John Baumgardner
John R. Baumgardner is a geophysicist, young earth creationist, intelligent design supporter and Christian fundamentalist.[1][2]
Biography
He became a Christian at 26 and achieved notoriety for efforts to prove scientifically the Noachian flood. He created a computer simulation called Terra to model the flood.[3] In 1985, Baumgardner joined the controversial amateur archaeologist Ron Wyatt and salvage expert David Fasold to Durupınar, Turkey for an expedition recounted in Fasold's The Ark of Noah to locate the biblical ship's remains.[4] Baumgardner did not support Wyatt and Fasold claims to have found a boat-shaped 'object' which was the Ark. He argued that the object was a natural formation.[5] In 1997, US News and World Report described him as "the world's pre-eminent expert in the design of computer models for geophysical convection".[3]
In 2005, Baumgardner began to work with John Sanford to develop a numerical simulation program called Mendel's Accountant, which seeks to accurately model the accumulation of mutations in a genome.[6] This research was then used to test the validity of the neo-Darwinian theory, exposing as he says the "un-reality of the primary axiom".[7]
Baumgardner has a Ph.D. in geophysics and space science from the University of California at Los Angeles and works at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, is Adjunct Professor of Geophysics at the Institute for Creation Research.[8] He is a member of the Intelligent Design and Evolution Awareness Center.[9]
Select publications
According to Web of Science, he has published 20 peer-reviewed papers, including
- Bunge HP, Richards MA, Baumgardner JR. "Effect of depth-dependent viscosity on the planform of mantle convection" Nature 379 (6564): 436-438 (Feb 1 1996) cited 89 times
- Baumgardner JR "3-Dimensional Treatment of Convective Flow in the Earth's Mantle." Journal of Statistical Physics 39(5-6) 501- (1985), cited 75 times.
- Bunge HP, Richards MA, Baumgardner JR "A sensitivity study of three-dimensional spherical mantle convection at 10(8) Rayleigh number: Effects of depth-dependent viscosity, heating mode, and an endothermic phase change." Journal of Geophysical Research-Solid Earth, 102 (B6): 11991-12007 Jun 10 1997 cited 65 times.
References
- ^ Chronology of the evolution-creationism controversy, Randy Moore, Mark Decker, Sehoya Cotner, 2010 p. 321
- ^ Newsweek, Volume 128, Issues 1-14, Newsweek, 1996. p.82
- ^ a b The Geophysics of God: A scientist embraces plate tectonics--and Noah's flood, Chandler Burr, U.S. News & World Report, June 8, 1997, pp. 55-58
- ^ David Fasold, The Ark of Noah, (New York: Wynwood, 1988), p. 7.
- ^ Letter to Gary Amirault Letter from John Baumgardner. See also September 1992 issue of Creation Magazine, Volume 14, Number 4, entitled 'Amazing Ark Expose'
- ^ Sanford, J.C., Baumgardner, J., Brewer, W., Gibson, P., ReMine, W. (2007). Mendel's Accountant: a biologically realistic forward-time population genetics program. SCPE 8(2): 147-165. http://www.scpe.org.
- ^ Sanford, J., Baumgardner, J., Brewer, W., Gibson, P., ReMine, W. (2008), Using numerical simulation to test the validity of neo-Darwinian theory, Proceedings of the sixth international conference on creationism.
- ^ John R. Baumgardner, Ph.D. Geophysics/Space Physics, Institute for Creation Research
- ^ John Baumgardner Biography