Creationists gather for mutual support

From the Christian Post:

More than 2,000 Christians and supporters of creationism gathered for the nation's premier Creationism conference.

The 2005 Creation Mega-Conference, slated from Jul. 17 to 22 in Lynchburg, Va. tackled several prominent issues facing the creation/evolution debate, such as the dinosaurs, the flood and Big Bang theory.

David Dewitt, Director of the Center for Creation Studies [at Liberty University] and associate professor of Biology explained in a nutshell, "We believe that Adam and Eve were real people and that God created everything in six 24-hour days."

In "Rocks Around the Clock: The Eons That Never Were," Geologist Dr. Emil Silvestru rejected the notion that the earth had existed for millions of years, and instead offered a six thousand year chronology: Creation, six days, Lost World, 1700 years, no big mountains, no plate tectonics, Flood, 370 days, creation of high mountains, deep oceans, sedimentary rocks, plate tectonics form continents, Ice Age, 1000 years, and Post Ice Age, 3000 years.

Note this quotation from the bio on Dr. Silvestru:

"After becoming a Christian he quickly realized that the ‘millions of years’ interpretation, so common in geology, was not compatible with Genesis. “Once I became a Christian,” Emil says, “I knew I had to ‘tune up’ my scientific knowledge with the Scriptures.”

“Although philosophically and ethically I accepted a literal Genesis from my conversion, at first I was unable to match it with my ‘technical’ side.”

In other words, it was not his technical training that led him to Creation Science, it was his conversion to Christianity. He then lent his scientific credentials to his non-scientific religious belief. The conclusion preceded any study.

Dinosaurs were also explained. According to John Whitcomb, co-author of the seminal creationist book, The Genesis Flood (1961), Noah's ark carried 1,000 different kinds of dinosaurs as well as all of the other species, and the book has sold more than a quarter of a million copies in English.

So belief in a 6000 year Earth is entirely based on literal reading of the Bible. It has no scientific basis, and as we know, conflicts with numerous scientific findings.

Ken Ham, president of AiG, rejects the Big Bang because Genesis explains God created the waters and Earth on the third day, and the sun, moon and stars on the fourth day.

In his talk "What's the Best Evidence that God Created," Carl Kerby said, "You should allow the Word of God to drive your understanding of the evidence."

According to one assessment, at the root of the creationist argument is the concern that evolution undermines moral beliefs, leading to lawlessness, family breakdown, homosexuality, pornography, and abortion.

If evolution is true, said Philip Bell in his talk, and we are descended from ape-like animals with no morality, no aesthetic sensibility and no soul," then "you would have no purpose for your existence."

"If we don't understand the young earth and how God created it in six 24-hour days, then our values are skewed, said the Reverend Jerry Falwell, and he is hopeful that "The biblical account is the believable one. The creation debate is being won."

This is entirely a fantasy based on a combination of a literal interpretation of the Bible and fear of what will happen to morals and society if such a literal interpretation is not accepted.

Yet they give mere words in a human language the alleged power of god-like perfection. A brief reading of General Semantics will clearly demonstrate that language cannot carry that level of meaning. [See "Language in Thought and Action" by S. I. Hayakawa which I have provided a link to on the right side of this web magazine.]

As for Jerry Falwell's statement that "The creation debate is being won", here is what Steve Bruce says in fundamentalistndamentlaist Religion "he concludes that fundamentalism does not pose a serious challenge or sustainable alternative to the secular and liberal democracy of most Western societies. Its force is weakened by its own internal contradictions and blunted by the power of the nation state." "

This is the fundamentalist Republican religious right. These are the people who want 'Creation Science' taught in science classes in Kansas and who want judges to use Biblical Law as the basis of their decisions instead of Constitutional Law. Roy Moore is an example of the latter.

Many believers in Creationism are extremely nice people, but we really do not want them choosing our Supreme Court Justices.