Creation Ministries International is having a conference coming up this year in September. Called "Creation not Confusion", an ironic title if there ever was one, it will feature the notorious creationist Dr. Jonathan Sarfati, who answered Richard Dawkin's The Greatest Show on Earth with the resounding propaganda tract The Greatest Hoax on Earth. Sarfati is also the author of Evolution Refuted, which the website claims is the best-selling creationist book of all time (no one tell Ken Ham), though, save for the associated paycheck, that is a dubious honor. The other speaker, Gary Bates, is the current head of Creation Ministries International, and I have to admit that until today I'd never heard of him, but in fact, though the website offers nothing about his educational background, we may surmise that he does not have a PhD given the fact that creationists love nothing more than adding their letters after their name on a book (as Sarfati does). It is as though their intellectual insecurity is manifested by continually having to remind everyone that they too have a PhD; after all, when most scientists publish books, they feel no need to add their letters immediately after their name on the front cover.
Regardless of who the speakers are, the list of upcoming talks during the conference (held in a church in Oklahoma) is revealing in that one is likely to get nothing new here. No new arguments and certainly no evidence. Take a look at the list, and you see the very same topics we usually get. The "icons of evolution" are false, compromise is wrong, design in nature, etc. They are arguments that have been endlessly refuted; scientists admit that Haekel was wrong, so stop pretending like science thinks that he is right. The design we see in nature is an illusion of design, in fact the product of endless evolution that ensures that species are compatible with their environment. The answers to all the arguments and questions that creationists raise are out there, available to anyone with access to the Internet or a library card, answers that are supported by evidence, not an appeal to authority or requests to "just believe." We needn't believe when we have evidence.
As always, with prominent, credentialed men like Sarfati, I do wonder whether they actually believe what they say, or whether they speak out of a desire to believe what they want to be true, a mistaken belief that being a Christian requires denying science. Do they suppose that when they meet the Savior they profess belief in, as they think they will, that he will congratulate them for ignoring every piece of evidence that pointed to the reality of earth's history? Or will he instead condemn them for their lies?
Creationism is the very opposite of the title of this conference; they exist to spread confusion and doubt where there is none. Creationism is confusion.
Regardless of who the speakers are, the list of upcoming talks during the conference (held in a church in Oklahoma) is revealing in that one is likely to get nothing new here. No new arguments and certainly no evidence. Take a look at the list, and you see the very same topics we usually get. The "icons of evolution" are false, compromise is wrong, design in nature, etc. They are arguments that have been endlessly refuted; scientists admit that Haekel was wrong, so stop pretending like science thinks that he is right. The design we see in nature is an illusion of design, in fact the product of endless evolution that ensures that species are compatible with their environment. The answers to all the arguments and questions that creationists raise are out there, available to anyone with access to the Internet or a library card, answers that are supported by evidence, not an appeal to authority or requests to "just believe." We needn't believe when we have evidence.
As always, with prominent, credentialed men like Sarfati, I do wonder whether they actually believe what they say, or whether they speak out of a desire to believe what they want to be true, a mistaken belief that being a Christian requires denying science. Do they suppose that when they meet the Savior they profess belief in, as they think they will, that he will congratulate them for ignoring every piece of evidence that pointed to the reality of earth's history? Or will he instead condemn them for their lies?
Creationism is the very opposite of the title of this conference; they exist to spread confusion and doubt where there is none. Creationism is confusion.
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