Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Creationist Logic 101
Understanding the peculiar logic of the creationist mind is a difficult and often thankless task.
A recent letter to Birmingham Press-Register about a visit to Ken Ham's Flintstone Museum and Gift Shop illustrates the reasons why acceptance of a teleological approach to study of the natural world acts as a set of blinders preventing creationists from seeing the world as it truly is:
A recent letter to Birmingham Press-Register about a visit to Ken Ham's Flintstone Museum and Gift Shop illustrates the reasons why acceptance of a teleological approach to study of the natural world acts as a set of blinders preventing creationists from seeing the world as it truly is:
"Yes, the museum believes the biblical account of creation ("intelligent design") because God's word says it, but it also gives you the scientific evidence from real scientists, which shows the evidence for design and the scientific facts that do not support 'natural selection.'"Captured in this one short sentence are all the things about creationism in its various forms that turn logic on its head:
- Despite all the carefully crafted denials and fine print from Discovery's legal team, true believers understand that intelligent design is identical with the biblical account of creation found in Genesis.
- They believe the biblical account not because of any scientific evidence, but because "God's word says it."
- They assume without evidence that there is a God and that they, and they alone, understand him.
- Having adopted this belief, they blind themselves to the abundant evidence provided by a study of the natural world, or distort the meaning of that evidence.
- Fundamentalist preachers, often with no more than a bogus degree from an unaccredited bible college, call themselves "real" scientists and the gullible fall for it.
- The scientific facts that do not support natural selection are often alluded to, but never enumerated.
Having embraced a belief system for which there is exactly zero empirical evidence, they cry endlessly about various gaps in the fossil record and demand that scientists supply ever more evidence, which the creationists will never bother to read anyway.
