Dinosaurs did co-exist with Adam and Eve, you see. How do we know this? Just read the Bible!
All of this is cheerfully explained by creationist Ken Ham (who describes himeself as a former high school biology teacher) in a lecture entitled “Dinosaurs In the Bible.” [1] Actually, you can catch a whole series of lectures by Ken at Answers in Genesis. [1]
Here’s some more things Ken taught me. The earth was created in six 24-hour days. Why should we believe that? Because “If we don’t believe in six literal days we open the door to the collapse of Christian morality in our nation.” Furthermore, the numerous scientific methods of dating (such as carbon dating) are hopelessly inaccurate [2].
There are many lines of evidence that the radiometric dates are not the objective evidence for an old earth that many claim, and that the world is really only thousands of years old. We don’t have all the answers, but we do have the sure testimony of the Word of God to the true history of the world.
Why must people suffer? Because we’re sinful, says Ken. God “loves us” when he inflicts us with horrible diseases like AIDS.
Ever notice those huge sharp teeth of T-rex? What did T-rex eat? No, not meat. Look to the Bible (Gen 1:29-30), not to the teeth, says Ken, and you’ll learn with certainty that T-rex was a plant eater (see “Dinosaurs in the Bible – Part I” [1]).
Ken’s lectures contain plenty of bootstrapping. How do we know that there is a God? Read the Bible, Ken says over and over. Don’t listen to those scientists who say otherwise, especially those “anti-creationists” Carl Sagan and Richard Dawkins.
One small bright spot: the slick graphics and music preceding each of these 24 lectures show that Ken acknowledges that the Earth is round (not flat). One more bright spot: I must admit that I have been carrying around this bias that people with British accents are a bit smarter than those without–but watching a few lectures with Ken (actually, he’s Australian) has almost completely cured me of that.
For those attempting to set creationists straight, this site is a great place to begin. All of their defective, disingenuous and dishonest arguments are presented here in cartoon form. But the battle is no longer about simply providing accurate information to combat inaccurate information. Doing that (simply providing accurate information) will get you nowhere. Just look at the credulous faces of the audience members watching Ken. They really like his smiling face, his encouragement, his sense of humor and his simple diagrams. Ken’s audience members are suspicious of scientists from the git-go. To effectively teach evolution, we need to get under this radar, not through it.
There’s an art to doing this well, but many scientists have not yet caught on–check out many of the sites explaining evolution accurately (some of them are listed on the DI homepage). Very few of them are as inviting and encouraging as Ken Hamm. Yes, many of them provide lots of information, but there’s still is a crying need for some good basic videos presenting the principles of evolution (and carbon dating and paleoontolgy, etc) in an inviting and extremely simplified way. Scientists need to spend much more time learning to present accurate information in tiny digestible bites suitable for 10 year olds with ADD. Maybe scientists don’t want to stoop to this level, but that is where the battle is being fought (and often lost) these days. In my own experience, it’s not that people are rejecting evolution; rather, it’s that they don’t understand it. They are rejecting the warped cartoon version of evolution being taught by those friendly creationists who also take the time to hand out salvation while they’re at it. It just so often seems like a mismatch.
In short, sites like Answers in Genesis [3] present a threat and a challenge to those who wish to educate Americans about the beauty, power and elegance of evolution. Here’s my suggested battle cry: it’s no longer about simply providing accurate information.
Print this post [4]
[5]