Saturday, January 07, 2006

The Voice of the Insane, Part 3

Creationists in Florida claim that dinosaurs prove the Earth is only 6,000 years old. They are convinced that every word of the Bible is literally true and that everything in the world confirms that belief. (The amazing thing about people like this is that the people who wrote the Bible probably meant a great deal of it as allegory.)

The stupidity and crudity of their arguments are shocking, as is their unbending fanaticism and resistance to anything that contradicts their world view. From the article:

Most scientists consider the movement badly misguided -- or worse, intellectually dishonest. Creationists, scientists say, aren't doing real science.

They start with a conclusion -- that the Bible is 100 percent accurate -- and gather evidence to support that idea. True science, they say, actively looks for problems with a hypothesis.

Over the years, a tremendous amount of research has been conducted specifically to find major flaws in the theories about evolution and the age of Earth. The fundamental principles of both have held up.


I know I harp on this a lot, but this is a question of basic sanity vs. lunacy. In the name of reason itself, evolution must be accepted as the fact it is. Period.

5 comments:

Lone Ranger said...

Why are you concerned with what someone else believes? There are a billion people in the world who think if you aren't a follower of Muhammad, you deserve to die. THOSE are the people who should worry you.

Mehal said...

Lone Ranger,

Mr. Miller's concern over Creationism isn't just because Creationism is bogus science, but because people are trying to make it sound like science. If you stay in your house and think "The world is 6,000 years old" most of us don't have a problem with it. The problem occurs when you undermine Science in schools, universities and the general public with your bs. Just like if some guy in Saudi Arabia doesn't like Americans, but keeps it to himself, it doesn't hurt us. The problem happens when beliefs turn into actions.

Joseph Miller said...

Well said, Mehal. The problem is EXACTLY as you've said it. The creationists' objective is simple and terrifying: the discrediting and destruction of modern science itself. In order to destroy biology, they have to destroy chemisry and physics along with it. They have to destroy geology, astronomy, and cosmology. The creationists are quite literally trying to elevate mythology to the status of fact and relegate fact to the status of mythology. If successful they will make the United States a backward, theocratic intellectual wasteland and the scientific laughingstock of the world. With whatever energy I have I'll fight that. I'll fight it until the day I die.

Unknown said...

I am somewhat ashamed to admit this, but one of my uncles is a creationist. I have heard him telling his children, "God put dinosaur bones on earth to fool the sinners and test the faith of the righteous."

It worries me. What will happen when my cousins take geology? Like you say, science is as deeply interrelated as the universe it explains. To corrupt one part is to undermine the entire accumulation of human scientific knowledge.

There are so many ways to challenge ignorance now - I do not understand why such beliefs continue to survive and even strengthen. I guess "nothing is more firmly believed than what is least known." (I don't remember who said that, but he was very wise.)

Unknown said...

Also, how can they believe that the God of the New Testament would play such ridiculous games? It's a farce of both religion and science.