16 Why Does It Matter?
Deceit in the Name of the Lord
It is ironic that several of these individuals, who so staunchly and proudly touted
their religious convictions in public, would time and again lie to cover their tracks
and disguise the real purpose behind the ID Policy.
—Judge John Jones, Kitzmiller et al. vs. Dover Area School DistrictLying lips are an abomination to the Lord.
—Proverbs 12:22If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to
believe it.
—Joseph Goebbels, Nazi propaganda ministerAs discussed in chapter 2, creationism is not about science, but about political power
and dictating the agenda for schools and textbooks now and eventually exerting control
over society. Creationists play by whatever rules (dirty or otherwise) they need to in order
to win. I have tried to document how they routinely distort or deny the evidence, quote out
of context, and do many other dishonest and unethical things—all in the name of pushing
their crusade. I was raised in a Christian church and learned Bible verses every Sunday, so
it appalls me to see how unethically these supposedly “Christian” men and women act in
their battle against their perceived foes. It makes you wonder whether they have second
thoughts about violating the word and spirit of many parts of the scripture with their lies
and deceptions.
How do they reconcile this un-Christian behavior with their Christian beliefs? Psycholo-
gists have long shown that humans are very good at self-deception and trying to convince
themselves of anything that they fervently want to believe. Given a strong belief system,
humans can convince themselves that black is white or ignore obvious evidence and focus
only on what they want to see, missing the forest for the trees.
Psychologists have found that despite our hopes, humans are not rational creatures after
all. Instead, we have what Michael Shermer calls “believing brains.” We are all built to hold
certain core beliefs or worldviews about ourselves, and anything that conflicts with this
core belief will be rejected, dismissed, or simply ignored. Psychologists call this reduction of
cognitive dissonance. Our brains are actually highly compartmentalized, with different ideas
held in different parts of the brain, creating a dissonance or conflict in our minds. Thus,
we are constantly struggling to reconcile or justify these conflicting beliefs. For example,
one part of our brain may want to believe we are moral, but another part remembers when
we told a white lie or broke the speed limit. Then our brain does all it can to rationalize
and justify these conflicts, trying to make us feel less conflicted and remorseful about these