Re: Mr. or Dr. Patton or Patten??

Ed Brayton (cynic@net-link.net)
Thu, 07 May 1998 01:36:05 -0400

Joel and Dawn Duff wrote:
>
> There was a recent discussion of Donald Patton's claims about the
> destruction of footprints at Paluxy. At the time I had actually been
> researching some of his articles on the Biblical ice age. In searchng the
> web I found a paper of his
> which was a debate on the site of Noah's Ark. At the end of this paper is a
> short biography I presume written by Patton himself
> (http://www.eskimo.com/~dwpatten/DEBATE.html). It reads as follows:
>
> Donald W. Patten was born in Conrad, Montana, and
> has a B.A. degree in geography from the Univ. of
> Washington (l952) and aM.A. degree from the same
> institution (1962). He is the author of The Biblical
> Flood and the Ice Epoch 1966), The Long Day of
> Joshua (1973), and Catastrophism and the Old
> Testament (1988). With Windsor, he is the co-author
> of The Recent Organization of the Solar System (1995)
> and The Last of the Mars-Earth Wars (1997). Projected
> for 1998 is their The Flood of Noah. In addition, Windsor
> and Patten have written over ten published essays on Earth
> history.
>
> I don't see that he has a Ph.D. nor does it even indicate what field his
> M.A. is in. But on his site about the Paluxy and other tracks
> (http://www.bible.ca/tracks.htm) he is listed as:
>
> Geologist, Dr. Don Patton, Ph. D.
>
> Ask the Creation Scientist Ask Geologist, Dr. Don Patton,
> Ph. D. Your science question. He is a
> young earth creation scientist!
>
> Now, I realize he is not directly responsible for all the content on this
> page although I got the impression he wrote some of the descriptions for the
> photographs. I haven't been able to find if Patten has a Ph.D. or not. I
> sent an e-mail to the creation scientist pointing out this seeming
> contradiciton but I haven't heard anything yet. Maybe some one out there
> knows more about Patton's background. Actually I am even confused as to the
> spelling of his name since it is consistently spelled Patten in the Noah
> article even in the biography and web address so either he misspelled his
> own name or someone else wrote this for him!!
>

There are two creationists with similar names. Don Patten and Don Patton
are, I believe, two different people. The Don Patton who is accusing
Glen Kuban of destroying one of the Paluxy tracks does not have a
legitimate PhD, so far as I know, but he continues to claim one. I am
awaiting his response to a message I sent him on his absolutely
slanderous charges against Glen Kuban, but he will be out of town until
the 11th (or so he told me in an initial response). I don't know much
about Don Patten, but Don Patton nauseates me. He appears to me as
little more than a snake oil salesman.

As for the page you posted referencing a Noah's Ark debate with Don
Patten, I notice he is endorsing the Durupinar site that is claimed to
be Noah's Ark by Ron Wyatt. I urge you to look into some of Wyatt's
claims, including this one. Wyatt is either a con man or certifiably
insane.

Ed