I don’t care if you believe in your view of Biblical Literalism and YEC; in a 6,000 year old Earth; that all dinosaurs were once vegetarians and peacefully co-existed with humans and were present on the Ark; that starlight was created by God so that it became visible to us under some sort of trick of time and so as to bend the known laws of physics to allow for the fact that such light is coming from a very long distance, 13 billion light years away; that there is no such thing as plate tectonics, that all the continents were in their present position since the creation of the Earth; that the Grand Canyon proves YEC; that radiometric dating is a lie (and if you live anywhere near a nuclear facility, you better hope that it isn’t); and other such complete and utter nonsense that Ken Ham and other creationists claim and push on their websites.
I don’t care if that is what you “believe”, what you want to preach from your pulpit, what you choose to teach your children in your Sunday schools, in your church run parochial schools, home schools or at home. Be my guest. And FWIW, I fully support and defend your right to believe whatever you want. You can also believe that vaccinations cause autism, that all disease is the result of sin and the cure is to just pray harder, that organic foods are better for you, that GMO foods are harmful, in homeopathy, in demonic possession as the cause of mental illness …..and on and on and on. I am not saying that you believe in all these things BTW but I’ve seen enough over the years to know that people who don’t believe in an old earth, those who believe in young Earth Creationism, also buy into a lot of other unscientific nonsense.
And I won’t get into all the reasons why creationist claims are bad scientifically - there is already much to prove that it is. My problem is that these arguments always boil down to the Christian Biblical interpretations of the YEC’ers, their particular and rather small but very vocal subset of Evangelical Christianity and that they hold the position that if “you don’t believe what we believe, then you are a “bad Christian” a “false” or “lapsed” Christian, a “Gia Worshipper” or a closet Atheist”. Those are religious arguments, not scientific arguments.
Teaching creationism in public schools will allow some teachers who are YEC’s to not only teach bad science but then also call into question the religious beliefs of their students and their families and evangelize their faith over the faith of others. And yes, I absolutely get that teaching actual science to students threatens the beliefs of the YEC’s and that public schools also teach a lot of PC crap now days, but that doesn’t make that any more right than what the YEC’ers are pushing. But teaching Biblical literal creationism in the science classroom is teaching religion, and a small subset of religion at that and it has nothing to do with science. I am all for teaching religion in schools in say “comparative religion” classes, in letting students and teachers with similar POV to have their clubs and discussion groups outside of the classroom if they choose but teaching YEC in the classroom is the same IMO as outwardly teaching Hinduism, Mormonism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islamism, Wiccanism, Catholicism, Zoroastrianism in the science classroom. If the Judeo-Christian creation story should get equal time in the name of “fairness” in the science classroom then shouldn’t the creation stories of Norse religion also be given equal time?
You question exDemMom’s credentials as a working scientist, someone working daily in the field of cell biology, you even question her Ph.D. while proudly proclaiming your Ph.D. – “in theology”. If you can question hers, then why shouldn’t I be able to question your credentials?
I am not interested, and have no time for, pointless argumentation. I have spoken my peace, and you will forgive me if I do not respond further.
That sums it up pretty well: “I am not interested”.
Thank you for your long and well-thought out reply.
It is my experience that most creationists care little for real knowledge, and have no compunction about spreading lies about scientists. Lying about people, aka bearing false witness, is a sin.
Ironically, the ridiculous stories that creationism mongers (like Ken Ham) concoct to try to give a scientific veneer to the creation story of Genesis are as unbiblical as they are unscientific. Yet they try to pass themselves off as experts in both Christianity and science.
I try to understand what motivates people who fall for pseudoscience (of any type, not just creationism), but I fail.