Creationism - Thoughts On

Many fine and wonderful people still believe in creationism, ignoring all the findings of science.
It is important not just for our country's efforts in science that they don't try to undermine scientific progress, but also for the health of their religion.
The efforts that they waste in this effort will eventually come back on them, much as it did on believers of the earth being flat, or being the center of the universe.
There is still a society in existance today that believes the earth is flat, and that everything to the contrary is a myth.
Many religious communities see the story of creation for what it is, an explanation of earlier cultures to explain our creation in terms of what they knew.
So as you read these writings, keep those thoughts in mind.

Back when it was suggested that the world was created roughly in 6,000 BC, it was thought that there was only about 5,000 species in the world. That would allow an ark to hold all the animals, as suggested in the flood fable. However, since then science has found that there are over 50 million species of animals, if we count the ones that have gone extinct. Visions of those creatures being loaded on the ark two by two eventually put that fable in true perspective.

If one still holds to the Ark myth, then consider the time involved in loading all the animals onto the ark. Let's assume a fast rate, of 3 pairs of animals per second walked up that gang plank. It would at that rate take 16,666,667 seconds to load them, or 2,77778 minutes, or 46,296 hours, or 126 years to load all the animals onto the ark. Then there would be another 126 years to unload them. So there you have more than 252 years for the loading/unloading process, which definitely ages Noah and his crew.

Then one remembers reading that the waters covered the whole earth, according to the story of Noah. When all the waters were one, then the fresh waters mixed with the salt, and if you consider the vast ocean sizes compared to freshwater rivers and lakes, then all the waters became salt water. That being true, all the fresh water fish would have died in the salt water that filled everything. If that was so, then all the freshwater fish died, and once the waters receded, then how did the freshwater fishes return? The fable becomes more and more cumbersome as the facts and logic are examined.

If we follow this to its logical conclusion, then the story of Noah and the Ark is seen as a story by Ancients to explain what they didn't know, and not to have any basis in fact.

Now let's examine the other story, that of creation itself. The creationist say that evolution is just a theory, but what they fail to mention is what science calls theory. Gravity is just a theory. But evolution has such a strong basis in scientific fact that the National Council of Sciences has produced documents debunking creationism for what it is. The teaching of biology is based on evolution. Evolution is. Just as the earth is not flat, and the earth is not the center of the universe, it is time for those of the faithful to accept the reality that science has unfolded to us, that of the wonder and glory of evolution.

To suggest that the world was created in 6,000 BC is to ignore all the teaching of geology and what we know about the earth and how it formed.

There are so many obvious flaws in creationism that it hardly is worth the effort to even examine it. For example, if we say the earth and all of the universe was created 6,000BC, then we have a problem with the speed of light. It is a constant. If everything was created then, we should either constantly see new stars appearing in the skies, as the light finally gets here, or we assume that all the rays of light were suddenly created then too. That's just one example of many. To take this one step further, if we accept the creationist theory at face value, then all the stars and the universe are only 6,000, well, 8,000 now, light years away. Otherwise we'd see the light finally getting here from stars further away at creation time, and we don't see new star images by the thousands dropping in on us daily. There are just too many holes in the creationism fable to give it more than a laugh at anyone who'd even consider it as real.

Also it says in another chapter that the earth, and everything stood still for a whole day, nothing moved, under command - consider traveling thousands of miles a second, and then suddenly stopping, and then suddenly later suddenly going again - the effects of whiplash boggle the mind, not to mention all the other associated problems - and yet, one seldom hears of it mentioned by the creationists?

("Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.")

All this hardly maters to a true creationist. You won't find a creationist reading the Smithsonian Magazine, or any scientific journals. If it doesn't fit into their reality of what life and existence is, then it isn't true to them. Viruses mutate every day, and new versions are constantly evolving. Mutation of the species is a central part of evolution, but they simply don't get it.

The problem is, they've dug themselves into a corner, and with each year our country falls further and further behind, especially in the sciences, because anyone of that persuasion entering that field has an enormous bias and prejudice to overcome. The quote, "None are so blind as those who will not see," applies directly to those who should be referred to as the irreligious right.

There is really nothing religious about ignorance.

A Loss In Perspective

Perhaps one of the greatest loss for the fish-fable of creationism, is that the believers fail to see the beauty, wonder and majesty of creation. Life is eternally evolving. We are evolving. All life forms are evolving. Sometimes the change is very gradual, or appears to be almost none, other times the jump is enormous, and a new species appears. Life continues to adapt to life and conditions around it.

Time is on the side of understanding evolution. Eventually, no one will even consider creationism as more than a myth, much like the flat earth concept that the church stood by for so many centuries, persecuting those who thought otherwise. We are taller on average than those in our country who lived only one hundred years ago. There are many other changes, and far more to come, as our species continues to adapt to our environment and interestingly enough, the desired images of what we want people to look like. We tend to value tall kids over short ones, the leaders, the people in charge. We favor height, and not just for baseball! So our species favors that, and natural selection gives those people an advantage. If you get some time, go visit so old turn of the century(last, not this!) century homes. Or better yet, visit some old preserved homes of Colonial times, over in Virginia or North Caroline. You'll marvel at how low the doorways are. Why is that? People on average weren't so tall then.

The process goes on, whether the irreligious right wants to acknowledge it or not. Ultimately, they will see their theories so discredited that they'll have to come around and accept evolution. It's rather like accepting the earth is not flat. Eventually, even the most blind of the lot will be forced to see.

And perhaps that will free them from a dogma that drags them and others down.