Creationism is blasphemy

Gosh, there are still five hours until Sunday, and I feel the spirit moving me to write the Church of the Churchless equivalent of a “fire and brimstone” sermon. Reading a New York Times article, “An evolution in teaching: Fear of religious fundamentalists keeps the topic out of the classroom,” via the Portland Oregonian yesterday got me incensed about how ungodly a blind belief in creationism is.

Brothers and sisters, I call upon you to open your hearts and minds to God. Cast out the evil of creationism. Vow that you will never allow the wiles of devilish ignorance to turn you from the Almighty Truth. Worship the Creator who made heaven and earth, not the blasphemous creed of creationism.

Look around you and marvel. God is not obvious, but God’s works are. Until we are able to behold the Creator’s countenance directly, gazing upon the face of Creation is how we can best discern God’s qualities. Do not turn away from the immediate truths of this physical reality, for this will distance you from the greater truths of spiritual reality.

There are those who would substitute the insubstantial beliefs of man for the unchanging Truth of God. Do not trust these creationists. They elevate their subjective interpretation of a few words in a book over the objective evidence of the actual Creation. The delicious fruits of God’s majesty stand directly before them, yet they cast their eyes down to discredited notions from unreliable texts.

Evolution is the Creator’s will. Creationism is mankind’s imagination. Whenever you deny the evident facts of science and embrace a mere belief, you worship a false idol. God will not be mocked. The truth will win out. It is our sacred duty to fight on behalf of the Almighty. Take up your God-given arms of crisp reason and clear perception; do not let our children be deceived by the anti-God of creationism.

I read in the newspaper yesterday that teachers are avoiding the topic of evolution, “fearing protests from religious fundamentalists in their communities.” Fundamentalists they may be, but religious they are not. They are blasphemers, God-deniers, dangerous humanists. They seek to blind our children’s eyes to the glory of God’s creation. They want to confuse students with purely human conjecture instead of allowing them to know the truth of how the Creator willed creation to be.

My friends, we are becoming a Godless country. Americans are much more likely than people in other nations to accept the heresy of creationism. The United States is last, dead last, in a ranking of how knowledgeable citizens in twenty-one countries are about evolution. We should be #1 in knowing God’s reality. Instead, creationists are succeeding in keeping Americans ignorant of the power and glory that manifests as evolution.

From the One came many. All living beings are relatives of the same Common Ancestor. There is a direction to life: Upward. We can begin to discern the nature of the Creator through the laws of creation.

This is the truth. Stand firm and do not let the devilish forces of superstition and ignorance into people’s minds. Crush the malevolent seeds of creationism before they sprout. Face toward the light and shun darkness.

Above all, protect the children:

The News Record - Opinion
Issue: 2/9/05

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Column: Creationism should not be taught to kids
By Zach Van Hart

Across the country, principals and school boards are hopping in their DeLoreans and taking trips to nearly 100 years ago. Unfortunately, this is one adventure Emmett Brown never intended on.

Eighty years since the John Scopes trial virtually halted the barring of teaching evolution, a scary amount of American high schools are ignoring this vital piece of science.

It's like the past 4.5 billions of years never existed.

Instead, educators prefer that their students believe the planet is only 6,000 years old, and that this is what should be taught in science class.

Ridiculous.

In Alabama, Ohio, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Kansas and several other states, teachers are skipping evolution, or also teaching creationism or intelligent design, which is basically creationism with a dressed up name.

An article in The New York Times last week reported that an anonymous high school teacher in Alabama said she refrained from teaching evolution out of fear from her principal, but many other teachers in the state are following suit.

Late last year, the school board in Dover, Pa., required the teaching of intelligent design.

Schools in Cobb County, Ga., had stickers on their textbooks stating, "Evolution is a theory, not fact," until a federal court judge ordered them removed last month. The list continues.

Where did this come from?

How can this disgrace of science be permitted?

Do we really believe William Jennings Bryan was right all along?

Here is the problem with not teaching evolution in science class: It is easily the most scientifically accepted theory of how life on Earth evolved.

A scientific theory is not some non-factual thought; it is interlaced with facts.

Ask nearly any scientist or biology professor and they will divulge examples to how evolution holds up.

Not teaching evolution in science would be like teaching math without addition. Or subtraction, multiplication or division.

Here is the problem with teaching creationism or intelligent design in science class: It is not science.

Contrary to popular belief, God did not major in biology. If ever there was a theory based on little facts, creation is it.

In all seriousness, this latest trend is one that needs to end. It is another attempt by religious fundamentalists and evangelists to force religious believes onto the lives of all Americans.

This is the same as banning same-sex marriage, only worse. Same-sex marriages only affect a small percentage of Americans. Ignoring evolution, or teaching creationism in addition, affects every American teenager.

If students want to go to church Sundays, or be forced to by their parents, and listen to their preacher speak of the truth of Genesis, so be it.

If students want to read the Bible and interpret it literally, so be it.

Keep it there and out of our public schools.

Religion is described most accurately as a leap of faith. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. But a leap of faith is the ultimate theory, with nothing to back it up.

Basing an equal alternative to evolution on the fact that God spoke to someone is not enough.

Science is based on facts and evolution has it.

Creationism does not.

So climb into your DeLoreans and hit 88 on the speedometer, America, because it is time to go back to the future, where teachers teach science in science class.

Questions or comments?

E-mail [email protected].

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Comments

[Tait]

"Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.

Those who are certain they know what is true almost certainly are mistaken."

You're a hypocrite.

[Brian]

Well, Tait, you have a point. In some ways I am a hypocrite. But the very fact that I can honestly write that last sentence argues against it: I try my best to see things, and myself, as they are--not as how I want them to be. Another reader emailed me on the same subject, asking if I believed that it is possible to know part of the truth. Here's my reply:

"Regarding absolute and relative truth, sure, I believe it is possible to know part of the truth truly. That’s what science is all about. And we couldn’t live our daily lives without being confident that what we believe to be true really is.

That [Gide] quotation, like all 'one-liners' (or two-liners) is more thought-provoking than rigorous. When I read the Gide quote I immediately thought of people, me included at one time (and perhaps now also), who believe they have it all figured out—whatever 'it' is. If 'it' is the really big questions of life, and not just the small questions (why is the garbage disposal stuck?), then I think Gide’s point is well taken."

I'd say that evolution vs. creationism is a comparatively small question in the big scheme of things. For life and the universe can be observed, whereas God and all things spiritual cannot, by definition (something spiritual isn't physical and thus open to observation; if it could be, then it wouldn't be spiritual).

This is why if I'm a hypocrite, I'm a mild one. For I do believe that partial truth can be found and described. As above, this is the role of science. Science has found that the theory of evolution is the best explanation of how life on Earth has changed over the past several billion years. That's a fact. That's the truth.

My basic criticism of creationism is that believers in it aren't willing to face those facts. They have no idea who or what God is, or how God operates, yet they claim they know how creation occurred. To my mind, that is the real hypocrisy.

[nikki]

I've been called a devil worshipper for saying less than what I've read on this site in the last few minutes; truth is knowable to the individual, and believable only as far as reason allows. It's wonderful that you are able to delve objectively into the subjectivity of truth, however subjectively you do so. You almost make me want to believe in God again.