blog entries for 2003/10/5

entry #1

::How good are these young-Earth arguments? A paper by Dave E. Matson. Quotes are by him:

"Scientific" creationists boldly proclaim that, contrary to 200 years of scientific opinion, the physical evidence favors an age of the earth in the neighborhood of 6000 years. No miracles are needed, they say, to arrive at this biblically inspired figure. If the number of popular books written, lectures delivered, and debates staged conferred any degree of truth to an idea, "scientific" creationism would be taught today in every science classroom in America!

On a rainy afternoon I got interested in the actual arguments of the Creationists (starters: www.creationists.org, www.creationism.org) The disinformation they spread is simply amazing. Matson says:

The topics of evolution (descent of life with modification) and the old age of the Earth are not scientific controversies begging for proof! They are facts of life. If you look at the last 50 issues of any of the world's leading scientific journals, such as Nature or Science, you will not find any debates in progress about the fact of evolution or the old age of the Earth! You might find a debate over the explanation of those facts, or of specific dates or rates, but never over the facts themselves. If you look into our best universities, you will not find any scientific debates in progress on those subjects. Standard reference works, such as the Encyclopaedia Britannica, treat them as facts. They are regarded as facts by knowledgeable people who are not fettered with extreme religious prejudice. We taxpayers owe it to our children to expose them to the best that science offers. Of course, philosophical speculation should be clearly labeled as such. On that point I would agree with Dr. Hovind. Jumping from the facts of evolution to a non-theistic universe is not a proper conclusion of science. Science does not speculate on the supernatural. That some religious groups aren't living in the real world should not be allowed to dumb down our public schools. If you want to believe that the Earth is 6000 years old, that's your business. If it becomes your religion and you teach it to your children, that's your error and their injury. If you turn it into a crusade and try to force it into the science classrooms, that will be your Waterloo!

[posted at 2003-10-05 16:42:00] TrackBack