The goal of skeptics is not just to debunk claims but also to examine belief systems and understand how they affect people.

 Creation myths are few:
1. No Creation – Existence is unchanging (Jainists of India).
2. Slain Monster Creation Myth.
3. Primordial Parents Creation Myth.
4. Cosmic Egg Creation Myth.
5. Spoken Edict Creation Myth.
6. Sea Creation Myth.

Myths are not about truth but about the human struggle to deal with the common aspects of life – birth, death, marriage, illness, injury, transition from childhood to adulthood.

They meet a need in the emotional status of humans.

To try to turn a myth into a science, or a science into a myth, is an insult to myths, an insult to religion, and an insult to science.

The belief system of creationism denies not only evolutionary biology but also most of cosmology, physics, paleontology, archeology, historical geology, zoology, botany, etc.

Creationism requires that we dismiss too much existing knowledge.

Does a belief in evolution lead to a loss of faith and an increase in social evils?

The use or misuse of a theory does not negate the validity of the theory itself.

Social problems existed long before the theory of evolution.  Blaming evolutionary theory distracts us from acquiring a better understanding of our social and moral problems.

Science is not a replacement for faith and religion (except in issues about the nature of reality).  The theory of evolution stands or falls on the basis of evidence.

If religion is based on truth and faith, then science can provide the truth; therefore, science should not be feared but required.

“If we can offer a natural explanation for apparently supernatural phenomena and make three or four simple points about science and critical thinking so that listeners can learn how to think instead of what to think, then I believe it is well worth the effort” (p. 136).

Types of relationships between religion and science:

1. Same-Worlds Model – science and religion deal with the same subjects and someday science may subsume religion completely (e.g., evolutionary psychology);

2. Separate-Worlds Model – Science and religion deal with separate subjects and should coexist peacefully.

3. Conflicting-Worlds Model – One or the other is correct and there can be no reconciliation (atheists and fundamentalists).

Refuting creationist arguments is not an attack on religion.  However, creationism is an attack on science.
 
What is Evolution? Darwin’s theory.
 
    1.  Evolution – organisms change over time.
    2. Descent with modification - offspring are similar to but not identical to their parents.
    3. Gradualism – Change is slow and steady and given enough time accounts for species change.
    4. Multiplication of speciation – evolution produces an increasing number of new species.
    5. Natural selection – a mechanism of evolutionary change
        a. Populations increase geometrically
        b. Populations numbers remain relatively stable
        c. Therefore not all offspring produced either survive or reproduce
        d. There is variation among members of every species
        e. Those variations that are better adapted to the environment have more offspring than those less well adapted (differential reproductive success).

Natural selection does not promote evolutionary direction or the inevitability of certain attributes (human-like intelligence).  There is not ladder of evolutionary progress with humans at the top.

Philosophically Based Arguments and Answers.

    1.  Creation-science is scientific and therefore should be taught in public school science courses.

The theory of “creation science” is a particular religious position that is not tested using scientific methods.

    2. Science only deals with the here-and-now and cannot answer historical questions about the creation of the universe and the origins of life and the human species.

Experimental sciences and historical sciences may be somewhat dissimilar in their methodologies but they are subject to the same rigorous requirements when identifying causality.

    3.  Education is a process of learning all sides of an issue, so it is appropriate for creationism and evolution to be taught side-by-side in public school science courses.  Not to do so is a violation of the principles of education and of the civil liberties of creationists.  Creationists have a right to be heard, and besides, what is the harm in hearing both sides?

Creationism should be discussed but not as a legitimate alternative to evolution.  Pernicious nonsense must not be treated as equivalent to sensible knowledge.

    4. There is an amazing correlation between the facts of nature and the acts of the Bible.  It is therefore appropriate to use creation-science books and the Bible as reference tools in public school science courses and to study the Bible as a book of science alongside the book of nature.

    5. The theory of natural selection is tautological, or a form of circular reasoning.  Those who survive are the best adapted.  Who are the best adapted?  Those who survive.  Likewise, rocks are used to date fossils, and fossils are used to date rocks.  Tautologies do not make a science.

    6. There are only two explanations for the origins of life and existence of humans, plants, and animals: either it was the work of a creator or it was not.  Since evolution was unsupported by the evidence (i.e., it is wrong), creationism must be correct.  Any evidence that does not support the theory of evolution is necessarily scientific evidence in support of creationism.

Scientists debate the various natural causal agents involved in the creation and changes in the world.  As soon as supernatural intervention is assumed, then science is no longer relevant.

    7. Evolutionary theory is the basis of Marxism, communism, atheism, immorality, and the general decline of morals and culture of America, and therefore is bad for our children.

    8. Evolutionary theory, along with its bedfellow, secular humanism, is really a religion, so it is not appropriate to teach it in public schools.

Religion should not mean any framework through which we interpret the world.  Religion has something to do with the worship of the supernatural and faith, not empirical evidence and testable knowledge.

    9. Many leading evolutionists are skeptical of the theory and find it problematic.  If the world’s leading evolutionists cannot agree on the theory, then the whole thing must be wrong.

    10. “The Bible is the written Word of God … all of its assertions are historically and scientifically true.  The great Flood described in Genesis was an historical event, worldwide in its extent and effect.  We are an organization of Christian men of science, who accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.  The account of the special creation of Adam and Eve as one man and one woman, and their subsequent Fall into sin, is the basis for our belief in the necessity of a Savior for all mankind”.

    11. All causes have effects.  The cause of “X” must be “X-like”.  The cause of intelligence must be intelligent – God.  Regress all causes in time and you must come to the first cause – God.  Because all things are in motion, there must have been a prime mover, a mover who needs no other mover to be moved – God.  All things in the universe have a purpose, therefore there must be a purposeful designer – God.
Hume – purposefulness in design is often illusory.

    12. Something cannot be created out of nothing.  Therefore, from where did the material for the Big Bang come?  From where did the first life forms that provided the raw material for evolution originate?  Stanley Miller’s creation of amino acids out of an inorganic “soup” and other biogenic molecules is not the creation of life.

There are reasonable explanations in science for how to go from the Big Bang to the Big Brain using the known laws of nature.
 
Scientifically Based Arguments and Answers.

    13. Population statistics demonstrate that if we extrapolate backward from the present population using the current rate of population growth, there were only two people living about 6,300 years before the present.  This proves that humans and civilization are quite young.

    14. Natural selection can never account for anything other than minor changes within species – microevolution.  Mutations, used by evolutionists to explain macroevolution, are always harmful, rare, and random, and cannot be the driving force of evolutionary change.

    15. There are no transitional forms in the fossil record, anywhere, including and especially humans.  The whole fossil record is an embarrassment to evolutionists.

There are plenty of transitional examples in evolution, including humans.  “Gaps” in the fossil record indicate rapid and episodic change (punctuated equilibrium).  The process of fossilization is rare and infrequent and unlikely to reveal rapid speciation.

    16. The second law of thermodynamics proves that evolution cannot be true since evolutionists state that the universe and life move from chaos to order and simple to complex, the exact opposite of the entropy predicted by the second law.

The second law applies to closed systems.  Within any closed system there can be pockets of open systems exploiting the 2nd law.

    17. Even the simplest forms of life are too complex to have been the result of random chance.
 

Natural selection is not random and it does not operate by chance.  Natural constraints and opportunities can create great complexity in very short time periods.

    18. Hydrodynamic sorting during the flood explains the apparent progression of fossils in geological strata.

    19. The dating techniques of the evolutionists are inconsistent, unreliable, and wrong.

    20. Classification of organisms above the species level is arbitrary and manmade.

The science of classification is man-made, as for all sciences.  However, as in all sciences, many techniques are employed to reduce the subjectivity of the classifications and achieve closer correspondence with reality.

    21. If evolution is gradual, there should be no gaps between species.

    22. “Living fossils” like the coelacanth and horseshoe crab prove that all life was created at once.

Evolutionary change, or lack of change, depends on how and when a species’ immediate environment changes.

    23. The incipient structure problem refutes natural selection.  A new structure that evolves slowly over time would not provide an advantage to the organism in its beginning or intermediate stages.

    24. Homologous structures (the wing of a bat, flipper of a whale, and arm of a human) are proof of intelligent design.

Actually, homologous structures are evidence of descent with modification and not intelligent creation.

    25. The whole history of evolutionary theory in particular and science in general is the history of mistaken theories and overthrown ideas.  Science cannot be trusted and modern theories are no better than past theories.

Science progresses through a self-correcting feature that enables construction from error.  Science builds upon the identification and exposure of error.

Science Defended, Science Defined.

A. Equal Time or All the Time?
Why do 99% of scientists take the strict naturalist perspective of evolution held by only 9% of American citizens?

Creationist tactics for pressing their religious beliefs include:

    1. Banning Evolution.
Evolution is largely ignored in classrooms so as to avoid controversy.  Publishers do not wish to lose income from textbooks.

    2. Equal Time for Genesis and Darwin.

    3. Equal time for Creation-Science and Evolution-Science.
Academic honesty requires balanced treatment of competing theories.

Science is guided by natural law (not supernatural processes), explanations refer to natural law, it is testable against an empirical world, its conclusions are tentative, and it is falsifiable.

Science Defined.

    1. Science formulates and tests naturalistic explanations for natural phenomena.

    2. There is an increasing body of observations that yield information about the “facts” or properties of natural phenomena.

    3. The scientific method involves rigorous and repeated testing of the principles that might represent natural explanations for those facts.

    4. Testable theories are formed from well-established facts.

    5. Those theories that accumulate substantial observational or experimental support and withstand careful empirical and rational challenge are accorded the special dignity of a theory.  Theories explain a large and diverse body of facts.  An explanatory principle is not the data it seeks to explain.

    6. Any principle or construct that is not testable is outside the realm of science.  Science cannot evaluate supernatural explanations.

    7. Even the most robust and reliable theory is tentative in science and forever subject to examination, challenge, and evaluation.

    8. Science is free of religious dogma because it is deliberately restricted to the search for natural only principles.

Scientists were united because “creation-scientists” were conveying utter nonsense.