If you thought Ken Ham was harmless, think again. He is videotaped here teaching children how to "resist" the teaching of evolution in classrooms. The response to millions of years of earth history: "Were you there?"
This is what passes for intelligent thought in the "Answers in Genesis" world. How about a few other things along that same line. Hey, kids, what do you do when your teacher talks about the Holocaust? "Were you there?"
What about the height of Imperial Rome? "Were you there?"
World War One? "Were you there?"
The vaccinations of Jonas Salk? "Were you there?"
Ok, children, thanks for your input.
At issue here is how we know what we know. A person doesn't have to have literally been there to know an event happened. We piece the past together through evidence and sound reasoning whether in history, paleontology or physics. No one now alive was witness to the Spanish-American War, the election of Lincoln, the fall of Rome, but we know that they happened. Similarly no one was around to see the dinosaurs, trilobites or other extinct creatures, but we still know they existed. Just as with these examples it is also true with evolution. We, naturally, weren't there to witness the rise of mammals or the transition from ape-like bipeds to modern man, but we know it happened based on the evidence of fossils and DNA.
Only a fool would think that it was necessary to actually have been "present at the creation" to know that evolution occurred.
This is what passes for intelligent thought in the "Answers in Genesis" world. How about a few other things along that same line. Hey, kids, what do you do when your teacher talks about the Holocaust? "Were you there?"
What about the height of Imperial Rome? "Were you there?"
World War One? "Were you there?"
The vaccinations of Jonas Salk? "Were you there?"
Ok, children, thanks for your input.
At issue here is how we know what we know. A person doesn't have to have literally been there to know an event happened. We piece the past together through evidence and sound reasoning whether in history, paleontology or physics. No one now alive was witness to the Spanish-American War, the election of Lincoln, the fall of Rome, but we know that they happened. Similarly no one was around to see the dinosaurs, trilobites or other extinct creatures, but we still know they existed. Just as with these examples it is also true with evolution. We, naturally, weren't there to witness the rise of mammals or the transition from ape-like bipeds to modern man, but we know it happened based on the evidence of fossils and DNA.
Only a fool would think that it was necessary to actually have been "present at the creation" to know that evolution occurred.
This is a discovery for me. Ken Ham: Part-Time Existentialist!
ReplyDeleteIt is impossible for me to understand how any reasonably intelligent human being could be so intellectually dishonest. Though he would no doubt think of me this way, I find him utterly perverse.
ReplyDeleteThere is an inverse relationship to the commitment to an ideology and a commitment to truthfulness among creationists.
ReplyDeleteThey'll be among the first to condemn bearing false witness and among the last to apply that standard to their own communication.
It's all about "saving souls" not teaching facts.
"Was I there?" No, I can't say that I was. What does that mean? I must therefore be constantly open to the fact that I may be wrong, however great the improbability. There is, however, a direct correlation between my openness to that potentiality and the evidence stacked against it.
ReplyDeleteWas there a world-wide flood? Well, I wasn't there.
Sir, were you there when Obama was sworn into office?
ReplyDeleteNo, but I have access to video recordings on Youtube.