I recently did a podcast entitled “What’s Wrong with “Is Genesis History?” where I talked about paradigms and religions and why you can’t overturn a religion with science. I wanted to come back to that and put it in print as well so those of you who don’t watch/listen to the podcast (shame on you by the way), can see what is going on. Hopefully this will be enlightening, particularly for those of you who accept what Dr. Woods, McLains, Wises etc say at face value. I would suggest you don’t, but not because they are lying. They simply have a fundamental misunderstanding of what evolution is.
I will be referring to the group of creationists who tend to accept most of the pronouncements of evolutionists at face value as “model builders”. I chose this term because they are constantly talking about building a creation model and object to what they term “evolution bashing”. While I am all for building a creation model, I am not about to accept ridiculous claims made by evolutionists just because they represent consensus science. Just as an example of some of the absolutely absurd stuff these individuals are willing to accept, Dr. Wise thinks whales walked off the Ark. He basically hands evolutionists the entire whale series. McLain, in our discussion on baraminology on my channel, openly said birds are dinosaurs. He qualified it by saying it was all based on cladistic taxonomy but what did the layman hear? Birds are dinosaurs coming from a creationist. Bad ideas have consequences.
The real question is, why? Why are a group of creationists swallowing evolutionary arguments wholesale? I think the answer comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of what evolution is. I’ve argued previously that evolution is a religion. There is significant nuance to this point. Evolution functions as a scientific paradigm, true. However it also functions as a purely secular religion, complete with dogmas and doctrines all its own. I think the model builders completely miss this nuance. They view evolution purely as a scientific paradigm. As such, they think is can be overthrown if they just accumulate enough evidence.
One thing that regularly gets thrown at creation scientists is “well you can’t get rid of this model unless you provide a better one”. This is a non-sequitur, in that truth is not dependent on models. If a model is wrong, knock it down, don’t knowingly continue to teach it. However, that’s beside the point. What the model builders have done is taken that criticism and gone “yeah that’s fair, let’s build a creation model.” The problem is, NO creation model will ever be accepted by mainstream science. It will literally never happen. Here’s why.
Evolution is more than simply a scientific paradigm. If it was a scientific paradigm, creating an excellent creation model might successfully overturn the existing paradigm as the Is Genesis History? video mentioned. Plate tectonics went from being persona non grata, to being the established paradigm in a very short time. However, the theory of plate movement is not the same as evolution. Plate movement does not tell us where we come from, what we are doing here, or what the purpose of life is. It is purely a scientific paradigm, insofar as it is not incorporated into the evolutionary religion. Evolution exists as both a scientific paradigm and a secular religion. While Dr. Michael Ruse, when he admitted evolution is a religion, tried to separate between evolution the religion and evolution the scientific paradigm, this can’t be done. You cannot separate an idea from its consequences.
The model builders are happy to discuss evolution as a scientific paradigm. What they will not deal with is evolution as a religion. What they also don’t do is recognize that the scientists are biased by their belief in evolution as a religion when they conduct their science. Because the model builders do not recognize this, they accept most everything the evolutionists say without question, and only draw the line at things explicitly condemned by Scripture.
Unfortunately, the model builders do not understand that you cannot overturn a religious paradigm with a scientific one. If the model builders want to overturn evolution, and I suspect most of them do, they will need to recognize they cannot separate evolution the religion from evolution the scientific paradigm. That’s why the “evolution bashers” are right. They aren’t bashing evolution the science per se. They are rebutting the false doctrines promulgated by the proselytizers of the secular religion. Until the model builders get this, they will continue to lead unsuspecting college students astray in the class room, opening the door for acceptance of evolution the religion, while still claiming to oppose evolution the science.
Do you know what’s going to happen when you die? Are you completely sure? If you aren’t, please read this or listen to this. You can know where you will spend eternity. If you have questions, please feel free to contact us, we’d love to talk to you.
In His Image 