Denying Darwin

Massive ignorance helps

The Tulsa Beacon is disinclined to join the celebrations in honor of the bicentennial of Darwin's birth (and the sesquicentennial of the publication of The Origin of Species). Instead, the Beacon chose to mark the occasion by publishing an editorial decrying the state university's involvement in Darwin Day festivities and the expected arrival of the Antichrist Richard Dawkins as a featured speaker.

The Beacon's editorial writer chose an interesting strategy with which to combat the enthusiasm of Oklahoma's intelligentsia for Darwin's legacy. How better to combat pointy-headed intellectualism than with slope-browed creationism and a display of densely concentrated ignorance and misinformation? By that token, the Beacon editorial is a brilliant success.

Evolution indoctrination at OU

February 5th, 2009

What is the difference between education and indoctrination?

The line between conveying information with an open mind and a mindset that parallels religion is being crossed this year at The University of Oklahoma with a 12-month celebration of the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin.

While devoting huge resources to a campaign to “prove” that evolution is not a theory, the scientific brain trust at OU will virtually ignore parallel theories of the origin of man—including Creation Science and Intelligent Design.

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If indeed the University of Oklahoma has set out to “prove” evolution, it must be the only educational institution in the world doing so. Scientists don't “prove” evolution. They seek out and compile the results of experiments and field work. Do the results strengthen the theoretical framework in which they operate or do they argue for changes? The framework (the “theory”) within which biology operates is evolution (and has been for more than a hundred years). The Beacon editorial writer is evidently of the “only a theory” school of thought—although “thought” is probably the wrong word. He doesn't know that theories are organizational principles for the organization of observed facts.

OU will trot out Oxford professor Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, to try to convince students and the public that there is no God and science has all the answers.

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We can be quite certain that Dawkins will give no aid or comfort to the god-botherers while he's in Tulsa, but we can be just as certain he will not argue that science has all the answers. No scientist argues that. None.

Of course, so far science has all the good answers; that is, the answers that do anyone any good. Answers derived from religion or faith are notoriously weak, unreliable, and disputed by the thousands of contending sects. Pity, that, but true.

Darwin became infamous 150 years ago when he wrote The Origin of Species. He speculated that all life evolved from lower forms and that men were derived from the apes.

His unproven theories were all that the humanist movement needed to attack the Bible and any belief system that hints at the existence of a supreme being.

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One more time: Darwin did not say that we descended from apes. He argued that humans and apes have a common ancestor. The ancestor certainly had many apelike characteristics, but it wasn't a gorilla or chimp or orangutan. Could we finally get this right, pretty please?

OU has a website devoted to this worship of Darwin and evolution. It’s clear from the content of that website that organizers believe that evolution is a fact and that if other theories are mentioned, they will be discounted or ridiculed.

Do things change? Certainly. But species don’t evolve into other species. Dogs don’t turn into cats. Monkeys don’t turn into men.

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The “worship of Darwin and evolution”? Excuse me while I take a moment to genuflect.

It's not worship, Mr. Editorial Writer. It's acceptance of a successful theory. “Other theories”? Sorry: there aren't any. It's simple: no results, no acceptance. Those who prate about intelligent design and irreducible complexity and curiously warped versions of information theory won't get any respect until they produce some results. That's the reason for the well-deserved ridicule. Sad, perhaps, but completely understandable.

In fact, even secular scientists are doubting the viability of evolution concerning the origin of life. The laws of thermodynamics and common sense tell us that things don’t get better—they deteriorate.

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In a word: No. Even the tiny, tiny handful of credentialed scientists who deny evolution know better than to use the laws of thermodynamics. They leave that to the hardcore creationists (some of whom probably also know better, but can't resist an argument that still stirs up the troops).

While we're at it, how about a nice list of those “secular scientists” who doubt evolution's viability? Unless you count a batch of goofy engineers, an addled semi-mathematician or two, and the occasional wacky physician, you don't have any, do you?

The biggest case against Darwin’s evolution is the fossil record. There are no viable transition fossils when there should be millions if you buy into his theory.

Where is the missing link? There isn’t one in the fossil record.

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The “missing link”? No “transition[al] fossils”? If we were playing creationist bingo, there's hardly any possible configuration of entries on a bingo card that wouldn't have scored a win by now. The writer has packed so many tired old creationist talking points into one editorial that it must be under tremendous pressure. Surely we must be close to the point of a massive explosion.

Evolution science is not really science but a religion. That is why it cannot stand honest scrutiny or tolerate other views. It takes more faith to believe that men came from monkeys or a primal soup struck by lightning than it does to believe that God created the Earth and mankind in seven days.

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Boom! Ka-pow!

Both are religious beliefs. Oklahoma students should be exposed to both theories (including Intelligent Design). Instead, the public school system in Oklahoma has bowed to the pressure of secular humanists and insisted that there is only one theory to explain the origin of man—evolution.

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Now we're back to worshiping Darwin some more.

Incidentally, the origin of life cannot be proven by the scientific method, which requires observation and testing. No one was around when life began and no scientist—no matter how many degrees he or she has—has been able to recreate life in the laboratory.

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“Were you there?” Ken Ham would be so proud!

Here’s the worst aspect of this story. State tax dollars are going to support the celebration of a mad scientist who infected the world with a new religion that teaches that God cannot exist.

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Damn those schools who use tax dollars to teach science when they could be teaching religion! The writer began by asking the difference between education and indoctrination. He is firmly on the side of indoctrination, isn't he?

OU has stacked the deck for humanism and against other religions. Creationism and Intelligent Design should get equal time in this huge “celebration” of Charles Darwin.

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That's right: humanism is a religion, too. And see how “equal time” just slipped in? Other creation myths need not apply, though. There's only two theories!

There is a God and that belief is held by the vast majority of Oklahoma taxpayers. Withholding that truth from our students does them a disservice and damages our society.

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This just in: Tulsa editorial writer proves the existence of God by simple declarative statement. Nice job! Let me try:

Evolution is a fact. Evolution is a very successful theory. Evolution has no credible competition. Get used to it.

I slipped into imperative mode at the end there, but the simple declarative sentence is fun to write. It's harder to prove the assertions that simple declarative sentences contain, but the content of my sentences derive from a vast intellectual enterprise known as science. The Beacon's editorial writer prefers faith, so in a debate over scientific matters, he loses. Sorry, guy, but science is evidence-based.

When we tell our college students that they are nothing more than animals, why do we act surprised when they act like animals?

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Who is acting surprised? Young people have always acted like animals. Of course, it's just possible that Mr. Editorial Writer was a virgin all the way through college and alcohol never touched his lips during the entire four (five? six?) years he was an undergrad. Unlikely, but at least possible. Unlike any of the arguments in his editorial.

Ham endorses Dawkins

The odd couple

Speaking colloquially, I have always regarded Richard Dawkins as on the side of the angels. That is, Dawkins is one of the good guys. He has no patience with the god-pushers and he smites creationists hip and thigh. Dawkins famously faced off with the now-disgraced Ted Haggard, the evangelical pastor who upbraided Dawkins for his “arrogance.” Even some secularists wish Dawkins would back off a bit and try to be more diplomatic as he explains to the faithful that their most cherished beliefs are mere stuff and nonsense. A tall order, certainly.

Now comes Ken Ham, however, with a stirring endorsement of one of Dawkins's key points. Ham is a well-known proponent of the all-or-nothing approach to the Bible. No compromises! Fundamentalists of the jot-and-tittle school of biblical exegesis insist on believing everything in the pages of scripture as literally as possible. In his lead editorial in Answers Update (Volume 13, Issue 11), Ham cites Dawkins while attacking fellow Christians for their willingness to compromise.

Dawkins vs. God!

One of the leading evolutionary spokespersons of our age is Dr. Richard Dawkins of Oxford University in England.

In his new book The God Delusion Dawkins clenches both fists and attempts to “take on” the God of the universe!

The publisher's blurb on the cover of the book states:

Dawkins attacks God in all his forms, from the sex-obsessed, cruel tyrant of the Old Testament to the more benign, but still illogical, Celestial Watchmaker favoured by some Enlightenment thinkers.

He eviscerates the major arguments for religion and demonstrates the ultimate improbability of a supreme being. He shows how religion fuels war, foments bigotry and abuses children.

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I will bring just one of Dawkins many points to your attention. Taken from chapter seven, the self-proclaimed atheist mocks the hypocrisy of compromising Christian theologians:

The legend of the animals going into the ark two by two is charming, but the moral of the story of Noah is appalling. God took a dim view of humans, so he (with the exception of one family) drowned the lot of them including children and also, for good measure, the rest of the (presumably blameless) animals as well.

Of course, irritated theologians will protest that we don't take the book of Genesis literally any more. But that is my whole point! We pick and choose which bits of scripture to believe, which bits to write off as symbols or allegories.

Such picking and choosing is a matter of personal decision, just as much, or as little, as the atheist's decision to follow this moral precept or that was [also] a personal decision, without an absolute foundation. If one of these is 'morality flying by the seat of its pants', so is the other [emphasis added].

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At least Dawkins is being consistent. He recognizes that his own “morality”—which is based on his atheism—is relative! And he points out correctly: if theologians “pick and choose which bits of scripture to believe,” then they too are actually saying that truth is relative … to be decided by humans!

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So Ken Ham and Richard Dawkins agree on a key point: Biblical faith is a seamless garment. It is made of whole cloth. If you unravel one corner, its entire fabric will fall apart into a tangle of loose thread. Of course, they disagree as to whether this outcome is desirable.

Ham's dismay, as you may have noticed, is limited to lamenting the fragility of the all-or-nothing belief structure. He says nothing—absolutely nothing—about Dawkins's point concerning the mass-murderer God who ordained Noah's flood. What manner of Christian thinks it's all right for the deity to drown untold numbers of small children because he disapproved of their parents? It's on a par with the doctrine of infant damnation. Perhaps Ham neglects to answer Dawkins's charge because the supposed “sin nature” of humanity is too lame an excuse. Everyone deserves death, you know, because of that Adam and Eve business in Eden.

Rather than dwelling on such unpleasantness, Ham jumps to an attack on the notion of an old earth:

For all our 12 years, Answers in Genesis has been calling out to those Christian leaders who compromise the clear teaching of Genesis by accepting the secular idea of millions of years and evolution.

Such compromise undermines people's acceptance of the authority of the Word of God. The very people these Christian leaders influence—both the “ordinary” church attenders and the leaders who teach and govern within the local body—soon join their pastors in believing that you can insert man's fallible ideas and reinterpret the clear meaning (the “hermanuetic” [sic]) of Scripture. This has put many youth and adults on a slippery side—with tens of millions eventually rejecting the Bible as the Word of God. And friend, that's not just opinion. Keep reading!

A few days ago I was given an initial overview of a major national poll that was commissioned by AiG (as a follow-up to the results of an alarming Barna Research poll of 2002 and a Southern Baptist poll of around the same time). The AiG-commissioned poll (conducted by one of America's leading researchers) clearly shows that a major reason many have left the church is because they no longer believe the Bible is the absolute Word of God.

(We will share other deeply alarming findings over the next few months.)

By the way; such compromise positions in the church are seen by many—inside and outside the church—as sheer hypocrisy. They hear Christian leaders say that the Bible is infallible, but they watch as those same Christian leaders “pick and choose” which bits (particularly in Genesis) are to be accepted as written.

Many church leaders think that such compromise is necessary in order to appease the secular academics of the age. The reality, however, is that secular academics of the age mock such compromise. Like Dawkins, they recognize that if you can't trust what the Bible clearly states in one area, you can't trust any of it! Seeing such compromise in the church only fuels Dawkins' hatred of God and His Word.

Can I urge you to pray for Richard Dawkins? God is long-suffering—as He was in the days of Noah. He is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

Also, please pray for compromising church leaders—that they will accept and proclaim the authority of God's Word, from the very first verse.

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Ham and Dawkins agree that fundamentalist Christianity is undermined by acceptance of the scientific proofs of the age of the earth and the evolution of life upon it. Ham is therefore correct, from his point of view, to decry the creations of Richard Dawkins, books like The Blind Watchmaker, The Ancestor's Tale, and, more recently, The God Delusion.

Dawkins looked upon his handiwork and saw that it was good. Too bad that the creationists keep us from resting on the seventh day.