It is more than ironic and somewhat of a saddening
fact that the creation science (evolution denial)
movement is the result of very basic and
understandable evolutionary forces.
Those who have uncritical belief in and are
vehemently pushing for a wider acceptance of a
supernatural origin have unknowingly become the
victims of their perceived enemy, the evolutionary
process itself.
Many of the disciplines of science such as astronomy,
biology, geology, palaeontology etc, have arrived at
independent positions of irrefutable support for
evolution being the way of nature. There has been no
collusion in arriving at a consensus that the Earth
is billions of years in age and the Universe many
more billions again.
Although Charles Darwin and others were first to
recognise the system of the 'survival of the fittest'
as the engine of evolutionary change, science has
since expanded knowledge in this area to a point
where severe mental gymnastics have to be employed to
not recognize it. It is well within the human
character to allow delusional thinking in this area
of thought.
The examples of humanities delusional capacity are
voluminous. The Aztecs sacrificed virgins for soil
fertility, the Christians burnt witches as they
communicated with the Devil, rivers and mountains
were formed by giant snakes etc in Aboriginal culture
and the Egyptian gods expected embalmed Pharaohs to
meet them on the other side of the river Styx.
It is beyond obvious that none of the aforementioned
delusions were anything but that. They were believed
in by humans no different from us and with the same
amount of sincerity expressed in the belief of
today's gods. We have an inbuilt propensity to be
brainwashed into believing just about anything that
can be proposed.
Evolution has made sure that younger members of
societies learn and retain important survival
information which later in life takes on the mantle
of instinctive feelings. This knowledge is then
passed on to the next generation and so on and so
forth. The basic message is preserved and refined by
endless generations. Through eons of honing fantastic
stories to fit our psyche, it comes as no surprise
that we find it difficult to not accept the
truthfulness of these tales.
As we retained survival based hunter and gathering
skills we did also with interaction ability, tribal
mores and laws, geographical importances and our
world view. There was no imperative, other than an
aid to survival, for any such gained knowledge to be
an accurate portrayal of reality. It may have even
been considered that the new fangled bow and arrow
was a passing fad, or that on the other side of the
mountain lived horrible gigantic monsters, or that
our god was the correct one. Truth was not important;
stability of past learning, that had us surviving up
until that point in time, was the paramount
objective. Deviating from these tried and true
instinctive thoughts would have been painstakingly
slow and would have had to be carefully questioned in
case of a mistake being made which could adversely
affect survival.
We are primed to not accept change.
With personal and tribal survival at stake being a
continuous concept, it is no wonder that we were
drawn into wishing for survival after death. It must
have jumped into the minds of very early humans,
prompted by mortal fear that our reality must have a
designer more powerful than us. Detrimental and
beneficial natural events confronting the daily lives
of scientifically ignorant peoples would have
reinforced such notions.
The fear of non existing and the loss of loved ones
played conveniently into the hands of individuals
claiming special connection to the gods. The
combinations of ritual and coincidence, not unlike
the 'other-side' television shows of today, were
played to the hilt by the self appointed priests and
shamans.
These first holy-men were either deluded or deceitful
or a little of both. Their wishfully thinking
followers, fearful of divine retribution and hopeful
of reward in this life and the next became compliant
to their demands. The stage was set from our very
earliest times for religion to become an important
part of survival. As stated before and as is obvious,
it did not need to be true.
Those that flourished and prospered attributed their
good fortune to the gods. How could they not, for to
deny the gods could jeopardise that luck. Those not
so well off felt chastised by the gods and
endeavoured to make amends with them by fervent
devotion. The haves and the have-nots proceeded in
supporting each others imaginations.
Humanity was on a religious course that was near
inescapable until the discovery of science and
scientific method.
No other system of unravelling nature has ever come
close to the detective power that it produced. All
facts were open to scrutiny by very willing
detractors with experiments having to fulfil the role
of being predictable and repeatable. If the methods
of science cannot be trusted to eventually reach the
best conclusions possible, then what our senses are
telling us is totally misrepresenting the reality we
find ourselves in.
Science proper has only existed for a very short
while compared to the unsuccessful attempts of trying
to understand nature by religious methods. A few
hundred years up against many hundreds of thousands
of years. Is it any wonder that the old ways still
thrash about with an ardent unwillingness to accept
what science is saying?
Evolution is an all consuming process that does not
take too kindly to untested change. It can make no
critical judgement as to whether that change, or
indeed, any change, is beneficial or not. It can only
try to protect the survival of the fittest ideas that
have been successful so far. Evolution, in the form
of religion, especially religion of the fundamental
kind, will fight tooth and nail to keep the status
quo.
Evolution does not involve itself with predictions
based on reason, rather it predicts with the use of
what it sees as successful past events.
Experiments by evolution are of a timid and cautious
nature with mistakes severely punished by the halting
of a particular genetic strain. Creationists fulfil
the evolutionary process by resisting change to that
which is perceived to work. That is what evolution is
all about.
Unfortunately to our great cost now and in the
future, the perception is wrong as it has always been
and humanity will pay dearly for it.
An Ode to
Noah
By David Nicholls
There’s
a story going around
Of an Ark, animals and dinosaurs,
Supposedly one quite profound
About the interference of nature’s watery laws,
Disappearing not some, but every piece of ground.
The number of species on this Earth,
At that date and now,
Well over a million came from birth.
Strange it seems and I wonder how
Only fifty thousand had some worth,
Enough they say to fill all and bow.
Salt water and fresh mixed all up,
That must have caused a stir
To the function of those that did not sup,
Death would surely have to occur,
On this point alone the story does err.
Forty days and forty nights
Came the torrents all pouring sent,
Seven hundred feet a day, well must have been a
fright,
Whence it came and where it went,
Till this day, with logic, dare no one write.
Ten months of bobbing too and fro,
A marvellous feat of feeding care
And most importantly where did the dung go.
Every Zoo on this planet fair
Would like Noah’s formula for keeping the staff
so low.
If taken into account the walkways and cage,
The bulkheads, water, food and human habitat,
One then might not too quickly gauge,
That this story happened like that,
But rather, was written by a none too clever sage.
The mighty boat on Ararat did found
Out poured them all only to find,
“Where’s the food?” “It’s
all been drowned!”
“Never the mind”, all the animals resigned,
“To the ends of the Earth we must swim and
pound.”
A likely story, the wise think not,
So full of holes
And unlikely plot,
That the dinosaurs from head to sole
Came to extinction from laughing a lot.
