Why Does It Matter? 381What often shatters the beliefs of creationists, however, is not the misdeeds of their
leaders, but the fact that the leading creationist authors and debaters keep repeating
deceptive and discredited arguments, even after they have been shown to be lies. This
is often the critical moment that causes a crisis of faith that turns people away from cre-
ationism. Saddest of all, however, is how these fanatical “Christians” treat members of
their own flock when they stray from the strict creationist dogma when finally confronted
by the evidence for evolution. The story of oil geologist Glenn Morton (http://www
.oldearth.org/whyileft.htm), who was abused and harassed by his fellow “flood geolo-
gists” when his own discoveries led him away from creationism, is heart-rending. Likewise,
these stories show that the “brotherly Christian love” of some fanatical creationists is a
sham (see http://www.talkorigins.org/origins/postmonth/jan03; http://www.talkorigins.org/origins
/postmonth/nov02.html).
As we have seen throughout this book, these supposed “Christians” will twist the facts
and refute logic to salvage their unshakable belief that a literal interpretation of the Bible
is final truth. To them, nothing else matters. Their religion is foremost in their lives, and if
the scientific world didn’t intrude, they wouldn’t pay much attention to science at all. But
evolution, cosmology, geology, anthropology, and many other sciences do impinge on their
beliefs, so they try to attack science by pretending to be scientists and using scientific lan-
guage wherever possible. Unlike real scientists, however, creationists do not follow the first
rule of science that we discussed in chapter 1: a scientific hypothesis must be testable and
falsifiable, and scientists must be willing to give up their cherished ideas if the data show
they are wrong. Thomas Henry Huxley said it best: “Sit down before a fact as a little child,
be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever
abysses nature leads, or you shall learn nothing.”
Christian evolutionary biologist Ken Miller of Brown University, who has beaten all the
ICR’s debaters many times, provides an insight. In his book, Finding Darwin’s God (1999:172),
he describes an encounter with Henry Morris, whom he had just beaten in debate the night
before. He asked Morris about his discredited positions, and said “Do you actually believe
all this stuff?” Morris replied, “You don’t realize what is at stake. In a question of such impor-
tance, scientific data aren’t the ultimate authority. Scripture tells us what the right conclusion
is. And if science, momentarily, doesn’t agree with it, then we have to keep working until we
get the right answer. But I have no doubts as to what that answer will be” (Miller 1999:173).
Morris may be sincere and believe he is serving God. But he could not have provided
a more chilling indictment of the narrow self-righteousness, fanaticism, and antiscientific
attitude that is creationism.
Why Should We Care?
We’ve arranged a global civilization in which the most critical elements profoundly
depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no
one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster.
—Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted WorldAn educated citizenry is the only safe repository for democratic values.
—Thomas Jefferson