As with any -ists, I suppose there are varying levels of creationists. Some even believe in evolution; they just think that life, the universe and everything began with a supernatural god, and not the Big Bang. But then there are young earth creationists like Ken Ham, the CEO/President and founder of Answers in Genesis who is best known for his Creation Museum.
Ken Ham scares me. Anyone who believes (or claims to believe) Ken Ham's version of "creation" scares me. What scares me the most is to see young children being indoctrinated into these beliefs and taught not to ask questions or think for themselves.
Take a look at this disturbing video featuring Ken Ham and other creationists "teaching" children:
There are many things I could say about this. I could talk about the disgust I feel when I see kids being told not to think for themselves or look at anything from another person's point of view. ("God said it, I believe it, That settles it!") I could talk about how these creationists misrepresent the theory of evolution, either intentionally or because they don't understand it themselves.
I could even write a lengthy essay about the disturbing idea that some people think we should believe in creationism because it's easier to understand and explain to children than taking the time to learn about evolution. (Ooooo... scary science has big words and concepts that require actual thought!)
But, honestly, I'm too shaken by this video to launch a point-by-point explanation of evolution, enumerate the benefits of critical thinking or explain why I think scientific education should be viewed as a thrilling, yet attainable goal (like learning to ride a bike), instead of as a daunting challenge with a questionable success rate (like climbing Mt. Everest).
Instead, I'm going to cap my own outrage and offer the floor to an angry man who makes me laugh. If the previous creationist video left you feeling sickened, give Lewis Black a chance to raise your spirits with his response to Ken Ham and others like him:
And if that isn't enough to shake off the sadness, here's a longer Lewis Black clip where he explains, as a Jew, how Christian creationists get "his" book of the Bible wrong:
Thank you, Lewis.
Before I became an agnostic and still bought the 'christianity thing', I interpreted the story of creation as a poetic version of the rise of mankind that wasn't meant to be literal.
ReplyDeleteBack in the early 80s, I found a book called "Not the Bible" written by Tony Hendra of National Lampoon fame.
My favorite chapter in it was "The book of creation". I found a copy some kind soul scanned in on the Internet (http://notthebible.8m.com/b2.htm).
Here's a snippet:
The Book Of Creation
CHAPTER 1
The origin of Species
IN the beginning God created Dates.
2 And the date was Monday, July 4, 4004 B.C.
3 And God said, Let there be light; and there was light. And when there was light, God saw the Date, that it was Monday, and he got down to work; for verily, he had a Big Job to do.
4 And God made pottery shards and Silurian mollusks and pre-Cambrian limestone strata; and flints and Jurassic Mastodon tusks and Picanthropus erectus skulls and Cretaceous placentals made he; and those cave paintings at Lasceaux. And that was that, for the first Work Day.
5 And God saw that he had made many wonderous things, but that he had not wherein to put it all. And God said, Let the heavens be divided from the earth; but not too deep.
6 And God buried all the Things which he had made, and that was that.
7 And the morning and the evening and the overtime were Tuesday.
8 And God said, Let there be water; and let the dry land appear; and that was that.
9 And God called the dry land Real Estate; and the water called he the sea. And in the land and beneath it put he crude oil, grades one through six; and natural gas put he thereunder, and prehistoric carboniferous forests yielding anthracite and other ligneous matter; and all these called he Resources; and he made them Abundant.
10 And likewise all that was in the Sea, even unto two hundred miles from the dry land, called he resources; all that was therein, like manganese nodules, for instance.
11 And the morning unto the evening had been a long day; which he called Wednesday.
12 And God said, Let the earth bring forth abundantly every moving creature I can think of, with or without backbones, with or without wings or feet, or fins or claws, vestigial limbs and all, right now; and let each one be of seperate species. For lo, I can make whatsoever I like, whensoever I like.
13 And the earth brought forth abundantly all creatures, great and small, with and without backbones, with and without wings and feet and fins and claws, vestigial limbs and all, from bugs to brontosauruses.
14 But God blessed them all, saying, Be fruitful and multiply and Evolve Not.
15 And God looked upon the species he had made, and saw that the earth was exceedingly crowded, and he said unto them, Let each species compete for what it needeth; for Healthy Competition is My Law. And the species competeth amongst themselves, the cattle and the creeping things, the dogs and the dinosaurs; and some madeth it and some didn't; and the dogs ate the dinosaurs and God was pleased.
16 And God took the bones from the dinosaurs, and cased them to appear mighty old; and cast he them about the land and the sea. And he took every tiny creature that had not madeth it, and caused them to become fossils; and cast he them about likewise.
17 And just to put matters beyond the valley of the shadow of a doubt God created carbon dating. And this is the origin of species.
18 And in the Evening of the day which was Thursday, God saw that he had put in another good day's work.
19 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, which is tall and well-formed and pale of hue: and let us also make monkeys, which resembleth us not in any wise, but are short and ill-formed and hairy. And God added, Let man have dominion over the monkeys and the fowl of the air and every species, endangered or otherwise.
20 So God created Man in His own image; tall and well-formed and pale of hue created He him, and nothing at all like the monkeys.
@Eyegor: "and the dogs ate the dinosaurs and God was pleased." LOL! Thanks for sharing! :-)
ReplyDelete"the disgust I feel when I see kids being told not to think for themselves or look at anything from another person's point of view."
ReplyDeleteWhy is it that YOUR point of view is the only one that doesn't disgust you? Looks to me that if someone doesn't think the way you do, they're wrong, now how is that freethinking?
@Anonymous: I never said anyone has to agree with me. I said people should think for themselves.
ReplyDeleteI have read the arguments for creationism, as they are actually presented by creationists. (Through books and literature written by creationists.) I have studied evolution as it is presented by scientists who support evolution. I have weighed the evidence provided by each and made my own determination about which is true. That is free thinking.
The kids in this video are being given a misrepresentation of evolution, filtered through creationists. The same creationists are then telling them not to ask questions or learn more about evolution from the scientists who actually understand and support it.
Creationists like Ken Ham malign evolution and tell kids (and adults) not to weigh the facts for themselves. That is what disgusts me.
Now you say, like Ken ham, there may be people out there that do as you say, not weighing the facts. I personaly have heard form Ken's own lips to do exactly that. In fact he and other speakers from AiG encourage students to learn all they can about evolution from secular sources that they may better defend their point of view.
ReplyDeleteAnd, as this video shows, Ken Ham gives presentations which malign evolution (e.g. pictures of the ape-like grandparents) and tell kids to follow "God" without question. "God said it, I believe it, that settles it."
ReplyDeleteIf, as you say, Ken Ham has also encouraged people to learn about evolution from secular sources "that they may better defend their point of view". Is that actually encouraging people to be open minded?
Anyone who says dinosaurs did not exist are wrong....it's as simple as that.
ReplyDeleteSusan, you were not inappropriate or offending in any way with this blog post. People who cannot defend themselves with fact have no other alternative but to accuse others, who have facts to defend what they say, of being judgemental or unaccepting of others views. I read somewhere and thought it was perfect, just because a view is an opposing view doesn't mean it deserves equal weight or consideration. There is something MAJOR to be said for having a viewpoint that is supported by logic and scientifically proven facts.
@An Atheist: Thanks! :-D
ReplyDelete"Is that actually encouraging people to be open minded?"
ReplyDeleteWould you encourage some to look at creatiomism with absolutely no prejudice?
"Would you encourage some to look at creatiomism with absolutely no prejudice?"
ReplyDeleteYes, I would encourage people to look at creationism with the same open-minded skepticism that they look at anything else (scientific theories included). Whatever the subject, I recommend listening with an open mind, and then using logic, experimentation and measurable observations to weigh the presented evidence.
That's nice and all but it doesn't happen. Most people will never look at creationism with no bias because if you find creationism to be true, then you have come face to face with a God who has created everything, including you. That leads you to the the hard truth that you are not your own, that you belong to this God who rules the universe, and we as humans do not like that. We rule our own universe, no one likes to be accountable or under submission, it's the way we are. So to say you're looking at it with an open mind and actually doing it are two different things.
ReplyDeleteMany people do have some bias when they approach creationism, given the fact that it is based on a religious text, (faith, not fact) but they can still have an open mind when weighing the proposed evidence for a "young earth" using scientific methods.
ReplyDeleteThe assumptions you present about the way "most people" think do not agree with my own experience or observations. You are assuming motives that may or may not be true, which leaves you with a faulty premise.
In my opinion, the problem with creationism is that its supporters want it to be accepted as both religious faith and scientific fact. People are free to believe in whatever religion they want. Facts are a different story.
I am reminded of something that I wrote in a recent article about scientific imagination. To paraphrase the physicist Richard Feynman: "It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, or how smart you are; if your theory disagrees with experiment, it is wrong."
That is how scientists define having an open mind.
I totally agree with Richard's statement, so why is it when scientists come across evidences of evolution it makes it into every journal, news broadcast, and blog you can find, but when something points towards a young earth it's swept under a rug or they say something like "looks like we need to find a way to explain his differently because it doesn't fit with what we know to be "fact"". My point is what we know to be "fact" today is not what it was 100 years ago, and I'd be willing to bet that 50 years from now it will change all the more. So what happens when we find faults with the current dating methods that has given us the "facts"? Do we then start with a clean slate? NO we try to find others that support the billions of years because we're so confident and dare I say prideful in a science that says there is no God, we are in control here.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I hope that I have not come as disrespectful or rude. I'm quite enjoying the dialog.
ReplyDelete"I hope that I have not come off as disrespectful or rude." -- Ditto. :-)
ReplyDeleteAt this point, our discussion is slipping from one of having an open mind to one of debating the merits of young earth evidence. It seems to me that you are quite keen on your ideas for the motives of scientists or "evolutionists." Those ideas being that scientists are afraid of discovering a god because they don't want to give up their personal control of the world around them.
I do not feel that way. I don't know anyone (theist or atheist) who feels that way. By making assumptions about other people's motives, your arguments are based on false premises. To have an open mind, you cannot begin by deciding that you already know the motives of the other side.
Though I have enjoyed our dialog, I suspect that we are nearing an impasse. I'm glad to know that you've heard Ken Ham encourage people to learn about evolution from scientists who support it. That is not something I've ever heard before.
However, I would be much happier if Ken Ham and other creationists simply stopped maligning evolution during their presentations.
I think of myself as a scientifically oriented rational person, and solidly committed to evolutionist views. I had the privilege of spending an hour beside a mountain gorilla family in Africa, in the wild (Rwanda) a few years ago. They are so much like us ... I (almost) cried.
ReplyDeleteI would invite any of the creationists who are not convinced by the evidence that we and primates evolved from a common ancestor to go and see them as I did.
Robert, that sounds like an amazing experience! A bit scary... but amazing. :-)
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