The Hypocrisy of It All

Atheist Richard Dawkins, according to the press in the United Kingdom, is helping to subsidize a summer retreat on atheism and evolution for children (such retreats already take place in the USA). The headline for the article in the Mail Online states:

Richard Dawkins Launches Children’s Summer Camp for Atheists

So what is the hypocrisy in regard to this?

After the group of around 70–80 secular paleontologists visited the Creation Museum recently, some comments were made to the press (several media outlets were here that day) concerning the Creation Museum attracting so many children and how terrible this was—that we were educating children this way. Recently I wrote a blog item about a person who was complaining about the new Creation Museum billboards, stating:

I hate that the Creation Museum has dinosaurs ripping at their billboards, an obvious ploy to attract more kids to brainwash to Christianity.

Yesterday we came across a blog entry by an associate professor of mathematics in Harrisonburg, Virginia,who visited with the group of paleontologists. He blogged:

I have made several visits to the museum, and it has been crowded each time. But even I was taken aback by the mob scene that greeted us. Things were so clogged it was sometimes hard to work your way through the labyrinth of exhibits. Very depressing. Even more depressing was the ubiquity of small children from various camps and schools: Well isn’t that charming. Getting 'em while their young is a big thing with creationists.

Of course, what he means is that Christians shouldn’t be teaching children—that it needs to be left up to the atheists/evolutionists. If this professor agreed with what we teach, it would be okay to teach children—but he doesn’t agree; so, it is not okay for us to teach children.

The utter hypocrisy of such a position (which we hear from these very emotional and religious zealot secularists) can be seen so clearly in what is reported about Richard Dawkins and the summer camp on atheism for children. The Mail Online report continues:

The author of controversial book The God Delusion is helping to launch Britain’s first summer retreat for non-believers.

Richard Dawkins is subsidising the camp which will offer children aged eight to 17 the chance to sing along to John Lennon’s Imagine [sic] and have lessons in evolution.

The five-day camp, based in Somerset, promises to be ‘beyond belief’—the event’s motto—and will rival traditional faith-based breaks run by the Scouts and church groups.

. . . And instead of finishing up the day with a toasted marshmallow and round of Kim-bi-ya budding atheists will belt out ‘Imagine there’s no heaven . . . and no religion too.’ Dawkins said the camp was designed to ‘encourage children to think for themselves sceptically and rationally.’

The camp will enable “children to think for themselves skeptically and rationally.” In other words, these children will be trained to think the way Richard Dawkins wants them to—to think his atheistic way! Talk about brainwashing children in atheism!

The report continues:

The event has been held in America for 13 years

Oh, yes—this event has been happening in America for years—the country where secularists slam Christians for teaching children because they disagree with Christianity. They want to teach all children atheism, as they do at such camps. Their hypocrisy is astounding—but not surprising of course.

The Mail report continues:

There will also be philosophical and scientific discussion for children who will be taught about evolution and that ethical behaviour is not dependent on religious belief and doctrines.

This certainly sounds like teaching children to think for themselves, now doesn’t it?!

You can read the entire report at this link. There are also a number of other media reports on this children’s atheist camp event.

Just as I had finished drafting this blog item, I learned that a major New York Times article about our museum is to appear in today’s edition, which has a comment about an evolutionist lamenting the fact that so many young people are coming to our Creation Museum. This evolutionist, head of a science museum at Yale University, stated:

But you worry about the youngsters [who tour the museum].

Well, I worry about the young people who tour his secular, evolutionist museum that undermines biblical authority! See the Times article and photo (you may need to register first) here.

In tomorrow’s blog, I will offer some commentary on the largely well-done Times article. The paper sent a reporter here to tour the Creation Museum with a large group of paleontologists.

Already Gone Review

The Christian Post published an article on our new book Already Gone. The article begins:

“The next generation of believers is draining from the churches, and it causes me great personal and professional concern,” said Ken Ham, founder and president of Answers in Genesis and a Young Earth creationist [sic].

Hoping to shed light on what he believes is a monumental problem, Ham enlisted the services of America’s Research Group to study why young people were leaving. The results, published in Already Gone, will shake many churches to their very core, Ham states in the new book.

While previous surveys have shown that Christian students tend to quit church during their college years, the data collected by ARG found that most of them were already gone in middle school and high school.

According to ARG’s survey, 95 percent of 20- to 29-year-old evangelicals attended church regularly during their elementary and middle school years. Only 55 percent went to church during high school. And by college, only 11 percent were still attending church.

“They’re sitting in our churches right now . . . and they’re already gone,” Ham said during a “State of the Nation” address last week.

Delving deeper into some of the reasons for the exodus, the research group found that nearly 40 percent of the surveyed twentysomethings first had doubts about the Bible in middle school. Another 43.7 percent said they first doubted that all of the accounts and stories in the Bible are true during their high school years. Only around 10 percent said they first became doubtful about the Bible accounts during college.

Among those who said they do not believe all the biblical accounts are true, the top reasons they gave for doubting the scriptures were: “it was written by men” (24 percent), “it was not translated correctly” (18 percent), “the Bible contradicts itself” (15 percent), and “science shows the world is old” (14 percent).

In an even more alarming finding, attending Sunday school proved to be of no help in strengthening a young person’s faith. In fact, the survey revealed that Sunday school is actually more likely to be detrimental to the spiritual and moral health of children.

You can read the rest of the article at the link given above. You can order Already Gone in single copies or bulk discounted copies from the AiG online bookstore.

Devotion

Personal Creation

(Job 33:4) The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty has given me life.

The knowledge of creation encouraged us to repent of our sins and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, as we saw ourselves as His lost personal creation.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken