People ask me why I am so opposed to Creationism. Its not hurting anyone, they usually say. Let them alone. Well, far be it from me to burst anyones bubble. If you need to believe the observable Universe can be explained in concise, four-thousand year old metaphors from an era when brewing beer was cutting edge technology, then have at it. I have never been one to stand in the way of personal fulfilment through sublime ignorance. My primary objection to Creation Science (a candidate for citation in the OED entry for paradox) is that it never stops with personal ignorance. There is always the evangelical zeal of the suicidal zealots who wish not only sublime ignorance for themselves, but the transmission of wilful ignorance to others, usually through coercion. Almost every convenience or security of our modern lifestyles is the product of applied science. For the millennium between the end of Roman civilization and the Renaissance, very few Westerners questioned the fundamental myths espoused by present-day Creationists. And, during that delightful period of theocracy, infant morality neared ninety percent, most women died from complications of childbirth, three-quarters of the inhabitants of Europe died from plagues, and working men, on average, enjoyed a robust lifespan of twenty-four years. The Hebrew scribes, exiled in Babylon during the sixth century b.c.e, who appropriated the millennium-old Creation myths of the Sumerians into their own foundation narrative, most likely viewed these stories as folklore. They were not unsophisticated men, nor were they idiots. Babylon was a great world capital of antiquity, and the old Sumerian myths were generally regarded, even then, as quaint relics of a long forgotten people from a region largely reclaimed by the Arabian Sea. But my point is simple. Creation Science is not science. The scientific method was never applied to any hypothesis to either verify or refute its conclusions. No data was gathered through observation or experiment. Nothing about its premises can be reproduced. One either accepts Creationism or one does not. Thats all well for religious dogma. However, it is less than useless for science. And that is why I insist upon Creationism being kept as far away from the classrooms as is humanly possible. If you want to catechize your children, thats your right. But you damned sure arent going to insist that my children be taught to recite Sumerian folktales. And just because I insist upon exercising this freedom of conscience does not make me anything less than an American -- an American who respects knowledge and trusts human reason, just like our Founders. According to Isaiah, that even puts me in the company of Jehovah. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 20:23:03 +0000
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