It's a new year, but there is nothing new about the battles that we can expect from the creationists and their proxies. 2012 was a rough year, and, while a lot of truly terrible candidates lost, the creationists have far too many friends remaining in the Republican Party. Marco Rubio, a rising star within the Tea Party fringe, made some noises that weren't exactly evolution-friendly, seeming to think that the age of the earth is a matter of "dispute amongst theologians." A House Republican, on the Science Committee no less, was caught on video saying that the big bang, evolution, and (oddly) embryology are "lies straight from the pit of Hell." And Michele Bachmann, a known evolution-denier, narrowly survived re-election. There was good news out of Louisiana, remarkably, as a parish school rejected creationism, but the forces of unreality are unceasing in their efforts to dilute and hinder the teaching of real science in the classroom, with their inane critiques of evolution and their disingenuous pleas of "teach the controversy."
Their fight is nothing less than a holy war against modern science and what they perceive to be the intrusion of secular humanism in the classroom and the church. Their crusade is not about science, not really, it is about faith, and they are waging a guerilla campaign against what they believe to be the "religion" of secular humanism and its "holy book" The Origin of Species. While they may dress up their beliefs in the language and terminology of science, at least as far as they understand it, many creationists truly believe that acceptance of evolution is a "faith" just as much as Christianity or Judaism. I've been recently encountering this on some creationist message boards where some demand that evolution-defenders admit their "faith" in millions of years and macroevolution. Ken Ham, of course, thinks that it takes more faith to accept evolution than to believe in creationism, a falsehood if there ever was one! No matter the setbacks, no matter how many times they lose in court (nearly always), the creationists and their lackeys in the Intelligent Design movement aren't stopped by little things like court decisions or the complete lack of evidence for any of their positions. No matter what, they have no choice but to keep fighting because it is a matter of faith. They believe quite literally that souls are at stake.
They won't be giving up anytime soon. Neither can we. While no one can know where the next battle will pop up, we know it will. The creationist organizations are many and they are quite well-funded. We can only be ready for them. Read a book about evolution, follow a blog or two if you can--Jerry Coyne's blog can be quite interesting, and he keeps an eye on the creationists. When the time comes, when the next little anti-evolution brushfire erupts in a school board or state board of education, be ready to get involved. The education of American students depends upon constant vigilence, and the quality of their education is precisely what is at stake here.
Hear, hear!
ReplyDeleteCreationists miss the fact that 99.99% accepted in the scientific community has a little more weight than 0% accepted (like the young Earth theory). They've been lied to their whole lives by their elders in the Christian community who misled them into thinking there was some sort of debate about evolution where there is none, so it makes sense that they keep repeating the same nonsense like "it takes more faith to believe in evolution." This is why it's so important to stop this bullshit wherever it pops up, so we can have a future of scientifically educated generations, not misled and uneducated creationists (who just so happen to run the country) like today.
ReplyDeleteI'd also like to add that Marco Rubio's comments weren't alarming because he's a Christian and atheists want to fight his personal beliefs (as is the favorite strawman argument from his defenders), they were alarming because somebody serving on the House Science Committee, and a favorite for Republican Presidential Candidate in 2016, doesn't have a clue how science works. These are powerful people in charge of powerful legislation on concepts such as climate change; we CANNOT trust them to govern our response to such drastic threats.
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