North Texas Skeptic - Vol 13 No 06 - 1999

Magazine Overview

The North Texas Skeptic, Volume 13, Number 6, dated June 1999, is a newsletter from The North Texas Skeptics. It features articles critical of creationism and alternative medicine, alongside a section on web news.

Wayne Spencer—young-Earth creationist

This article, by John Blanton, introduces Wayne Spencer, a young-Earth creationist who will address The North Texas Skeptics. Spencer, who holds a degree in physics and is a former high school science teacher, has written a manuscript titled "How We Know The World Is Young." He aims to demonstrate that the young Earth position is a reasonable alternative to the standard evolutionary timetable, suggesting that many people with graduate degrees have become convinced of its scientific validity.

The article highlights the controversy surrounding the age of the Earth and universe, with evolutionists believing in billions of years and Young Earth Creationists (YECs) proposing 6-10,000 years. Spencer argues that the age of the Earth is a spiritual issue because evolution requires billions of years, the Bible implies thousands, and scientific evidence points to a young Earth. He states that if the Earth's history is only thousands of years old, there wouldn't be enough time for evolution.

The newsletter then delves into specific arguments used by YECs to deny an ancient universe, as summarized by Spencer:

Helium Escape

This argument posits that helium, a light, inert gas produced by radioactive decay within the Earth, should have accumulated in the atmosphere if the Earth were ancient. However, the article notes that the atmosphere contains less than 1% helium. YECs contend that without a means of removal, atmospheric helium would reach its present concentration in only 2 million years. Spencer cites research by Dr. Larry Vardiman. The newsletter counters that science explains helium escape into space, where high-velocity helium molecules can achieve escape velocity, a process influenced by the solar wind.

Changes in the Earth's Magnetic Field

This section presents Dr. D. Russell Humphreys' argument that the Earth's magnetic field has lost energy since creation, implying the Earth is less than 9,000 years old. Humphreys, a physicist, suggests the field originated at its physical limit and has decayed exponentially. The article notes that evolutionists believe the magnetic field has reversed polarity many times over billions of years, attributing this to a dynamo effect. The newsletter expresses skepticism about this argument, calling it "scientifically worthless," and mentions that real geophysicists are not finding evidence to support Humphreys or Thomas G. Barnes, another proponent of this idea.

Star Clusters and Galaxies

Spencer's arguments regarding star clusters and spiral galaxies are also discussed. YECs suggest that if the universe were 16-20 billion years old, some star clusters should have broken up by now. They also argue that spiral galaxies should have wound into featureless disks due to differential rotation. The newsletter states that scientists studying these phenomena are not reporting evidence for a young universe.

Rapid Formation of Rock Strata

This section references the eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980 as evidence for rapid geological processes. Spencer cites ICR scientist Steven A. Austin, who argues for the rapid formation of stratification, erosion, upright logs, and coal. The goal is to demonstrate that millions of years are not required for Earth's features to form.

Conclusion

The article concludes by noting that creationists often simplify explanations by assuming a young Earth and universe, created less than 10,000 years ago. It mentions Bishop Ussher's date of 4004 B.C. for creation, a date not fully accepted even by some creationists. The newsletter suggests that YECs often waffle on an exact creation date, and their speculations may become a "laughing stock of tomorrow."

Nightingale Shamed

This article, by Roahn Wynar, reprinted from The Daily Texan, criticizes Barbara Dossey, a leader in a movement that the author claims is "systematically destroying the credibility of nursing" by reintroducing "magical and medieval thinking." Dossey is scheduled to lecture on "Florence Nightingale: a 19th Century Mystic."

The author asserts that Dossey promotes "trendy crackpot medical notions" and formalizes them into nursing textbooks. Her book "Cardiovascular Nursing: A Bodymind Tapestry" allegedly inserts "woo-woo material" and discredits scientific medicine, labeling non-holistic nurses as "allopathic." Dossey's core claim is that the mind is the primary factor in illness, implying that sickness is a "valuable sign of internal conflict" and that sick people are mentally disturbed.

Dossey's subsequent book, "Holistic Nursing: A Handbook for Practice," explores concepts like "mind modulation" and "imagery," suggesting that one can "imagine their way to health." The article dismisses this, noting that studies have shown no evidence for such claims and that Dossey tacitly accepts psychic phenomena, supporting nursing practices based on psychic powers. The UT School of Nursing is cited for using Dossey's work to justify including psychic power-based techniques in its curriculum.

The article then turns to Dossey's husband, a medical doctor, who is described as "a hundred times worse." He authored "Space Time and Medicine," which allegedly reconstructs reality to match his vision, based on the notion that minds construct the physical world. He claims prayer can cause healing or harm, and warns that praying for a strong immune system might paradoxically cause autoimmune diseases. The author calls Larry Dossey an "idiot" in the lexicon of scientific skeptics.

The article criticizes the Dosseys for promoting an alternative medicine worldview and an illusion of wisdom. It mentions their book "Profiles of Nurse Healers," which features nurses claiming to manipulate "human energy fields." Three nurses from the University of Texas are profiled in this book.

The author concludes that for 20 years, the nursing profession has been rewriting its foundations to incorporate "mystic energy fields" and "magic medicine," potentially shaming Florence Nightingale's legacy. Wynar is identified as a physics graduate student and columnist for The Daily Texan.

Web news

By John Blanton, this section warns that the Internet is an unreliable source of information.

Iowa, oops!

This part discusses the Republican Party of Iowa's platform, adopted on June 15, 1996. Key points include:

• Education (3.1, 3.2): Support for traditional academic education and local control of public schools.
• Creation Science (3.5, 3.6): Belief that Creation Science should be taught in public schools alongside other theories of origin, and viewing evolution taught in schools as a "state funded religion."
• Opposition (3.7, 3.8): Opposition to secular humanism, "Political Correctness," New Age concepts, PETA, one-world government, "situational ethics," and the teaching of homosexuality or sexually deviant behavior. They oppose homosexuals as teachers and the teaching of lesbianism or homosexuality as alternate lifestyles.
• Religious Texts (3.34): Belief that the Bible and other religious texts should be available in school libraries.
• Creationist Resources (3.38): Support for stocking Creationist produced resources in all tax-funded public and school libraries and opposition to the censorship of Creationist resources.

The section concludes with a quote attributed to Bob Dylan: "Better get away from Oxford Town."

Antigravity

Terry Colvin provides a link to a website about antigravity, described as a collection of "mainstream and far-fringe Antigravity files and links" where "amateurs, [maverick] researchers, and crackpot inventors" lead.

Recurring Themes and Editorial Stance

The newsletter consistently adopts a skeptical and critical stance towards pseudoscience, creationism, and alternative medicine. It champions scientific reasoning and evidence-based practices, as exemplified by its critique of young-Earth creationist arguments and its strong condemnation of what it terms "magical thinking" and "crackpot medical notions" in nursing. The publication appears to be a platform for debunking claims that lack scientific validity and for promoting a rationalist worldview. The inclusion of political commentary on creation science in schools and links to fringe topics like antigravity further illustrate its broad scope of skepticism.