“The Bible was written to show us
how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go” Galileo Galilei 1564-1642
Creationism is the belief that all things in
the universe both living and nonliving were created by a “god” of some
sort. The idea of teaching creationism
has created a recent debate in America with many far-reaching
implications. The debate has been
fierce on both sides. The arguments for
and against teaching creationism range in nature from the ridiculous to
empirical evidence found over the years.
A look at some of these arguments and ideas concerning creationism
should help to decide whether or not teaching creationism is ethical. This paper will focus on young-earth
Creationist, which are primarily Christian.
Creationists hold many beliefs that run
contrary to scientific fact. Most
creationists believe the earth is only ten thousand years old at the most. The original source for this idea comes from
following lineages through the Bible.
With this assumption evidence such as the speed of light decreasing[1]
is created. Creationists also believe
evolution does not happen in any way.
Some creationists state they will believe in microevolution but not
macroevolution. As with science
creationists have their extremists such as those who still believe our little
planet here is flat[2] or that
earth is the center of the universe.[3]
One of the oldest known cases of Christianity
verses science dates back to 1632 when Galileo Galilei, a Christian, was found
guilty of heresy for suggesting the absurd notion that the Earth actually
circled the sun. The Holy Roman Church
knew this could not be true because it conflicted with the infallible Holy
Scriptures in the Bible.[4]
This type of heresy was usually punished buy death at that time, but unusually
enough Galileo was simply imprisoned for the rest of his life. He was, oddly enough, allowed to keep his
telescopes and continue with his work.
Creationism was the primary belief system
surrounding the creation of the universe and everything in it until Charles
Darwin made a shocking hypothesis in 1859 when he published his book On the
Origin of Species. He was not the
first scientist to suggest such a thing but he was the first to offer proof and
a valid method for evolution.[5]
His view shocked much of America and was almost immediately condemned as
heresy, but some took notice and a new way of thinking began to take hold.
About fifty years after Darwin printed his
work on evolution, a new battle between creationism and Darwinism arose. Tennessee passed a law in 1925 stating that
the teaching of evolution was illegal. A teacher named John Scopes was brought
up to trial for teaching evolution in school.[6]
This trial was a farce designed to simply reiterate the infallible word of the
Bible over science. Scopes was of
course found guilty. No one expected
otherwise though. Today we still live
with this decision and its implications.
One hundred and fifty years after church and
state were officially separated science still has trouble getting a foothold in
school. Sure students are taught the
basics such as current biology, elementary physics, basic chemistry, and
relatively no geology or archaeology.
Of course on the opposite side of the coin, religion is not generally
taught to schoolchildren either. This
comes with a good reason though; religion is a matter of faith and morality not
a matter of education.
Today many creationists are fighting to have
creationism taught in school. Many felt
it was not enough to stop counter ideas from being heard. So a push has once again been started to
teach creationism in school while keeping children safely away from scientific
ideas.
The argument for teaching creationism relies
on the idea that creationism deserves equal time to be taught alongside subjects
such as evolution and the big bang. The
problem is these subjects are general not allowed in school either. Even if equal time were to be given I hold
that teaching creationism in a public school is both irresponsible and totally
unethical.
In my sophomore year of high school, I was in
an honors biology class that would not allow the teacher to even begin to touch
on the idea of evolution. We were
simply taught current biological cycles and reproduction. Nothing was once mentioned of where or how
any creature came to be except of course the obvious answer of “it was
born”. This was not an acceptable
answer for me but it was the only one I could have.
The next year in a physics class we were
discussing the age of the universe. Of
course, we were told the most widely accepted age was between 10 and 20 billion
years, but our teacher went out of his way to make it a point that many people
(he would not say which people or how many) believe the universe is but a few
thousand years old. His evidence was some
crafty Bible reading and a half-cocked theory on the decay of Earth’s magnetic
field.[7]
The most enraging part was when he actually suggested the evidence for a
“young” earth outweighed the evidence for an “old” earth.
Okay, so I have had some bad experiences with
religion attempting to interfere with my pursuit of knowledge; what about
everyone else? Well, let us take a look
at some of the things creationist would like to teach children.
First, creationist will have children believe
that the Earth’s magnetic field has coincided itself with unproven human
events.[8] In their version, the Earth’s magnetic field
is decaying to fast for the world to be billions of years old. Also, that it has been on its steady decay
since the time of Christ. It is amazing
how conveniently the creationist forgets that this view relies mainly on the
ideas that the Earth’s magnetic field is indeed decreasing at an exponential
rate (which it is not, it is in fact steady) and that dynamo theory is
completely incorrect (it is not, we do indeed have magma in the core that
creates a current).[9] It is also completely forgotten that the
Earth’s magnetic field reverses itself and starts over periodically.[10]
This idea is one of the more far-fetched and will unlikely harm any children
but others are not so harmless.
Dinosaurs indeed did walk with humans, or so
the creationist will have you believe.
They will actually point to burials as evidence claiming that that
person had died at the same time.
Amazingly enough no human remains have been found in fossilized meat
eating dinosaur dung. Some will try to
point to tracks left in stone, all of which have been proven hoaxes (hey why
let a simple thing like truth bug you?).
The most damaging of the human/dinosaur claims is the belief by many
creationist is that before “the great flood” no rain on earth existed and that
all plants and animals were fed by magical rivers, streams, and springs. The lack of water after the flood is what
creationist claim killed the dinosaurs in the end.[11]
As anyone who paid attention in elementary
school can see, these ideas run contrary to empirical fact. To teach the idea that the earth is young is
silly at best and extremely harmful at worst.
The majority of the proof for creationist lies within the Bible, which
contains much truth but the amount of fact is still debatable. Also, while the Bible is an excellent book
full of useful wisdom and morality, it has been used in the past to suppress
the advancement of knowledge (see paragraph on Galileo).
Today creationists, namely young-earth
creationist, are doing exactly what the Inquisitors did to Galileo. They are suppressing knowledge over the
advancement of religion. This is just
as atrocious as science setting out with the purpose to destroy religion. The only problem is that this time science
has not thrown the first stone and has been made to suffer. Knowledge is what sets man apart from the
animals, and young-earth creationism is not knowledge but is the shaping of
knowledge to match ones beliefs.
[1] ChristianAnswers.net, How can light get to us from stars which are millions of light-years away in a universe which the Bible claims is only thousands of years old? http://www.christiananswers.net/q-aig/aig-c005.html
[2] See Flat Earth Society, http://www.alaska.net/~clund/e_djublonskopf/Flatearthsociety.htm
[3] Baker Books, Astronomy and the Bible, Dr. Donald DeYoung, pp 15-16
[4] Greenhaven Press, Science and Religion: Opposing Viewpoints, The Holy Roman Church, Inquisitor Generals, The Roman Curia, Sentencing read to Galileo in 1632.
[5] Greenhaven Press, Science and Religion: Opposing Viewpoints, Species Evolved by Natural Selection p29
[6] Greenhaven Press, Science and Religion: Opposing Viewpoints, Evolution Should be Taught in Schools, Speech by Clarence Darrow at Scopes Monkey Trial.
[7] Evidence for a Young World, http://www.christiananswers.net/q-aig/aig-c012.html
[8] Evidence for a Young World, http://www.christiananswers.net/q-aig/aig-c012.html
[9] On Creation Science and the Alleged Decay of the Earth's Magnetic Field, Tim Thompson, http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/magfields.html
[10] On Creation Science and the Alleged Decay of the Earth's Magnetic Field, Tim Thompson, http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/magfields.html
[11] http://www.christiananswers.net/dinosaurs/questions.html, used for entire paragraph