Creationism: A Threat to National Security

As candidates jockey for position in the 2008 elections you will hear them peddle their position on evolution and creation. To me, there is no debate, so I will not call it that. It is the position supported by evidence and a position supported by belief. Just because you believe in something does not make it so.

This blog entry will not address the discussion between evolution and creation. There are people that believe the world is 6000 years old, flat, and in the center of the universe. They belive dinosaurs walked with man. In short, they ignore viable scientific evidence that clearly supports that all modern creatures descended from similar species, and mutations pyramided over time to shape new forms. There is no debate among scientists.

Instead this is about how dangerous it is for the lay public to discredit scientists and their findings. When children are told that scientists are evil people against god (and some polls suggest that 50% are) we change our perspective as a people of technology, medicine and science to a people that accept rules because they think they are true. Another generation of idoits is born.

In other countries people are taught to think critically, to gather and analyze data in a correct manner driven by hypothesis testing and the scientific method. The future belongs to them. When America is supplanted as a technological superpower by others the faithful can pray that they might get access to the breakthroughs in engineering, computers and medicine. Luckily, the people of the world that despise us the most are also worried about creators and such nonsense, so they won't get technology very quickly either.

You can't have it both ways. The faithful must either accept, yet surely continue to question, the factual basis of evolution. If you teach your kids that science is a corrupt and biased field, then it is intellectually dishonest to partake in modern medicine or comptuers. If science is wrong, then please don't use any of it.

It boils down to a simple concept. I'm a scientist, and if I could find any evidence of creation I would become THE MOST FAMOUS SCIENTIST of ALL TIME! Believe me, if I found god's smoking gun I'd test it extra carefully and then publish my findings on the covers fo Nature and Science. This is the difference between a creationist and a scientist. A scientist will remodel his/her position, sometimes 180 degrees, if the evidence supports it. Someone that bases pseudoscientific beliefs based on bogus science and faith will not waiver. Science grows. Faith is stuck. That is precisely why it is not science.