The Definitive Guide to Debunking Creationists Part 1: Cosmology/Planetary Science

Are you tired of dealing with creationists? Do you wish you could refute the ridiculous things they say on the spot? This series is for you. I've been debunking creationists of all varieties for ages, and I've compiled this guide going over all the things they say, and how to refute them. In this part 1 we focus on creationist talking points regarding cosmology and planetary science.

Check out "Is This Wi-Fi Organic?", my book on disarming pseudoscience!

[ProfessorDaveExplains]

Quick correction at 21:47, uranium-235 actually decays into lead-207 and uranium-238 decays into lead-206, not the other way around. My bad!

[jons]

All your arguments are invalid as you didn't write them on the chalk board!

[wesleynass]

As someone who was homeschooled all the way through high-school as a young earth creationist, I’ve always felt a bit overwhelmed at the prospect of even where to begin with gaining the knowledge that was kept from me. I really appreciate these videos for their breadth and succinct nature—they’re informative and give me a lot of jumping off points if I want to go deeper into something.

Thanks Professor Dave!

[AlbertaGeek]

All creationist arguments boil down to: *[argument from incredulity]* therefore *[god of the gaps]*

[awdimmick]

As someone who is deeply religious - I appreciate your call out in the beginning of the video that this is not a debate on whether or not a deity exists.

Something I feel too many religious persons do is try to justify the existence of God using empirical means, when that’s just not possible, and in my opinion, just not meant to be. Religion exists to answer fundamental questions of the soul - our purpose, our destiny, etc. I’ve always tried to keep religion out of the realm of science, as that’s not what it’s there to explain. Conversely, the “evidence” of God is intended to be personal and private - something that connects with the soul. I don’t believe we will ever look to the stars and see empirical evidence of a God, as it’s meant to be a personal discovery.

As always, Dave, I appreciate your thoroughness and high quality content, even if we disagree on the existence of God.

[_Wrath_]

I'll never forget when our science teacher walked in the classroom for Bible 8th, while our teacher was gone. He asked us what we were learning and after some students answered he said, "Okay but how does conservation of angular momentum contradict the Big Bang? I feel like everything I teach you, you unlearn it in this room."

[Nxck]

This might be a good place to shout out some other YouTube channels that do deep dives on these various types of creationism and all produce top tier content:
- Gutsick Gibbon (Erika) - knows paleoanthropology (human evolution), debunks young earth creationism extensively
- Aron Ra - knows paleontology and evolutionary biology, argues against various flavours of theists in biology
- Creation Myths (Dr Dan) - knows genetics, disproves very specific claims of creationists mathematically
- Forrest Valkai - knows a lot about biology, great for education of science newbs and ex-YECs
- Dapper Dinosaur - knows a lot, debunks all kinds of pseudoscience, kinda like Prof Dave but more livestreams
- Based Theory (Grayson) - knows abiogenesis, debates many topics in molecular biology and geology
- Age of Rocks - very small channel, has great explainers on radiometric dating and how it works
- King Crockoduck - knows a lot, had a famous debate with Kent Hovind on age of the universe

[DrBear-rkqb]

I can tell this will be one of my favorite PDE series! Along with the Astronomy/Astrophysics, The History of Drugs, and Microbiology/Infectious Diseases series. 😊 Thanks for making awesome content for us, Dave!

[tamarinds]

I was hoping for the word "kablooey" and am not disappointed 6:54

[thephantomeagle]

Your arguments are invalid. You didn’t have horrible “music” playing with the volume getting louder when the most important parts are pointed out.

[yackohoopy]

@Professor Dave Explains, one of the biggest problems that I have with the creation story is that the earth was created on the first day, plants on the third day, and then the sun on the 4th day. This leads me to question how we’re the plants photosynthesizing and what was the earth orbiting around prior to the sun being created in the 4th day?

[AncientArchitects]

I’m so surprised creationists exist in 2024. Bizarre.

[YetiUprising]

This is gonna be one of the best series Dave has.

[AntisCZ]

I love the structure you're using. Starting by separating creationists by their beliefs, and then going chronologically and keeping track of which claims are typically made by which bunch of creationists, that's brilliant in its intuitiveness. I cannot imagine, how much work it took you to plan this out. Much respect, Dave.

[markwilson]

Thank you, Dave, for choosing Ambulance siren! I'm a Paramedic and appreciate the recognition. One of my first memories inside an ambulance is finding it strange that there is no pitch change as the ambulance was never any closer nor further from the observer (me).

[SapphireScroll]

Dave really doing god of the gaps' work with these debunking series

[georgethebigg]

Thanks Dave

I was a confused creationist until i stumbled on Ra's channel in immediately I also found you.

[pgbollwerk]

One good response to the fine tuning argument - if the universe is fine tuned for anything, it’s the creation of black holes.

[antonioiniguez]

I grew up in a YEC household, school and Church, and fell down the Kent Hovind rabbit hole my freshman and sophomore year of highschool. Eventually at some point I recognized the many logical fallacies in the YEC belief system and decided to reeducate myself. I'm still a strong believer in Christianity but I'm able to reconcile my faith with modern science. Videos like these and other science YouTubers helped me with getting out of the YEC bubble.

[GuoJing]

For anyone looking for more debunkers, I've recently been binge watching Forrest Valkai's videos and been learning loads.

His series explaining evolution as well is fantastic