(no subject)
10-16-05
Stupidity Triumphant
It’s unfortunate but true. In the ongoing confrontation between theism and atheism, stupidity will trump “smarts” every time. I’m talking dumb, folks, with a capital “D.” I’m talking “I-never-read a-book-except-the-Bible” ignorant. Witlessness that goes right to the bone. Empty-headedness. Mental vacuum. I’m talking “Duh!”
Case in point: a recent article in the Washington Post noting that the $25-million Creation Museum outside Cincinnati is half way to completion. Its purpose is to promote the theory of Young Creationism, which asserts, among other things, the literal truth of the Bible, a 6,000-year-old Earth, and dinosaurs among the passengers on Noah’s Ark. Mark Looy, a museum vice president, says, “When people realize the T. rex lived in Eden, it will lead us to a discussion of the gospel [sic]. The T. rex was once a vegetarian, too.”
Regarding dinosaurs, on the advice of a friend I visited www.answersingenesis.org. Given the name of the Web site, I can probably stop right here. But come along with me for a bit. This will be fun!
Here, in condensed form, are some tidbits.
In reference to dinosaurs “ruling the earth” for a 140 million years and dying out 65 million years ago, “scientists do not dig up anything labeled with those ages. They only uncover dead dinosaurs (i.e., their bones), and their bones do not have labels attached telling how old they are.”
The site also points out that “No scientist was there to see the dinosaurs live through this supposed dinosaur age. In fact, there is no proof whatsoever that the world and its fossil layers are millions of years old. No scientist observed dinosaurs die. Scientists only find the bones in the here and now …”
I am enlightened by these insights. You refute the age of dinosaurs because no scientists were there to observe. And obviously, if you didn’t see something as it occurs, it didn’t. This not only shoots paleontology square in the ass, but it also demolishes geology, biology, astronomy, archaeology, history, and a host of other disciplines that all of us thought were sound. Well, what can you expect if you’re not guided by Genesis?
As an aside, let me mention that Young Creationists maintain that evidence of an ancient Earth is merely a ruse … some sort of crude practical joke on the part of God, I guess. They say fossils are uncovered in an orderly sequence, with crudest life forms at the bottom and most advanced life forms at the top, because this is the way the flood deposited them.
Here are a few more eye-openers from the site.
“ …not one unquestionable transitional form between any group of creatures and another has been found anywhere.” Well, shit! There go the lobe-finned fish, amphibians, Cynodonts, archaeopteryx and a whole bunch of others. Damn!
“If the different kinds of dinosaurs survived the flood, then they must have come off the Ark and lived in the post-Flood world.”
That would be 4,500 years ago, folks. And I have a couple of Ark questions.
- If the Flood destroyed the world, why is it that the ancient civilizations that existed at the time in Egypt, Asia Minor, Greece and elsewhere, didn’t know they’d been wiped out and continued to flourish?
- If all animals were herbivores, what did they eat when they got off the ark? Every plant in the world would have been killed by the universal flood.
Well, the site do go on and on. And it do get sillier and sillier. But here’s the rub: there is no way in the world you can possibly persuade creationists that they’re wrong. How would you do it? Logic and reason? They are impervious to them. When your mind’s made up, why clutter it with facts?
Scorn and sarcasm? They lap ‘em up. These are signs that creationists are being persecuted for their faith.
Ridicule? Doesn’t faze ‘em a bit. They simply consider you deluded and bellicose.
Fact is, if you ever find yourself veering toward a discussion along these lines, and the other person’s a creationist, save yourself a lot of time. Go grab a beer. Because I guarantee it, this is one argument you’re not going to win.
It’s kind of funny, though. As David Mills says in Atheist Universe, Young Creationists hold that “The whole of Nature - in the sky, on land and in the sea - is one big joke. Nothing is as it appears. The heavens and the Earth are playing devilish tricks on us, cleverly camouflaging their youth with the appearance of age. The laws of nature are likewise a joke, since they recently rewrote themselves to fool radiometric dating techniques.”
Thus, as Mills notes, creationism simultaneously asserts that Nature attests God’s existence, and Nature is a deceptive contrivance, not to be accepted at face value.
I guess with the Bible to guide you, this sort of thinking’s OK