Dr Robert Carter

Biography

Dr Carter was converted to Christ at an early age, but did not know what to do with the theory of evolution. He always knew what he wanted to believe, but had no way to express what he was thinking and no evidence to support his views. In his freshman year of college, he was exposed to the information for creation for the first time and soon after adopted it as his modus operandi. He says he felt a tremendous joy when he realized his science and his religion were no longer at odds. This joy (and, he says, Creation magazine and the Journal of Creation) enabled him to get through the in-depth evolutionary training of his undergraduate and graduate programs with his faith intact.

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He obtained a BS in Applied Biology from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1992. He then spent four years teaching high school biology, chemistry, physics and electronics before going to the University of Miami to obtain his PhD in Marine Biology. He successfully completed this program in 2003 with a dissertation on “Cnidarian Fluorescent Proteins.” While in Miami, he studied the genetics of pigmentation in corals and other invertebrates, designed and built an aquaculture facility for Caribbean corals, performed well over 500 SCUBA dives, many of them at night, and licensed a spin-off product of his research (a patented fluorescent protein) to a biotech company.

He is currently a senior scientist and speaker for CMI-USA in Atlanta, Georgia, and is currently researching human genetics and other issues related to biblical creation.

Education

• 2003 University of Miami, Ph.D. Marine Biology
• 1992 Georgia Institute of Technology, B.S. Applied Biology

Professional Experience

• Between my undergraduate and graduate work, I spent four years teaching high school science at a large college-prep school in NW Georgia. In addition to my teaching load (including AP biology, chemistry, physics, and electronics), I spent the winter months coaching the swimming and diving teams and the summer months running the outdoor high adventure program.
• In 1996, I was awarded the three-year Maytag doctoral fellowship by the University of Miami. When that expired, I received a one-year fellowship from the Institute for Marine Science. While working on my PhD, I designed and performed many experiments in marine ecology and genetic engineering and helped to develop new protocols for the rapid cloning of fluorescent protein genes. The green and red fluorescent proteins my coworker and I cloned from hard and soft corals were used to create transgenic zebrafish. We patented one of these protein genes and licensed it to Promega, Inc. under the trade name ‘Monster Green’.
• From 2001–2004, I helped design and build an aquaculture facility for Caribbean corals at UM’s Experimental Fish Hatchery. During these years I also performed over 500 research dives on the shallow coral reefs of the Florida Keys and Bahamas. Many of these were done at night to study the mass coral spawning episodes that happen at specific times during the warm summers.
• I spent two years after obtaining my PhD working for an engineering company, mainly focused on impact mitigation for the Key West Harbor dredging project (since the channel runs right through the coral reef).
• Upon leaving Miami, I was hired by the Institute for Creation Research to help on their GENE project. While there, I wrote computer programs to analyze human genetic data and managed to get one publication on this work into the secular literature.
• In 2006, I was hired by Creation Ministries International as a scientist, speaker, and writer.
• Currently, I serve on Creation Research Society board of directors and am a member of Logos Research Associates.

Secular Publications and Patents

• Carter RW, Sanford, JC (2012) A new look at an old virus: mutation accumulation in the human H1N1 influenza virus since 1918. Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling 9:42 | doi:10.1186/1742-4682-9-42.
• Gibbs PDL, Carter RW, and Schmale MC (2008) Nucleic acid encoding fluorescent proteins from aquatic species. US Patent #7,413,874.
• Carter RW (2007) Mitochondrial diversity within modern human populations. Nucleic Acids Research 35(9):3039–3045.
• Gibbs PDL, Carter RW, and Schmale MC (2007) Fluorescent Proteins from Aquatic Species. US Patent #7,291,711.
• Carter RW, Schmale MS, and Gibbs PDL (2004) Cloning of anthozoan fluorescent protein genes. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, Part C 138:259–270.
• Carter RW (2003) Cnidarian Fluorescent Proteins. PhD Dissertation. University of Miami.
• Manica A, Carter RW (2000) Morphological and fluorescence analysis of the Montastraea annularis species complex in Florida. Marine Biology 137:899–906.

Creationist papers and articles

Bible

• The extreme rarity of long-lived people in the post-Flood era
• Egyptian mummies and Hebrew perfume
• Ethical treatment of animals
• The rapid decline in biblical lifespans
• How long were the Israelites in Egypt? Using their own family tree to resolve a debate
• A response to a long Sojourn advocate
• The Israelites: Forging of a nation
• Bad arguments for the Masoretic text
• Were the Egyptian pyramids built before the Flood?
• The inspiration of Scripture comes in various forms
• Is the Shroud of Turin authentic?
• Iron sharpening iron: the MT-LXX debate as a case study of Christian disagreement
• The Masoretic text of Genesis 5 and 11 is still the most reliable
• Is the Septuagint a superior text for the Genesis genealogies?
• Mary: the biblical woman behind the cultural legend
• Where was Eden? Part 1—examining pre-Flood geographical details in the biblical record
• Where was Eden? Part 2—geological considerations—examining pre-Flood geographical details in the biblical record
• Where was Eden?
• The genetic history of the Israelite nation
• Extensive mixing among Israelites and non-Israelites in biblical history
• Reply to James Denning on Extensive mixing among Israelites and non-Israelites
• Textual traditions and biblical chronology
• The biblical minimum and maximum age of the earth
• Reply to David Austin on The biblical minimum and maximum age of the earth
• How old was Cain when he killed Abel?

Genetic entropy

• Humans and chimpanzees are NOT 99% identical
• DNA from the last woolly mammoths: Surprising results support the Flood account
•  Is your cheese on the verge of extinction?
• Is Covid-19 evolving? No, but it is changing rapidly
• Robert Carter gets everything wrong? Responding to even more ridiculous aspersions
• Genetic Entropy and the Gospel: Biological clocks say the earth is young!
• Responding to supposed refutations of genetic entropy from the ‘experts’ (with Paul Price and comments by Dr John Sanford)
• A successful decade for Mendel’s Accountant
• Jacob’s livestock
• What would count as ‘new information’ in genetics?
• Fitness and ‘reductive evolution’
• Mutations, and why you shouldn‘t marry your cousin
• More evidence for the reality of genetic entropy
• Reply to Earl Rodd on on More evidence for the reality of genetic entropy
• Mutation accumulation rates are consistent with biblical creation
• Genetic entropy and simple organisms
• Genetic entropy and human lifespans

Human genetic history

• Why I am not bothered by human-chimp similarity
• When did Eve live?
• Tracing the sceptre—opposing views on the genealogies of Jesus
• Reassessing human–chimpanzee genetic similarity
• Can we place the sons of Noah on the Y chromosome tree?
• Genealogical vs phylogenetic mutation rates (9^th International Conference on Creationism, 2023)
• A family tree for all humanity?
• African origins and the rise of carnivory
• Patriarchal drive in the early post-Flood population
• Effective population sizes and loss of diversity during the Flood bottleneck
• Blue eyes mutation
• The genetic effects of the population bottleneck associated with the Genesis Flood
• Adam and Eve, designed diversity, and allele frequencies (8^th International Conference on Creationism, 2018)
• An overview of the independent histories of the human Y chromosome and the human mitochondrial chromosome (8^th International Conference on Creationism, 2018)
• Skin colour surprises
• Genetics questions answered
• Modelling biblical human population growth
• In light of genetics … Adam, Eve, and the creation/fall (Christian Apologetics Journal 12:51–98, 2014)
• Inbreeding and the origin of races
• Are women genetically superior to men?
• Is ‘mitochondrial Eve’ consistent with the biblical Eve?
• Could Adam and Eve have given rise to all the ‘races’?
• The Non-Mythical Adam and Eve! Refuting errors by Francis Collins and BioLogos
• Y-chromosome Adam and Cambrian explosion
• The chimpanzee Y chromosome is radically different from human
• A gentle answer; and the latest on “mitochondrial Eve”
• The Neutral Model of evolution and recent African origins
• The ‘Eve’ Mitochondrial Consensus Sequence (6^th International Conference on Creationism, 2008)

Genetic design and information

• Human reproduction is much more complicated than we thought
• The spaghettification of irreducible complexity: The complexity of life defies naturalistic origins
• Hierarchical clustering complicates baraminological analysis by Cserhati, M., and Robert Carter
• Hierarchical clustering complicates
• The barrier has been breached!
• Species were designed to change, part 3
• Species were designed to change, part 2
• Species were designed to change, part 1
• The human genome is amazingly complex: Massive new GTEx study counters Darwinism
• Genetic Diversity on Noah’s Ark
• More evidence for the reality of genetic entropy—update
• Natural Selection in Paradise
• Coronaviruses in creation
• Hachimoji DNA argues against evolution, despite recent claims
• Weird synthetic proteins are no help to evolution. Changing the genetic code points to design
• New sugar transport gene evolved in yeast?
• Barcodes, unclean animals, and skeletal mutations
• Can biologically active sequences come from random DNA?
• The four dimensional human genome defies naturalistic explanations
• Can mutations create new information?
• CMI scientific blunder?
• Splicing and dicing the human genome: Scientists begin to unravel the splicing code
• The slow, painful death of junk DNA

Cloning and genetic engineering

• The dark proteome
• Monkeying around with human embryos?
• Harnessing God’s design to help prevent sickness, but will the new vaccine technology alter our DNA?
• Unnatural selection: CRISPR on Netflix
• Gene editing babies? A dangerous, pointless experiment
• Human/animal hybrids?
• Human Cloning?
• Mammoth clones coming to a zoo near you

Neandertals

• The sophisticated Neandertal
• Are Neandertals pre-Flood people?
• Neandertal genome like ours (There may be Neandertals at your next family reunion!)
• The Painted Neandertal: Ancient cosmetics are upsetting evolutionary stories
• The Neandertal mitochondrial genome does not support evolution
• Taking a crack at the Neandertal mitochondrial genome

Archaeology

• Who were the Philistines?
• Egypt and the short Sojourn—Part 1: A biblical analysis
• Egypt and the short Sojourn—Part 2: Historical support
• Where did the Israelites cross the “Red Sea”?
• Göbekli Tepe shows evidence of geometric planning with Phil Robinson
• An Ancient textile factory?
• How does Göbekli Tepe fit with biblical history?

Corals and marine biology

• Newest Oldest Living Thing?
• Paleozoic Corals and Lunar Recession
• Coral: The animal that acts like a plant, but is an active predator, and makes its own rocks for a house
• ‘Ancient’ coral growth layers
• Reply to Daniel Jackson on ‘Ancient’ coral growth layers: yearly or monthly?

Dinosaurs

• Dinosaurs are almost certainly extinct
• Dinosaur-faced chickens?
• Did dinosaurs evolve into birds?

Apologetics, how to think

• Answering yet more objections from the village atheist
• Historical Science, Chaos Theory, and the sliding scale of trust with Paul Price
• Do animals have spirits? with Lita Sanders
• Answering question about 5G and COVID-19
• An open letter to Rhett McLaughlin: and anyone else on the road to unbelief
• Dystopian science: Part 1: Why the Bible enables science to work
• Dystopian science: Part 2: Conspiracy theories require a magical world
• Dystopian science: Part 3: Rebuilding science from the ground up
• We are less than dust
• How to think (not what to think)
• Why CMI rejects ‘conspiracy’ theory
• Emulating the mind of Christ in an age of misinformation
• Slaying yesterday’s dragons
• Five concise responses to atheistic arguments
• Time: The Great Enabler
• CMI ministers in the Caribbean
• Which of the physical sciences does CMI believe in?

Refuting fallacious thinking and bad science

• How did the earth dry out after the Flood?
• Answering coronavirus and flat earth questions
• Why the Universe does not revolve around the Earth: Refuting absolute geocentrism
• Refuting geocentrism response
• Refuting flat earth nonsense
• A direct test of the flat earth model: flight times
• Total eclipse of the brain
• Silicon based bugs: Scientists discover the first silicon-based life forms … in their imagination!

Design features

• Naturally caffeine-free tea
• Tides
• The majestic gorilla with Lita Sanders
• The weird and wonderfully-designed sawfish
• Platypus thumbs its nose (or bill) at evolutionary scientists

Darwin and Darwinism

• Natural selection in the real world is mostly ineffective
• A long-overdue review of Hunter’s A Civic Biology
• Scopes at 100
• Yale university professor renounces Darwinism!
• Do these skulls prove common ancestry between apes and humans?
• Darwin’s Lamarckism vindicated?
• Darwin’s dying legacy
• NCSE Gives ‘Favorable’ Review of The Voyage the Shook the World
• Genetics and geographical distribution

Radiocarbon dating

• How carbon dating works
• ¹⁴C dating—who is fooling whom?
• Calibrating carbon dating

Interviews (both by and of Dr Carter)

• Challenging evolution with science (Interview of microbiologist Dr Kevin Anderson)
• NASA scientist comes face to face with his Creator (Interview of rocket scientist Dr Henry Richter)
• From Atheism to Christ (Interview of molecular biologist Dr Yingguang Liu)
• Geneticist praises the Creator (Interview of ICR scientistDr Jeffrey Tomkins)
• Aerospace Engineer professes creation (Interview of Dr Dewey Hodges)
• Corals, genes and creation (Interview of Dr Carter)
• Evolutions’ Achilles’ Heels: A unique new book and DVD expose evolution’s fatal flaws (Interview of Dr Carter and Gary Bates)

Book reviews

•  The promises and pitfalls of correlating Y chromosome genetics to human history (review of Traced: Human DNA’s big surprise by Nathaniel T. Jeanson
• A long-overdue review of Hunter’s A Civic Biology (review of A Civic Biology by George William Hunter
• Far-fetched speculations fail to replace the straight-forward understanding of Adam and Eve (review of The Genealogical Adam and Eve: The surprising science of universal ancestry, by S. Joshua Swamidass
• Reading evolution into the scriptures (review of Adam and the Genome: Reading scripture after genetic science, by Dennis R. Venema and Scot McKnight
• Finally setting the record straight—Christian views on the historicity of Adam through the ages (review of The Quest for the Historical Adam: Genesis, Hermeneutics, and Human Origins by William VanDoodewaard)
• A troubling thesis—Nicholas Wade pushes an old view of the origin of races (review of A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History, by Nicholas Wade)

Film credits

• The Great Dothan Creation Evolution Debate (2008)
• Darwin: The Voyage that Shook the World (2009)
• Dinosaurs or Dragons (2010)
• Evolution's Achilles Heels (2014)
• DNA Battles (2018)
• Alien Intrusion (2018)
• The Genesis Academy (2019)
• Dismantled (2020)
• Patterns of Evidence: The Red Sea Miracle II (2020)