Letter writer warns of deceptive ploys used in previous letter
In a Jan. 3 letter to the editor, the writer closed by comparing evolutionary theory to the notion of a flat earth. However, the notion of a medieval “flat earth” is a commonly misunderstood myth. The account of Columbus wanting to prove a round earth was a romanticized tale spun by Washington Irving in 1828. In fact, “with extraordinary few exceptions, no educated person in the Western Civilization from the third century B.C. onward believed the earth was flat.” (Russell)
No stranger to myths, the Palladium-Item letter-writer is also a proponent of the 6,000-year-old earth. This particular myth was originally spun in 1650 when Archbishop James Ussher of the Church of Ireland concluded, through examination of the Bible but with no actual measurements of Earth, that it had been created mid-day on Oct. 23, 4004 B.C. (Bryson). It was never taken seriously in the scientific community then, and it still isn’t today.
There isn’t any dissent among the majority of scientists regarding whether or not evolution happened. They may disagree on the mechanisms, but only a tiny minority doubt its factuality.
So why all the deception? It seems inherently dishonest and immoral to be so aggressively fraudulent. Young-Earth-Creationists will frequently take quotes out of context, skewing their meaning, or just invent them altogether like the Palladium-Item letter-writer did. Quote-mining, partial-truths and misrepresentation of facts are all effective ways to be persuasive, but they aren’t honest.
There is plenty of science that is less supported than evolution, so why single evolution out? This issue is quite obviously about control: a large and influential group of people feel that control is threatened by a well-supported part of science. So they persecute it with lies, deception and half-truths to persuade people who don’t know any better. Don’t be fooled, people.
This letter to the Editor was written by Aaron Hill and originally published in the Palladium-Item, Opinion section, on January 25, 2008. It was in response to a letter to the editor written by a local Young-Earth Creationist, included below:
Evolution serves up assumptions that are unproven by Kenneth Riden, Rel.D., DD
A recent contributor editorialized that the scientific process was to postulate the evolution theory as “truth” until proven otherwise. No one objects to legitimate scientific process, but postulating unsubstantiated theory as “truth” in science textbooks is dishonest and morally wrong. Especially when it translates into a destructive humanistic worldview where religious rights are subordinated to anti-religious rights and a Creator God is driven from the market place of ideas. The so-called benefits derived do not justify the demoralization of an entire society.
Many elements in organized religion could be discarded, but creation science is not one of them. A growing number of reputable scientists agree that evolution is “full of holes.” Theunearthing of millions of fossils over 150 years “have yet to yield a finely graduated chain of slow and progressive evolution” (Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History-Bulletin). In the preface to his Origin of Species, Darwin said that it should be read as in “science fiction.” He also acknowledged that a “creator” might have been responsible for “several kinds or [at least] one life in the beginning.”
Various species develop from the same kind of life (wolves to dogs), but to use that as overwhelming observable evidence is highly misleading. There is no observable evidence of one kind of life ever becoming another kind (ape to man — fish to fowl).
Is it the biblical account of creation that is a myth, or is it the unproved and misrepresented assumptions of evolution? Before the “flat earth” theory was updated from “truth” to a “lie,” the Bible accurately described the earth as a “circle hanging on nothing.” The Bible says “thousands of years.” Evolution says, “millions.” Go figure! It is premature, deceptive and ill advised to count God’s Word out and man’s word in until all the facts are in.