Creation, Evolution and Misinformation!

Yes its that old chestnut again. Ye Olde Creation vs Evolution stuff! I have been perusing the blogosphere for articles relating to the debate on Creation and Evolution and all that goes with it. I am basically quite fed up and sad at the amount of misinformation that is peddled around. This goes both ways sadly.

I kind of expect it from secular media, secular scientists like Dawkins and people in general who have an ax to grind against anything religious or creationist. However it should not happen the other way. Christian scientists and apologists should be above reproach in representing creationism and in debating the issues regarding problems in evolutionary theory. It really annoys me when I see Creation Theory repeatedly misrepresented or out right lied about in the media and in Blog articles. A lot of the time it just falls to the base level of name calling and other such childish behaviour. Like stating a supposed belief of creationists which is totally false and purposefully makes creationists out to be moronic idiots for believing such things. Richard Dawkins is a master at this. The interviews I have seen recently of him have incensed me. When an intelligent and talented scientist such as him resorts to such pathetic techniques it is a sad day indeed. If he can't just state his case without the vitriolic and childish personal attacks then he should just scuttle back to Oxford, shut up and grow up!

It really saddens me when I see well meaning Christians misrepresenting Evolutionary theory and quote mining to try and show dissent in the ranks of evolutionary scientists. There should be total integrity and truth in all things stated by Christians who speak up about creationism and evolution.

Now I am no expert and make no claim to be. All I have is the ability to think for myself when reading what others have written. Not being able to think for oneself is one of the things that I see regularly said of creationists and Christians for that matter. Now this is simply nonsense of course and a good example of the methods used to discredit people with any religious conviction. In any walk of life there are people who like to be spoon fed knowledge and don't want to use their brains. This is sadly true of Christians as well as any one else. However that simply does not mean that everyone is like that. It is as stupid and ignorant as someone saying that anyone who believes in evolution is a brainless idiot and has thrown their brain aside.

Here are some of the things that I see written which to me are just either ignorant views or deliberate misrepresentations:

• Creationists don't believe in Evolution!
  Wrong! Creationists do believe in evolution! Just a certain form of it. In evolutionary theory there are two types of evolution.
  
  Macro Evolution, molecules to man type evolution where one kind of living thing can evolve into a totally and distinct kind. This states that all life evolved from a single common ancestor progressively getting more complex over time through random genetic mutation coupled with natural selection. As I understand it of course, feel free to correct me if I am wrong!
  
  Now the second type of evolution is what is known as Micro Evolution, or evolution within kind. This is where evolution occurs but is confined to evolution within distinctly definable life kinds. To give a basic example there are cat kinds and dog kinds. No matter how much time is given they may evolve and diversify over time within kind to produce new species but will remain distinctly cat kind or dog kind. Very basic description I know but hey I am not a scientist! This is what Darwin saw on Galapogos with his finches and what breeders of various animals have done for years. It is what viruses do when they adapt and change or 'evolve'.
  
  Micro Evolution is fact and can be observed and is the kind of evolution Creationists accept. Macro evolution has never been observed in the laboratory or in nature and is what is not accepted by creation science. It is one theory to explain how we got here and one interpretation of the evidence in fossils and other life sciences. If you can't see it happening you cannot falsify it by experiment therefore it cannot be stated as fact. It is a theory! Also don't go claiming it has equal status with the theory of Gravity or any other scientific theory accepted as fact by observation, it doesn't!
  
  
• Creationism isn't true science!
  Now this is that argument that says, since you can't prove scientifically God creating things by His word, creationism isn't true science and should not be treated as anything other than philosophical/religious belief and has no place in scientific discussion or debate. Now on the one had this is quite true. If for the sake of argument God is true and can do what He likes then of course he can override any scientific principal since He created them. So therefore in those instances obviously you cannot use science to explain them. However that does not mean you cannot use science to investigate and try and explain theories of what or how it happened, of what natural laws and principals God may have used.
  
  In evolutionary science, theories are postulated when new discoveries are made in biology, geology, cosmology, paleontology etc... Scientific experimentation in whatever form is then done to try and falsify those theories so they will either stand up or if not be discarded. However without doubt if you come from a conviction that evolution is true then this will shape your theories when faced with trying to explain the evidence in front of you. There is no escaping that fact.
  
  This is exactly what Creation Science does. It is true science in exactly the same sense evolutionary science is true science because all it is doing is developing theories to explain a certain point if view and belief and applying some of the same scientific principles to again falsify and either continue with as a theory or drop due to lack of scientific support.
  Don't ever believe any scientist comes at evidence with a totally open and objective view. It simply doesn't happen. If you believe one thing you will interpret that evidence in the light of that world view.
  
  
• You can't prove special creation!
  Quite true in once sense but as explained above you can use the same scientific principles to support the theory of Special Creation in the same way you do Evolutionary theory. There are scientists who believe in creationism in the same scientific disciplines as those that don't, who carry out their work just as well. Who are just as academically gifted as the next egg head. They carry out research in the same way as non creationists using the same evidence but may draw different conclusions. No different from Evolutionary theory. Neither can be observed since we weren't there but both viewpoints can be examined, hypothesised and experimentally proved of falsified.
  
  
• Creationists don't believe in science and are a threat to modern science!
  This one is just nonsense talk and any amount of reading of serious creation science research will show it. This one is just scare mongering and panic among atheistic evolutionary scientists and is good fun for the media to promote. No more to be said really other than support it with something solid!
  

Now I know nothing I say will convince any hardened evolutionary zealot that creationists are anything other than deluded, mentally ill or simply too ignorant to be in the gene pool type people. However to everyone else, lets stop resorting to name calling, let's grow up and have sensible and respectful debates about the whole thing. Let good science speak for itself! It is not going to go away no matter how hard the cult of Richard Dawkins and his followers try to make it.