Grand Canyon: A Different View
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Author | Tom Vail |
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| Publisher | Master Books |
| Released | June 2003 |
| Pages | 96 |
| ISBN | ISBN 978-0-89-051373-6 |
Grand Canyon: A Different View is a 2003 book by Tom Vail. The book features a series of photographs of the Grand Canyon coupled with essays arguing, from a Young Earth creationist perspective, that the canyon is no more than a few thousand years old and was formed by the Global Flood or Noachian flood of the Bible.
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[edit] Controversy
The book was approved for sale in Grand Canyon National Park bookstores in 2003, and on the web[1]. Vail, who had spent years as a river guide in the park, had recently converted to Christianity and adopted "'a different view' of the Canyon, which, according to a biblical time scale, can't possibly be more than about a few thousand years old."[2]
He has since continued to conduct tours of the canyon for like-minded groups under the guise of "Canyon Ministries."[3] However, consensus among geologists is that the canyon began to form 5.3 million years ago and contains rock formations that are 2 billion years old.
Public controversy over the book began when Wildred A. Elders, Professor Emeritus of Geology in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of California, Riverside, published a critical review of the book in August 2003.[4] That same month, Park Superintendent Joe Alston attempted to block the sale at park bookstores of the book. On December 16, 2003 Alston received a supporting letter signed by the presidents of seven scientific societies protesting the sale of the book as a scientific reference[5].
On January 25, 2004, David Shaver, Chief of the Geologic Resources Division of the NPS, sent a memorandum to Chuck Fagan at the Office of Policy stating, in part, that the book "makes claims that are counter to widely accepted geologic evidence and scientific understanding about the formation and age of the Grand Canyon. In fact, it assaults modern science and well-documented geologic evidence of the canyon's history."[6] Later in 2004, the Grand Canyon National Park bookstore moved the book from the natural science section to the inspirational section as requested by the scientific organizations.[7]
In response to the 2003 controversy, the NPS told reporters and members of Congress in February 2004 that it was doing a review of the book and would soon make a decision on it.[8] In December 2006 the NPS responded to a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) which showed that no formal review had ever taken place.[9][10] PEER also claims that in 2003, this was the only book approved for addition to the Park bookstore; 22 books and other products were rejected.[11] Michael Shermer, the publisher of Skeptic magazine, initially reported the claims of PEER, then, however, he started to investigate all the claims and came to the conclusion that PEER's claims were false. Answers in Genesis then reported this on their website.[12]
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.grandcanyonassociation.org/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=GCA&Product_Code=M20386&Category_Code=ALL
- ^ http://www.canyonministries.com/index_files/Bookinfo.htm
- ^ Seeing Creation and Evolution in Grand Canyon Jodi Wilgoren. The New York Times. October 6, 2005
- ^ http://home.austarnet.com.au/stear/bibliolatry_revisited_elders.htm
- ^ http://www.peer.org/docs/nps/sevenscientists.pdf
- ^ http://www.peer.org/docs/nps/04_13_10_shaver_ltr.pdf
- ^ http://www.agiweb.org/gap/evolution/AZ.html
- ^ http://www.peer.org/docs/nps/creationismtalkingpts.pdf
- ^ http://www.peer.org/docs/nps/06_28_12_foia_response.pdf
- ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/05/washington/05canyon.html
- ^ http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=801
- ^ http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2007/0123peering.asp
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- A Brief History of the Modern American Creation Movement by Jerry Bergman
- Answers in Genesis website November 2004 update on the GCDV controversy
- PEER summary of the GCDV controversy from October 2004
- November 2004 Time Magazine/CNN essay on GCDV by Leon Jaroff
