I have recently watched a number of anti-evolution/anti-big bang videos created by creationists (pardon the pun), and I cannot believe that people can be so blinded by faith.

The videos I’m referring to are from a Youtube user I follow, Potholer 54, and are all nominees for his annual Crocoduck Awards. In these videos we have a bunch of creationists who are all trying to persuade us that evolution is fake and that they can prove it; which of course not one of them manages to do.

My reason for putting pen to paper – in the digital sense – is because I was aghast at what some of these guys are trying to convince us of and, apart from shouting at the computer, the only other outlet for my frustration is this blog.

So, what is it that’s got me so annoyed? Well here are a few of the choice moments:

• A filmmaker positioned in the entrance hall to what is obviously a Christian convention asking the delegates how old they think the Earth is. Well duh! Obviously they’re all going to say it’s 6000 years old. And why is that? Because, apparently, if you add up all the years mentioned in the bible, it comes to 6000 years. Therefore, the Earth can only be 6000 years old because it’s written so in the scriptures. Yeah ok. It’s also written in the scriptures that a virgin had a baby and that, many years later, after being thoroughly crucified by the Romans (masters of execution of the time) that very same baby was able to resurrect himself enough and hold a conversation with his virgin mother. Right.

• Then we have a guy who says that the big bang never happened because all evidence for this is based on the Oort Cloud. He argues that it’s impossible for the Oort Cloud to exist because all evidence alluding to it is flimsy and, more importantly, no one has ever seen the Oort Cloud. Hence, he says, the big bang never happened and there must be a creator being instead. I put to this guy via his comments box that no one has ever seen the creator either (except in a story) and that, by his own argument, the creator cannot exist either. I got no reply.

• There’s Steve Harvey, who thinks all atheists are idiots and can’t understand how humans evolved from monkeys, if we still have monkeys today. Sorry, but who are the idiots?

• Then there are blokes – yes I say blokes; plural – who revel in telling us they find it impossible to make life by recreating the conditions similar to an early Earth in a test tube, or in one instance, a snow globe… yes a snow globe. Therefore it has been proven that life on Earth couldn’t evolve from simple proteins, amino acids etc. I mean how could it? If you can’t create life inside a snow globe, that has to be proof doesn’t it?

• In the first video there’s even a guy who is thinks he’s proving that there has to be a creator using the ‘which came first, the chicken or the egg’ argument as if he thinks no body out there can answer this question.

I could go on and on with these examples, but what I really want to talk about is why these guys feel that it’s so important to disprove evolution. If you are a true believer in God, then why can you not accept that perhaps He didn’t create the Earth and all life upon it? Does that truly undermine His ability to still be God. Well… I guess it does actually. Ok, so that’s the question posed in the title answered then. But there are still some things about anti-evolutionists that wind me up.

For example, an underlying theme of these videos is that it’s wrong to preach that evolution is factual because it has never been proved. Ok, for one, evolution has been proved over the last 200 years by the collection and assimilation of EVIDENCE. What is it about the creator story (Adam and Eve, the Earth created in 6 days, etc.) that seems to have people thinking that has been proved. Excuse me while I just bang my head on the desk… ah, that’s better.

It makes me laugh when the biggest anti-evolution argument appears to be a lack of evidence: “it’s only a theory”, “answer me this”, “answer me that”, but when you ask a creationist for their evidence, they will invariably point you in the direction of the bible. That’s it? That’s all they’ve got? And they accuse evolution of an acute lack of evidence? Oh please.

One guy in these videos is angry that a science teacher would dare to challenge the minds of 12-year olds by teaching them about evolution and allowing them to make their choices as to what they want to believe. As far as I’m aware, science in general feels that it’s fine to believe whatever you want; if you have faith and don’t believe in evolution, fine. However there are teachers out there who teach that God created the world, and if you believe in evolution you should be burned at the stake. Well, that seems fair I guess.

To me these arguments reek of desperation. I wonder if, deep down, half of these guys are saying what they do because they truly believe it, or just because they feel they have to. I’ve got nothing against people having a faith and I can see how truly uplifting it can be for many. But this banging on about evolution being a load of nonsense when the counter argument is based purely on faith just bewilders me.

Do go and watch some of these videos, but be prepared; they will wind you up…

GR

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Photos courtesy of  Charles Darwin, Lisricka and someone called Anon