Creationism preys upon public ignorance?

July 7, 2000

The above is the headline (but without the question mark) that was displayed above a commentary in The Cincinnati Enquirer, the hometown newspaper of Answers in Genesis–USA, on June 28.

Peter Lask, a doctoral student of paleontology at the University of Cincinnati, submitted a rebuttal to a guest column by creationist Ken Ham of AiG, which Mr. Lask described as “a perfect example of how creationists deliberately misrepresent scientific facts.” Using inflammatory and emotive rhetoric instead of a logical appraisal of the facts (using terms like “insidious,” “preying,” etc.), the commentary was itself a misrepresentation of what creationists like Ken Ham really believe.

For example, Mr. Lask claims that Mr. Ham wrote in his commentary that “volcanoes like Mt. St. Helens deposited all of Earth’s crust.” He wrote no such thing! Actually, Mr. Ham’s article about Mount St. Helens merely pointed out that vast thicknesses of rock need not take vast ages to form, but can do so quickly if there are large amounts of material moving all at once. Also, these rapidly formed deposits had fine layering, showing that each layer didn’t have to be formed one at a time, but that many can form at once by a self-sorting mechanism. For example, a recent catastrophic flood in Iceland also laid down thick, finely layered deposits.

Mr. Lask dismissed the science conducted by creationists by claiming that creationism is merely a belief system of religion. Perhaps Mr. Lask is unaware that many prominent evolutionists admit that they have their own deep belief in atheism, and that they use evolution to promote their worldview. For example, Richard Lewontin of Harvard admits that he has a “prior commitment … to materialism,” and argues that this is “an absolute” because, he says, “we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.” Dr. Richard Dawkins of England says that evolution permits him and others to be “intellectually fulfilled atheists.” Not surprisingly, they attempt to censor any worldview contrary to theirs, as Mr. Lask himself admits: creationism, he declares, “absolutely must not be taught in public schools as an alternative to the hard-won scientific knowledge of geology and biology.”

We call on Mr. Lask and his professors of paleontology and geology at the University of Cincinnati to debate AiG scientists and let the public decide for themselves whether they are as “ignorant” as he claims.

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