Roger Cooper was a Paleontologist with the New Zealand Geographic Survey. In NZ, Roger was known for his work on Early Paleozoic fossils and geological history while he was known internationally for using new quantitative approaches to refine the international geological time scale for the Ordovician and Silurian periods Roger died in 2020.
1 November 1988
The Creationists' tactics in getting their ideas accepted are not to promote their own (the biblical) version of creation but to attack the "orthodox" scientific view. A constant barrage of criticism of evolutionary theory and of geological theories on age and origin of the earth (and universe) is levelled with the aim of discrediting the theory or theories. Then, with a nimble leap sideways, it is concluded that "The Alternative" explanation is just as likely to be true, "the alternative" being of course the Genesis account. This ploy cleverly presents the biblical account as a viable alternative to an existing scientific theory thereby conferring upon the account the status of an "alternative scientific theory" and obscuring its real nature—that of a religious notion. This constant attack forces scientists into a defensive position—defending their theories by rebutting the creationist arguments.