When watching creationists, one is struck by the unintentional irony of so much of what passes for discourse among them. In the first place, many who speak for young-earth creationism clearly do not have the first clue about what evolution really is, its importance in biology, or how it developed as an idea, to say nothing of their lack of understanding of geology, fossils, and chemistry (truly, I think that so many of them don't actually know what carbon-dating is, or that there are other dating methods that are used). I've recently experienced this irony on a creationist internet group, where people who are even more out of touch with reality than the typical young-earth creationist routinely accuse the defenders of evolution of lying and quote-mining...when the only people who are quoting at all are the creationists!
But for true irony, we have to turn to Answers in Genesis and our old friend Ken Ham. The irony is rich when it comes from them, an organization that pretends to have sound evidence and good arguments for its faith-based positions. This is an organization whose leader routinely works to undermine science in this country, often telling impressionable children to disrupt and question science classes that deal with evolution or geology by asking the teacher the idiotic question of "Were You There?"--as though our only way of understanding the world we live in is through direct observation! This is the man who tells people that Noah's Ark is literal history rather than a mythological story, the man who claims that to accept evolution is to reject the validity of Christianity, the man who helped build the Creation Museum, a showy monument to ignorance in which visitors can learn that dinosaurs and man lived side by side, even though there isn't a single shred of evidence to support this ridiculous contention. I digress. Today's irony, brought to you by Ken Ham, is that good young-earth creationists need to rescue their children...by itself, that headline wouldn't provoke much comment as it is pretty standard fare for creationists. No, it is the focus of Ham's words that is worth noting; he thinks that children need to be saved not only from secular humanists (who are of course hostile to young-earth creationism, recognizing it for the pseudo-scientific tripe that it is), but from "bad shepherds" who deceptively undermine the Bible. He's talking about Pat Robertson, for crying out loud, a man who is no friend to evolution. I've noted Robertson's commentary before, that Robertson counseled, in the tradition of St. Augustine, that the Christian faith shouldn't fight and die over the age of the earth. When you criticize Pat Robertson for going soft, I have to think that you have a problem, and it isn't him.
Actually, in one sense I agree with Ham. We do need to save our children, but he and I certainly disagree over just who they need to be saved from. In a world increasingly driven by science and technology, a world that needs more people who understand how science works, how our world really works, our children need to be saved from the cretins of Answers in Genesis and all the other know-nothing young-earth creationist organizations hard at work diluting and destroying science education in this country (and Britain, and Australia, and Turkey...). As a society, we must work to ensure that our children do get a good education in math and science--and every other subject, for that matter--so that they can become the educated, scientifically-literate citizens that we desperately need. We have to fight to make sure that the creationists and their Intelligent Design proxies don't make the situation worse than it already is, and we must do our best in whatever way we can to improve science education to lift our citizenry out of the fog of creationist-induced ignorance. There are good organizations out there trying to make sure that this becomes reality, like the National Center for Science Education, but they are heavily outmatched by the well-funded creationist organizations like the Discover Institute. This is a fight that can be won, however, if only we rise to the occasion. That is the great irony of the Answers in Genesis article; we do have to rescue the children--from Ken Ham!
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