Why People Believe Weird Things

Creationism goes against the very concept of science.

Creationists believe that the Earth and all its living creatures were created by God. They reject Darwin, and view his theory of evolution as an attack on religion.

In reality, creationism is an attack on science. If creationists wanted to prove that God created everything, they’d have to first disprove much of our knowledge about biology, geology or paleontology. Needless to say, they haven’t had any success with this.

If Earth is not 4.6 billion years old, but rather 10,000 years old (as most creationists believe), then all theories about geological eras must be wrong, and dinosaurs couldn’t have existed 100 million years ago. It is simply impossible to argue this given the physical evidence.

The opposite is true: a wealth of scientific evidence speaks against creationism. The fossil record clearly illustrates the evolution of living beings. Most scientists also agree on the big bang theory, and the age of Earth can be calculated almost exactly.

With so much evidence piled against them, creationists have the burden of proving their theory right. Naturally, they can’t, so they focus instead on proving existing theories wrong. They fail at this, too.

For instance, creationists claim that we haven’t found any fossils that show the transition between an ancient and a modern creature, which is untrue. They also try to show mathematically that our current population is descended from just Adam and Eve, thus “proving” the Earth must be under 10,000 years old. But mankind hasn’t been steadily increasing in number each year at the rate they claim – population growth is more erratic.

Ultimately, creationists fail both at proving their own theory, and disproving the theory of evolution. Clearly, creationism has nothing to do with scientific method or scientific research. In fact, it’s a complete rejection of the laws and conduct of science.