Another day, another anti-science, pro-creationism post over at Theology Archaeology. I am tempted to reply, but I suspect it would accomplish nothing. After all, religious fundamentalists are not swayed by mountains of evidence, so what chance do I have?
Yet, I am often a glutton for punishment and, combined with my desire to see stuff like this challenged, I will once more hurl myself into the fray. The first quote is from the site TA is discussing.
Nye has repeatedly explained that he does not believe the Earth to be 6,000 years old, or that dinosaurs lived at the same time as humans. He has said that teaching children such beliefs as scientific truth is dangerous and harmful to their education
Next, TA offers his reply:
What is dangerous is Nye and other evolutionists lying to the children about process that have never existed. What Nye believes has no bearing on what is true. Of course, he goes to the dear factor to bully parents into dropping the truth and adopting the lie of evolution.
The irony here is painful. We can observe biological changes right now. We can observe geological processes right now. These processes clearly happen. It takes wilful ignorance to pretend they don’t exist.
Of course, we don’t know with absolutely 100% certainty what was happening on our planet millions of years ago. To creationists, we don’t have 100% certainty the earth even is billions of years old. To creationists, if there is even the slightest doubt or uncertainty with the numbers, they are to be thrown out in favour of their alternative theory, even if their theory doesn’t answer everything either.
In TA’s case, he takes it a step further. He insists ‘secular’ science is wrong and evil. It bears no validity with him whatsoever. There is only one absolute truth, and that is a literal interpretation of the Bible.
I think it’s worth it. I mean, I get it – you’ll never get through to some people (and not just on religion, on all sorts of issues). Sometimes people just ignore the facts. (Kind of like politicians and climate change.) But sometimes, with time, you get through to people. Perhaps it’s because I’m a teacher, so I’m facing students filled with misinformation on a daily basis, but it makes a huge difference when they start to see things differently.
I guess even if I can’t get through to the guy posting these articles, I can at least provide a counterpoint so people can see both sides of the debate.
“We can observe biological changes right now. We can observe geological processes right now.”
These changes may take place or should we say temporarily take place and certain geological processes do happen BUT nothing in those observations point to an evolutionary or big bang source. That is read into the changes and processes. What evolutionists and big bang enthusiasts have to do is go back to the beginning and prove beyond a shadow of doubt that our origins took place as they claim. So far not one evolutionist or BBE has taken up the challenge.
They like the dishonest, cheating way and say this is the way things took place and attribute their changes and processes to something they have not proven to be true yet.
You don’t understand what a theory is. For any good theory to stand, it has to explain the facts, with the least number of definable mechanisms that fit the facts. This is what observation does – it helps to establish facts. It offers new theories to be tested. Science doesn’t claim absolute fact, but it builds a case based on evidence. You want us to deny the evidence completely.