All in the Way You Say Things

In a book review by a writer with the large newspaper The Cleveland Plain Dealer of Jerry Coyne’s new book on evolution we read this statement:

And at the Creation Museum near Cincinnati [about a 4-hour drive from Cleveland], which has drawn more than 630,000 visitors since its 2007 opening, a new exhibit will take on the “inaccuracies” of Charles Darwin’s work.

The secularists very often misrepresent what creationists believe and teach by the way they say things (I think deliberately so in many instances to set up a straw man to make creationists look bad). For instance, take the statement above, which I presume is referring to our publicized “natural selection” exhibit that the Creation Museum design team is working on and will open in a couple of months.

The new exhibit will look at natural selection and speciation and illustrate to people that we observe speciation. We observe natural selection. But such things are not mechanisms to add new information into the genes and change one kind of animal (e.g., a reptile) into a totally different kind (e.g., a bird).

The point we make is that Darwin was a great observer. He was right about natural selection—right about different species (within a kind of course) forming (we use the term speciation)—but he was wrong about his belief that one could extrapolate this as a mechanism to explain the evolution of all the different kinds of animals, plants, etc.

The problem is that the secularists often falsely claim that creationists believe God made the animals and plants just as we see them today—NOT TRUE. Creationists believe God made the original animal and plant kinds. There have been considerable changes within the kinds since that time. For instance, after the Flood, different species of dogs have formed, but they are still the dog kind and will never change into a different kind. Secularists often falsely tell students that creationists believe animals don’t change (but they do), and then tell them that we see animals changing (speciation)—and then use the term evolution for such changes. In the strict definition of the word evolution meaning “change,” then one could say that. But these same secularists know that when students hear the word evolution, they think of Darwinian evolution, meaning the molecules-to-man idea. Thus, a straw man is set up, and students think that creationists aren’t good scientists, so one can’t trust them.

AiG has many articles dealing with natural selection on its website, which I encourage you to read.

This reviewer went on to say:

All this makes Jerry Coyne's lucid, accessible “Why Evolution Is True” desperately needed. With logic and clarity, the University of Chicago professor presents the vast trove of scientific evidence that supports Darwin's theory.”

In 2009, we are going to see much more a push for evolution with this year being the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of his book On the Origin of Species. And because of the victories that the secularists have had in the public school system in America (see my recent blog and AiG articles on the situation in Texas), these people feel empowered to protect evolution in the public education system so that no student will ever question anything about Darwin’s teachings!

There is also a quote in this review claiming that a conservative, church-going judge ruled for evolution:

Jones, a conservative, church-going judicial appointee of former President George W. Bush, drove a stake into the heart of the creationist movement. The judge dismissed as “breathtaking inanity” the Dover, Penn., school board’s policy of misrepresenting evolution and promoting intelligent design as a viable alternative.

You can read the entire review of Coyne’s book and the attack on Christianity and those who would dare question evolution at:

http://www.cleveland.com/bookreviews/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-1/1232791143151770.xml&coll=2

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken