Skip to main content

The Glazed Eyes of Delusion

Image
By
As intellectually harmful as it is sometimes to listen to proponents of Young-Earth Creationism, it can often be instructive. Having read more articles from Answers in Genesis and listened to more YEC babbling than is healthy for a sane person, at the least I believe I understand how they operate. One such example is the look some creationists get when confronted with the "just one piece" of evidence for evolution. It is the look of a mind going right into autopilot, the glazed eyes of delusion.

You can see an example of this process in Richard Dawkin's documentary series "The Genius of Charles Darwin" when he interviews Wendy Wright (both the clip from the documentary itself as well as the full interview can be found on YouTube). "Show me the evidence," the President of Concerned Women for America says; when Dawkins responds with evidence, she pleads for "just one" fossil, one "carcass," in her words, that shows the transition from one species to another. All the while, she keeps a bright but suitably engaged smile on her face as her eyes start to glaze a bit. It's the look of a mind going into autopilot.

It is a remarkable process to watch. The mouth keeps moving but the mind has walled itself off against all opposition. "Teach the controversy" comes out (as if there really were one, in the scientific community at least) and the "problems of evolution" are trotted out (not as big or as problematic as the creationists would have you believe). But nothing is allowed to circumvent the wall of creationist logic. It cannot; no matter how many respectable scientists are brought to bear, no matter the parade of fossils, the importance of the genetic code, for most Young-Earth Creationists there is no openness of thought, no self-reflection that the reason most scientists accept evolution isn't because they hate God but because they love the truth.

Watching a mind close is a sorry sight, once the initial humor of it passes. A mind closed is a stagnant intellect, a tragic waste of potential. The evidence for evolution is readily available to anyone who truly wants to know. The evidence is unequivocal. Open your intellect and witness the wonder of one of the greatest ideas in the history of science.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Film for Our Time

By
The jurors take a break in 12 Angry Men On the hottest day of the year, the trial of an eighteen year old boy for the murder of his father concludes--the jurors withdraw for deliberations, tasked with determining whether the defendant is guilty. If they agree, a death sentence will be handed down. The case seems an easy one, with the jury ready to reach a verdict in less than five minutes of deliberation, but one juror is not convinced. Over the objections of the others, he demands a recounting of the evidence presented, arguing that surely a man's life is worth more than a few moments' thought. Over the course of several hours, the jurors weigh the evidence of the case, and with it weightier issues of class, justice in the United States, and the intersection of the two. 12 Angry Men  remains relevant to us as we continue to deal with these issues nearly sixty years after the film's release. The great strength of the film lies in the fact that only two of the jur...
Post a Comment
Read more

Endless Forms Most Bizarre

By
Anyone who knows me for more than ten minutes knows of my deep and abiding fondness for dinosaurs. It's a holdover from that phase most children go through, re-ignited during a summer class on the extinct beasts during college. Yet the drawback of being an adult who loves dinosaurs is readily apparent when you visit the shelves of your local library or bookstore. Most dinosaur books published are aimed at a far younger audience than myself, and the books for adults are often more technical works. Imagine my delight in seeing the newest book by John Pickrell waiting to be cataloged at my library! I placed a request for the book as quickly as I could pull out my smart phone, and I was not disappointed! Weird Dinosaurs: The Strange New Fossils Challenging Everything We Thought We Knew , is an excellent overview of many of the fascinating and bizarre new discoveries, and rediscoveries, of the past decade. A journalist and editor by trade, Pickrell is passionate about dinosaurs, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Tale of Sound and Fury

By
Since the week before it was to be published, Michael Wolff's Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House  has been, by far, the most-talked about book in the country. The furor, prompted by an angry denunciation-by-tweet from the President, a cease and desist letter from his lawyers, and salacious details from the book making their way into the press, immediately catapulted it to bestseller status. Being a political junkie, of course I couldn't resist giving it a read. While the book sold out almost immediately in print, I was lucky enough to borrow the digital audiobook from my local public library. I rushed through it in just a few days - not only because of how engrossing it was, but also knowing that there were a lot of people waiting to read it after I was done. As enjoyable a read as Fire and Fury was, the deep irony of the book is that it would likely have received little attention had it not been for the attacks by the Trump Administration. In attempting to st...
Post a Comment
Read more