[COLUMN] Creationism is not science

According to Plato, it was Empedocles (circa 490-430 B.C.) who first enumerated what would later become the Four Elements. The list, what Empedocles called the Four Roots, consisted of Fire, Air, Earth and Water. It was generally believed that everything in the universe consisted of these Four Elements.

These elements, with some modifications depending on when and where you lived, dominated philosophical, religious and scientific thought for more than 1,000 years. It wasn't until the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution that the Four Elements was finally replaced by a more accurate periodic table of elements.

Of course, Enlightenment scientists had access to resources of which Empedocles could not even imagine. Still, Empedocles reasonably used the resources he had available to theorize about the universe. Later scientists, using more modern techniques, were able to create better theories and laws about the nature of the universe, a turn of events that Empedocles, as a man of reason, would have welcomed.

That is how science works. Every discovery strengthens an existing theory, changes an existing theory, or debunks an existing theory.

Comparatively, evangelical Christians take an ancient creation and flood story penned by an unknown Middle Eastern Jewish priest some 3,000 years ago and accept that fable as history, science, and the unerring word of God all wrapped into one. Such thinking defies reason and ignores 3,000 years of editing and translating. As an editor, I can tell you that 3,000 years worth of rewrites can seriously alter a story.

That is fine. People can believe what they want.

Where faith crosses the line, however, is when it masquerades as science and history and attempts to corrupt the knowledge and mental acuity of our youth. That is what is happening at a so-called museum in Petersburg, Ky., that opened last month. The Answers in Genesis Creation Museum claims the planet was created in a single week just a few thousand years ago.

What bunk.

For $19.95 ($24.95 if you wish to visit the planetarium), you can wander through this Museum of Lies where organizers claim dinosaurs lived among humans a mere 6,000 years ago. There is even a saddled triceratops among the 160 interactive exhibits. The museum also makes the incredible claim that a great flood created the Grand Canyon in a matter of days, rather than the millions of years it took the Colorado River to carve it. Another exhibit has dinosaurs on Noah's Ark.

What happened to "Thou shalt not lie"?

The museum is clearly targeting children with its interactive exhibits, which include a special-effects theater complete with misty sea breeze and rumbling seats. Yet, have a cartoon camel hawking cigarettes and the government sues you for billions of dollars.

 Unlike other creation museums across the nation, which unashamedly reject science, this one actually makes the patently false claim that it is based on science.

For the record, creationism, especially young-Earth creationism, is not science. It has no basis in reality. It is pure poppycock.

In fact, it is not even good religion. Such a literal interpretation of Genesis does more harm than good to Christianity.

Many early Christian leaders recognized the foolishness of taking Genesis literally. While St. Augustine, perhaps the greatest of the early Christian theologians, claimed a literal reading of Genesis, he was certainly no young-Earth creationist.

Augustine tells us that the six days of Genesis were simply stages, not temporal days. Additionally, to him, the terms "light," "day," and "morning" carried a spiritual, rather than physical, meaning.

More importantly for this discussion, Augustine warned Christians against dogmatically interpreting Scripture when such an interpretation can be easily proved false on the basis of physical science: "In matters that are obscure and far beyond our vision ... we should not rush in headlong and so firmly take our stand on one side that, if further progress in the search of truth justly undermines this position, we too fall with it."

Young-Earth creationists could learn a thing or two from Augustine. However, they have shown that reason and intellect (gifts from God?) have no room in their blind faith in a clearly allegorical tale written by a Middle Eastern Jewish priest some 3,000 years ago.

God help us.

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category | Column
author | Lucente

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