a large area from South Central to North Central Texas...
. In the course of the examination "Baugh contradicted his own earlier reports of the locations of key discoveries" and many of the supposed prints "lacked human characteristics." After a three year investigation of the tracks and Baugh's specimens, the scientists concluded there was no evidence of any of Baugh's claims or any "dinosaur-man tracks".
On September 27, 1984, Al West, a Baugh co-worker for two years, who followed the mantrack claims since 1974, and friend of Glen Kuban, publicly announced that Baugh "never had evidence for manprints as claimed. Gayle Golden, writer for The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Morning News is the major daily newspaper serving the Dallas, Texas area, with a circulation of 264,459 subscribers, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported in September 2010...
, reported that Baugh "paid $10,000 for his Moab skeleton
Moab, Utah
Moab is a city in Grand County, in eastern Utah, in the western United States. The population was 4,779 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat and largest city in Grand County. Moab hosts a large number of tourists every year, mostly visitors to the nearby Arches and Canyonlands National Parks...
and confirmed that Baugh knew at their purchase that the bones had already been dated at 200-300 years. However Baugh later claimed that the bones were found in Cretaceous
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...
deposits."
One of Baugh's more famous claims, aside from the dinosaur tracks, is an alleged out of place artifact of an "18th century miner's hammer" found in million-year-old Ordovician
Ordovician
The Ordovician is a geologic period and system, the second of six of the Paleozoic Era, and covers the time between 488.3±1.7 to 443.7±1.5 million years ago . It follows the Cambrian Period and is followed by the Silurian Period...
rock (he has also claimed it is in Cretaceous
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...
rock) found in 1934 from London, Texas
London, Texas
London is an unincorporated community in Kimble County, Texas, United States. According to the Handbook of Texas, the community had an estimated population of 180 in 2000.-Geography:...
. Baugh asserted this as evidence against scientifically known ways that rocks form. However, laboratory tests discounted his claim about the hammer's being formed in the rock. J.R. Cole wrote, "The stone concretion is real, and it looks impressive to someone unfamiliar with geological processes. How could a modern artifact be stuck in Ordovician rock? The answer is that the concretion itself is not Ordovician. Minerals in solution can harden around an intrusive object dropped in a crack or simply left on the ground if the source rock (in this case, reportedly Ordovician) is chemically soluble."
In July 2008, Baugh was in contact with Alvis Delk and James Bishop, who claimed to have found a dinosaur-human print fossil. Bishop is a convicted murderer. Baugh bought the "fossil" from Delk who used the money to pay his medical bills. On the authenticity of the claims, reporter Bud Kennedy noted, "since no scientists were involved, about all we really know so far is that the museum has a new rock."
Creationist organizations such as Answers in Genesis
Answers in Genesis
Answers in Genesis is a non-profit Christian apologetics ministry with a particular focus on supporting Young Earth creationism and a literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis. The organization has offices in the United Kingdom and the United States...
have criticized Baugh's claims saying he "muddied the water for many Christians. . . . People are being misled." Don Batten, of Creation Ministries International
Creation Ministries International
Creation Ministries International is a non-profit young Earth creationist organisation of autonomous Christian apologetics ministries that promote a literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis...
wrote: "Some Christians will try to use Baugh's 'evidences' in witnessing and get 'shot down' by someone who is scientifically literate. The ones witnessed to will thereafter be wary of all creation evidences and even more inclined to dismiss Christians as nut cases not worth listening to." Answers in Genesis
Answers in Genesis
Answers in Genesis is a non-profit Christian apologetics ministry with a particular focus on supporting Young Earth creationism and a literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis. The organization has offices in the United Kingdom and the United States...
(AiG) lists the "Paluxy tracks" as arguments "we think creationists should NOT use" [emphasis in original]. Also Answers In Creation reviewed Baugh's museum and concluded "the main artifacts they claim show a young earth reveal that they are deceptions, and in many cases, not even clever ones."
In his 1992 book Panorama of Creation, Baugh claims that a layer of metallic hydrogen
Metallic hydrogen
Metallic hydrogen is a state of hydrogen which results when it is sufficiently compressed and undergoes a phase transition; it is an example of degenerate matter. Solid metallic hydrogen is predicted to consist of a crystal lattice of hydrogen nuclei , with a spacing which is significantly smaller...
surrounded the early earth. Furthermore, he professes that hexagonal water, or, "Creation water" as he calls it, is capable of healing. Such claims have been addressed by scientists as pseudoscience
Pseudoscience
Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status...
, and his hypotheses and credentials are not accepted in academia.
Baugh has claimed several degrees, at one point professing to earning three doctorates. All three "doctorates" are from unaccredited "school
Diploma mill
A diploma mill is an organization that awards academic degrees and diplomas with substandard or no academic study and without recognition by official educational accrediting bodies. The purchaser can then claim to hold an academic degree, and the organization is motivated by making a profit...
s." One is an honorary "Doctor of Philosophy in Theology" from the non-accredited California Graduate School of Theology
California Graduate School of Theology
The California Graduate School of Theology is an unaccredited American institution of higher learning in La Habra, California. It was founded in 1968 as an interdenominational graduate school and has been attended by over 5,000 students...
. His 1989 "doctorate" and Masters Degree in Archaeology comes from the non-accredited Pacific International University
Pacific International University
Pacific International University was an unaccredited, conservative, Christian university and seminary located in Springfield, Missouri. 1989 alumnus of Pacific International University Carl Baugh was the university president...
, of which Baugh was the president. His dissertation titled "Academic Justification for Voluntary Inclusion of Scientific Creation in Public Classroom Curricula, Supported by Evidence that Man and Dinosaurs Were Contemporary" was reviewed by Brett Vickers who criticized its "descriptions of his field-work on the Paluxy river 'man-tracks', speculation about Charles Darwin's religious beliefs and phobias, and biblical evidence of Adam's mental excellence." In 2005, Baugh completed a doctorate in Theology from the unaccredited Louisiana Baptist University
Louisiana Baptist University
Louisiana Baptist University is an accredited theologically conservative Christian university, founded in 1973, located at 6301 Westport Avenue in Shreveport, Louisiana....
.
External links
- Creation Evidence Museum Baugh's official website
- Baugh's "doctoral dissertation" from Archive.org
- Analysis of Baugh's Dinosaur Tracks, National Center for Science EducationNational Center for Science EducationThe National Center for Science Education is a non-profit organization based in Oakland, California affiliated with the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It is the United States' leading anti-creationist organization, and defends the teaching of evolutionary biology and opposes...
Issue 15 (Volume 5, Number 1 — Winter 1985) - A Matter of Degree: Carl Baugh's Alleged Credentials by Glen J. Kuban, NCSE Reports Vol 9, No. 6, Nov–Dec. 1989. (Updated August 2006)
- What About Carl Baugh? by Dr Don Batten, of Creation Ministries InternationalCreation Ministries InternationalCreation Ministries International is a non-profit young Earth creationist organisation of autonomous Christian apologetics ministries that promote a literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis...
- Cretinism or Evilution? No. 3 from talk.originsTalk.originstalk.origins is a moderated Usenet discussion forum concerning the origins of life, and evolution...