Creationism
is the belief that a supernatural being created Earth, there are numerous
subgroups of creationism with further beliefs. I will be referring to the
creationism that is being taught in the place of science that opposes the
Darwinian theory of evolution.
In
the words of Tim Minchin, ‘Faith is the denial of observation, so that belief
can be preserved.’ The whole concept of creationism is the denial of truth when evidence is staring them in the face and somehow they still find it a
truthful concept to believe in without a shadow of doubt. Just like
water flowing from a tap, evidence for evolution is abundant. I am no expert on
Darwin’s theory of evolution yet I could easily reel off lists of what presents
evidence supporting it: Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny, fossil comparisons,
DNA genetic sequences, pseudogene,
peppered moth evolution, the list goes on…
We know that
the Earth is older than 10,000, the rough age ‘Young Earth Creationists’ claim
is the correct age of the planet. There are dozens of radiometric dating
methods all with a wealth of evidence for the age of the earth: carbon-14,
uranium-lead, potassium-argon, rubidium-strontium, samarium-neodymium, the list
goes on…again. Creationists claim that all these methods are wrong, yes all
wrong! They argue that the decay rate has changed throughout history and if
this was the case then that would mean all the half-lives had changed in sync
with each other.
What can
we do about it? The more influence science has in these areas where creationism
is being taught in place of evolution the better, but people are deliberately
excluding science out of teaching so that they can preserve their preposterous
beliefs and pass it down onto the next generation. Some oppose the scientific view and use the
argument that the evidence and recording of it is inaccurate. But some even for
as far as to say that it is all a conspiracy of silence and the world’s
scientists are misleading the whole world (except the clever creationists who
have uncovered this secret, of course!)
If they
want to be taken seriously by science they need to present evidence supporting
their claims and not just highlight flaws in our current scientific theories
which are based on systematic research.
“Science adjusts its views based on what's observed. Faith is the denial of observation, so that belief can be preserved.” Tim Minchin
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