Creationism: The Biggest Threat?

Yes, he actually said it: creationism “may pose the greatest threat to the future of our children, your health, and the nation’s economy.”

This remarkable quote comes from Arthur Caplan, chairman of the medical ethics department at the University of Pennsylvania and frequent TV commentator, writing in the major newspaper The Philadelphia Inquirer. What prompted this venomous attack? Vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin apparently believes in creation and is on record as having said that students should be allowed to “debate both sides” of the evolution question. She also adds (and I want you to remember this as you read the rest of this letter) that creationism “doesn’t have to be part of the curriculum.”

In Caplan’s eyes, this simple desire to allow children to discuss both sides of the issue means “a vote for Sarah Palin, or any creationist, is a vote for change, all right, a change back to the lifestyles of the 19th century.”1 Attacks like these demonstrate better than anything I could ever say why the ministry of Answers in Genesis is so crucial. We must be out on the front lines to combat the mixture of hysterics, misrepresentation, and scare tactics presented by secularists everywhere.

But that can only happen through great personal commitment by creation defenders like you. Support of this vital ministry allows us to continue developing new resources and providing the church and culture with biblical answers to today’s tough questions on human origins.

The Battle to Ban Christianity

These secular “religious zealots” (of the religion of humanism) are out to eliminate Christianity from the culture—and they see the creation/evolution issue as foundational to that battle. At AiG, we’ve been saying that for years. It may be the only thing on which we and the secularists agree.

This battle has been going on since Genesis 3—the choice of believing in God’s Word or man’s word instead.

Actually, this battle has been going on since Genesis 3—the choice of believing in God’s Word or man’s word instead. If God is Creator, and the Bible is true, then there is an absolute authority, and morality is not relative (as these secularists want it to be).

You can see why the secular evolutionists in the media and elsewhere hate the Creation Museum and the ministry of Answers in Genesis. This battle is heating up, and as we move into 2009, the 200th birthday of Darwin and the 150th anniversary of his Origin of Species, you can be sure AiG and the Creation Museum will come under increasing attack.

I just praise the Lord that for this time of history, He has raised up this ministry to stand on the authority of God’s Word and uncompromisingly proclaim the truth of creation and the gospel of Jesus Christ. I praise Him also for partners like you willing to pray and give sacrificially.

Alarming Statistics

On the day I wrote this, you would have thought that “creation” and the presidential election were synonymous. I had one of our researchers collect some statistics for me about Gov. Palin and the creation/evolution issue:

• Google News listed 2,000+ online stories mentioning Palin’s purported creationist leanings.
• PressDisplay, a digital newspaper service used by the AiG library (700 newspapers from 76 countries in 36 languages), reports over 170 articles mentioning Palin and creation. Besides the U.S., newspapers from Australia, Canada, Mexico, U.K., New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, China, South Africa, Belgium, Israel, Austria, Thailand, and others have run stories portraying Gov. Palin as insisting that creation be taught in public schools.
• And, of course, well over 1,000 blog entries had discussed Palin and creationism.

The Media “Buzz”

• Chris Matthews, host of Hardball on MSNBC, interviewed a guest from The New Yorker magazine who stated: “Now they’re saying, OK, let’s define her as a right-winger. You know, we’ll talk about her views on creationism and some of these other extreme views.” That elicited this from Matthews (who calls himself a Catholic Christian, by the way): “She’s got a lot of strange views—they are pretty far over.”
• Hollywood celebrity Matt Damon was quoted in an Associated Press article headlined “Matt Damon Fears a Palin Administration.” What’s his biggest “fear” about Palin? Her belief about origins and the age of the earth. “I need to know if she really thinks that dinosaurs were really here 4,000 years ago. I want to know that. Because she’s going to have the nuclear codes,” says Damon.
• Even the famous TV judge “Judge Judy” got into the discussion. On the program The View, host Barbara Walters and others discuss current events. Newsbusters reported (September 9) that the most famous judge in America, when prodded by Walters, expressed her discomfort with “the teaching of creationism in public schools.” Well, as a judge, she has formed an opinion based on faulty information—Palin has not advocated the teaching of creation in public schools!
• And then there was the attempt at a Muslim (and extremist) connection to biblical creationists like those at AiG. On Salon.com (web traffic around 2.1 million visits a month), it is stated (again totally misrepresenting what Palin has said): “Palin argued when running for governor that creationism should be taught in public schools, at taxpayers’ expense, alongside real science. Antipathy to Darwin for providing an alternative to the creation stories of the Bible and the Quran has also become a feature of Muslim fundamentalism.”

More Scare Tactics

It’s especially clear in this latest round of attacks that many evolutionists are not basing their arguments on scientific evidence. They know creationists have the answers readily available. So, they resort to emotional arguments and scare tactics, just as the influential Dr. Caplan did in his article when he made these absurd statements:

“. . . but it will mean the United States can kiss goodbye any chance this nation has of using biomedical science to take on the rest of the world in biotechnology, alternative-energy technology, synthetic biology or genetics. And that means we can more or less kiss goodbye any chance we have of using our current prowess in biomedical science to drive our economy forward . . . . But what cannot be ignored is her view that a narrow religious account of how the world began and evolved belongs in the science classroom. If Palin’s fundamentalist religious thinking are [sic] on display in the White House, then the odds are lower that America can tap biological science to work our way out of global warming, oil dependency, pollution, dying oceans, and finding new ways to grow healthy food.”

Caplan’s antagonism is even more concerning because he’s prominent in his field. You have probably seen him in numerous television interviews speaking on ethics, medicine, and science. Modern Health Care magazine voted him one of the fifty most influential people in American health care, so thousands of people will treat what he says as fact.

The sad thing is that this nonsense above is what is being taught to most public school and college students. We need to get the truth out this election season. We need to challenge church and culture to get back to the authority of the Word of God.

Stand with us once again. Please consider a gift now to be part of the calm voice of reason amid the unreasonable hysterics and scare tactics, and clear away the lies that hinder people from understanding the gospel message. Together, we can!