Catastrophic? No. But it looks good.

Reviewing Vance Nelson’s Untold Secrets of Planet Earth: Catastrophic Caves by J. Tayler Smith

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A Perfect Book?

I am an avid book reader, and on average I finish about twenty-four books every year. I’m honestly not sure whether that is impressive, or ‘weak’, (perhaps both depending on the audience), but nevertheless, that is what I accomplish. A few years ago, I realised it was impossible to read everything that I may ever want to read, and that while there are many really good books in the world, there are probably a great number of poor ones that I ought to avoid wasting my time on. For that reason, I imported my entire list of books-to-read (which continues to grow) into a rating app that tells me what is worth reading (based on user reviews). Everytime I finish a book, I just move on to the next one at the top of my list, which is constantly shifting as each book is rated by more readers. One caveat to this method is that books with few reviewers sometimes suddenly find their way to the top of my list. This is why my most recent read Untold Secrets of Planet Earth: Catastrophic Caves suddenly reached the top of my two hundred book list. At the time of this writing, Catastrophic Caves maintains a perfect rating that consists of two reviewers who both thought the book was five out of five stars. Wanting to stick to my system, and knowing this would be a short read, I dove into the book to add my own opinion and to expand the list of reviews to three. What I found was a book with potential, but that misses the mark of its intention.

A Quick Summary of Quickly Formed Caves

Catastrophic Caves attempts to prove the young-earth creationism theory, that the earth is about six thousand years old, by demonstrating that caves and cavern formations form in decades rather than millions of years. In the preface, author Vance Nelson explicitly states,

It is my hope that after you have examined the evidence in this book, which I have painstakingly gathered from around the planet, you will consider cave formations in a new light. Perhaps you will re-think the long-age story. I once accepted the old-Earth view without hesitation. Now, after years of investigation, I can no longer accept it as a fact (Nelson, 2020, p. 7).

The entirety of the book is then dedicated to providing examples from around the world of cave and cavern formations, such as stalactites and stalagmites, that took less than millions of years to form. These examples include both natural and manmade caverns, as well as human built structures on which these geological structures grow. Nelson concludes by saying that the evidence gathered in his book demonstrates that cave and cavern formations form relatively quickly, and that this aligns with a Biblical view of history.

Catastrophic Caves APPRAISED

In evaluating books for my own personal means, I developed a process to help me assess books beyond the idea of, “Did I like it?” My process is subjective, but I made it in a way that helps me find both books that I would enjoy reading, and ones that I probably should read whether or not I would enjoy them. I came up with my APPRAISED system, which forces me to consider nine points that I think are important in the materials that I consume.

• Accuracy: Does it promote truth? Does it deceive or mislead? Does it accurately reflect reality or experience?

• Praiseworthiness: Is it worth telling others about? Does it make the content creator worth examining?

• Proficiency: Is it an achievement? Was careful thought and effort poured into it?

• Reverence: Does it honour the source material or inspiration? Does it respect people, faith, or nature?

• Artistry: Is it artistically pleasing? Is it appreciable? Does it elicit awe?

• Integrity: Does it encourage just and virtuous actions? Does it depict injustice as wrong?

• Superbness: Is it impressive? Is the end-result near perfect?

• Enjoyability: Did I find personal enjoyment in it? Was it fun?

• Decency: Does it encourage illicit behaviour, thoughts, or motivations? Does it support living well?

The questions listed beside each part of APPRAISED help me determine whether or not a book contains that particular quality. However, I acknowledge this entire system is subjective to my personal biases and considerations. As I go through each point, other readers may disagree with me, and that is entirely okay.

Accuracy

Catastrophic Caves is accurate and promotes truth to the degree that a person is willing to accept Nelson’s position as true. Concerning Nelson’s main point, that the fast growth of these cave formations proves that a six thousand-year-old interpretation of world history is true, in the end is only an assumption he makes from his evidence. However, if one narrows Nelson’s main purpose down to demonstrating that cave formations take less than millions of years to form, it is fair to say he has done a good job of proving this point; for instance, page 177 contains a photo of natural stalactites that are regrowing after having been broken off about a hundred years ago - this is good evidence (Nelson, 2020). So, in asking whether or not Catastrophic Caves is accurate, I think it is fair to say that it promotes truth; maybe not in Nelson’s held belief that the earth is 6,000 years old, but certainly in the sense that he seems to prove that cave formations are younger than what many may believe.

Praiseworthiness

Praiseworthiness deals with the degree to which this book is worth telling others about, and whether it motivates one to consume more of the author’s other content. Personally, I do not find that Catastrophic Caves is something I would recommend to others for a couple reasons. First, I think Nelson ‘jumps the gun’ in his conclusion. His evidence points to the idea that cave formations do not take millions of years to form, but there is nothing in this argument that supports Nelson’s assertion that the earth is six thousand years old. Maybe the earth is this young, but Nelson’s evidence does not prove this premise. His argument is comparable to a child stating that all ice cream flavours taste good because chocolate ice cream tastes good - perhaps all ice creams do taste good, but this is not proved by liking one flavour. Second, Nelson heavily references his Christian faith and Christian assumptions throughout the text. In the preface, he states, “It is also my prayer that this research will help persuade you that Biblical history can be trusted” (Nelson, 2020, p. 7). I am not opposed to an author making their faith obvious, but I do take issue with a statement like this because it communicates:

• That a non-Christian reader is wrong before giving them good reasons to change their beliefs.

• That a Christian who accepts that the earth is millions of years old is wrong about an aspect of their faith.

Nelson seems to want to convince his readers that the young-earth creationism theory is correct, but his approach only attracts those who already agree with him. Others, non-Christians and those who believe that earth is old, will not continue reading this book. For these two reasons, I do not think this book is praiseworthy in the sense I laid out.

Proficiency

Catastrophic Caves is proficient; it is an achievement of well-travelled research and the result of careful thought and planning. This is evident by how Nelson personally travelled to many of the locations to ensure he had first hand experience and photographic evidence of many of the sites and objects. Nelson’s passion for this project shines through each page, and it is clear that he took care in producing this book. In sum, this book is not a cheap cash-grab.

Reverence

Catastrophic Caves is reverent in the way it addresses nature, God, and people. Even in Nelson’s treatment of scientists who contradict his perspective, Nelson implies that such scientists are better characterised as victims ‘towing the company line’ rather than perpetrators attempting to deceive the public. Now whether either characterisation is justifiable entirely depends on whether one accepts Nelson’s young-earth perspective, but I do not think he is trying to dishonour scientists. Additionally, Nelson gives high praise for the incredible ability of our planet to continually surprise us in unexpected and beautiful ways; and regarding faith, Nelson explicitly gives praise to the Christian God. All in all, Nelson is reverent throughout his arguments and presentation of evidence.

Artistry

Possibly the best attribute of this book is its artistry. The graphics, cover, photos, and layout are all done with a high degree of skill that is very aesthetically pleasing. However, artistry is more than design, it is a concept that can be seen in words as well. Catastrophic Caves falls a little short in this regard with words and phrasing that too often leave a lot to be desired. Sometimes Nelson dives into a technical topic and uses words and phrases that are not understandable to the audience he seems intent on reaching. For example, Nelson often uses the term ‘speleothems,’ to describe ‘cavern formations’; while ‘speleothems’ is the correct word, it is too technical and distracting from the rest of his writing. Similar uses of technical language are prevalent throughout the book which is otherwise understandable at a low reading level. Nevertheless, the design of the book itself far outshines the writing and makes it worthy of being considered artistic.

Integrity

Catastrophic Caves does promote the ideas of integrity and justice to the degree that a book on this particular topic is able to do so. Really, the only way Nelson touches on this topic is by emphasising a need for people to seek out rightness and to ensure that others are not deceived by what is commonly accepted as true without question. In this regard, Nelson supports integrity in this book by ensuring that truths are questioned and examined.

Superbness

In terms of superbness, the book is impressive but not impressive enough. What I mean is that the book looks far better than it actually is - if one were to judge this book by its cover, they would find its content fails to meet expectations. The main thing that keeps it from being superb is that it does not provide evidence for the main argument it asserts, that the earth is about six thousand years old, and that it is very repetitive in the type of evidence it puts forward. You can learn the point of the book, and its main argument, within the first few pages; there is little reason to read beyond the preface.

Enjoyability

On a similar note, I found the meat of Nelson’s book, the writing itself, to be quite average and very repetitive. I understand it is a book that focuses on explaining the evidence of caves and cavern formations that form in a relatively short amount of time, but there is little other substance aside from this premise. I suppose Nelson is mostly concerned about ensuring his evidence is heard and that he believes that more evidence is better than having only one or two examples explained in detail. However, I think quality over quantity of evidence would have made this a more enjoyable read. Perhaps more information about the history of subject matter, and even a larger section more fully explaining why some would disagree with Nelson’s view would have helped the book feel fuller. By only representing his own perspective, Nelson’s book becomes quite shallow very quickly. I would have much preferred to have heard what those who disagree with Nelson’s view also had to say about each piece of his evidence. I cannot say I outright dislike the book, but it did not give me much to think about or consider.

Decency

There is little to say on the topic of decency in evaluating this book. It contains nothing illicit or suggestive in any form - of course, I had no reason to suspect it would contain anything indecent given the topic.

Take On Science

In light of these considerations, I give this book a six out of nine possible points.

For me, this book is weakest in its overall enjoyability, and whether I think others would enjoy it. I think this book misses its target audience and it focuses too much on re-hashing the same argument and point over and over. However, I did award this book more good points than bad. It scores highly for the fact that it is trying really hard to be something serious that looks good and is good for people to read. I think it gets close to achieving its goal, but it just falls short. Personally, I would like to see Nelson produce something more scientific such as a peer-reviewed paper or a journal entry that captures his evidence. If Nelson were willing to address geologists and other scientists on their terms, I think he could potentially make a significant impact in the field. However, until then, I suspect the majority of Nelson’s work will consist of similar books and materials that look good but just scratch the surface of something greater.

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Reference

Nelson, Vance. 2020. Untold Secrets of Planet Earth: Catastrophic Caves. First ed. Red Deer,

Alberta: Untold Secrets of Planet Earth Publishing Company Inc.