A Guide to Creationist Tactics

I'm not sure I would call those tactics "Bait and Switch" but I understand where you are coming from.Another common one that I've seen with regards to Carbon dating is using dates from contaminated samples to try to show that the entire process is flawed.For example, trying to carbon date a recently dead seal and getting an age of several thousand years. They never mention that the oceans are a vast holding tank for carbon and anything that lives in, or lives off of creatures in the ocean will be dated much older then they actually are.

This is by no means limited to creationists but something to always be on the lookout for in a debate.Whenever someone makes an assertion or states a fact, make sure they can back it up. Even if it is something as simple as "Well, this is just what I believe." it is something to work with.Without knowing where the information came from, you can't contextualize it an assign it a 'validity' score.

I completely agree with you. The problem lies with the partially educated that 'know' that creationism isn't true and have jumped on the evo bandwagon without understanding it completely. (I know evoultion isn't a bandwagon, but to these people it is.)Reading the popular press or watching the general consumtion science shows it is very easy to get the impression that we do have a complete fossil record of all that has happened in the past.That was all I was trying to get across.