Growing Earth hypothesis

Started by Lord Zentei, April 30, 2009, 07:08:00 AM

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I suggested this to Shane on YouTube, and he told me to post it here, so here we go:

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I don't know whether you have heard of this before; but IMHO this silly idea qualifies for consideration for a Bogosity episode. As user TrueNorth15 has exclaimed, it is even more bizarre than Young Earth Creationism.

Basically, the idea is that the continents are not moving around as per the theory of Continental Drift. Instead, the idea is the Earth is growing. As far as I have been able to gather, this idea was put first put forward decades ago, before plate tectonics gained broad acceptance due to evidence in its favor.

It has now been embraced by one Neil Adams, comic book artist (among other things for Green Lantern, apparently). He claims that plate tectonics is a grand conspiracy of science and that his"research" demonstrates their falsehoods. Basically, this "research" consists of a graphic of the Earth expanding and the continents fitting together.

The justifications he comes up with for where the mass comes from are even more bizarre. Gamma ray to electron-positron reactions supposedly find their way into the Earth and maintain some kind of plasma supported by the magnetic field, and then somehow transmute into regular matter. He talks about gravity being different in the past and that this supports his ideas. All in all, bombastic and vacuous nonsense with not a shred of math or empirical evidence to back it up, and contradicting known science. Comic book physics. Much of this is to be found in the comment sections of his videos.

Here are some links:
Neil Adams channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/nealadamsdotcom

His web page: http://www.nealadams.com/ (click on the "science" link to the upper left)

User yorrike, an actual scientist who's fighting the madness: http://www.youtube.com/user/yorrike

Alas, yorrike does not have many subscribers, so his message doesn't get around a lot. His website: http://www.yorrike.com As he says there, "Neal Adams is to geology what Kent Hovind and Ken Ham are to evolution. Completely irrelevant and a good belly laugh for anyone with a clue." Neil Adams even debated him there, the results were predictable: http://www.yorrike.com/archives/2007/07/08/expanding-earth-and-neal-adams/#comments

TrueNorth15's video where I originally heard about this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xkez6hECSjw

I would be less concerned if not for the fact that Neil's gaining a following here on YouTube due to his preexisting fame. Examples:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMlSm5fDEXQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHk_HUqtXQM&feature=related

I agree this definitely should be done. It's completely laughable

I saw a vid about it that i thought you should do but zentei already had a topic.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjgidAICoQI[/yt]


I third this.  I've thought of making my own instead of just bashing the guy's illogical comments.  Sadly, it seems Neal Adams is just in it for the money.  I highly doubt he actually believes his own stuff.  Ask any in-depth question, and he turns you to his website where you can buy the DVDs for $20.  I have no sympathy for his kind.

Is there really a big following for this growing Earth idea?  I've heard of it before, but to be honest I've heard more people pushing Time Cube than growing Earth.  So maybe Shane should limit himself to bigger insanities, not that I wouldn't love to see a video of him trying to read the Time Cube site.  ;D