Evolution grotesquely parodied by a man of the cloth

It is amazing how some can (deliberately) misunderstand evolution. This recently appeared on FB and I am sure the Wise Man is a minister. The person who posted it is a devout Christian, yet has been deceived by her Christian teachers to believe utter nonsense.

I must stress that this is not from America but from England’s green and pleasant land

A Wise Man (who shall remain nameless) once explained the Theory of Evolution to me like this: The possibility of everything on our beautiful earth coming together by accident has the same probability as an explosion in a Lego factory where all the red bricks end up together, all the yellow ones together, etc. Wonder who that Wise Man was? xxxx

It is difficult not to facepalm with such vigour on reading this without one’s palms being permanently welded to one’s face, and I am sure others feel the same.

Once I have levered my palms off my face I shall explain why this is so WRONG.

Before I consider what the Wise Man said , here is one of his followers who said that evolutionary theory is not promoted by unproven hypothesis, it is itself and unproven hypothesis. Clearly this chappie does not know the difference of theory and hypothesis

Hence evolution can be dismissed  as in the cartoon and the poster outside an Anglican church illustrate.

 

First, it conflates evolution, abiogenesis and the Big Bang into one muddle. Those familiar with anti-science arguments from Christians will recognise that this is like the Big Bang being liked to a Boeing 747 created by a whirlwind in the scrapyard. That goes back to the Arkansas trial of 1981/2. The first thing I want to say is that the Big Bang was first put forward in the 1920s by a Belgian astrophysicist by the name of Fr. Georges  Lemaitre (1894-1966)   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Lema%C3%AEtre, who was not only a professor of physics but also a priest.

Secondly, it gives no indication of the step by step development of life  over 4 billion years, but then I suspect that the Wise Man doesn’t accept geological time and may well regarding geological dating as leapfrogging from one logic to another, educated inspiration, genius and guesses. Maybe there are other explanations of the Fossil Record

Thirdly, our Wise Man forgets the 2-3 billion build-up to multi-cellular life at the end of the Pre-cambrian.

Fourthly, our Wise Man must be indescribably silly if he thinks that this is a fair representation of the science of evolution as it has been developed over the last 200 years.

Fifthly, I wonder how many poor faithful Christians our wise Man has conned over this and how many people decided to be an atheist as a result.

Sixthly, our Wise Man should learn to build his house on Rock,and consider both the Ages of Rocks and the Rock of Ages.

Despite having grappled with Young Earth Creation for decades I cannot understand hwo supposedly intelligent and educated Christians fall for this type of nonsense in the first place , and then teach it as Gospel. If you are not sure you are being taught this stuff then play this bingo; you should quickly get a full house

 

 

As well as being nonsense this also means that people are given a false choice about the Christian Faith. Either you can believe in Jesus Christ and hold that all astrophysics, geology and biology is false, and possibly of Satan (yes, the late Henry Morris the father of modern Young Earth Creationism does claim this) OR you can accept modern science, which is well-nigh irrefutable and reject any kind of religion. This is what that Wise Man is doing, whether he is aware of it or not.

The book that started it in 1961

Stories of those who have been faced with this choice are legion, and not a few have concluded that those like our Wise Man are not simply deluded or simple, but actually dishonest. I couldn’t possibly comment but as a Christian minister I do get annoyed with those  who make part of being a Christian to be accepting utter nonsense.

I will also say that a Christian minister/vicar who teaches Young Earth Creationism to his flock is at best stupid and irresponsible, however “sincere” he may be, and church authorities and bishops should not tolerate it it (nor the odd clergy who don’t beleive in God). My impression over many years is that no bishop wants to take up the challenge 😦

Finally, It is fair to saying that the doctrine of creation has been neglected in many churches and it needs to be taught. We need to emphasis its importance, its compatibility with science and our responsibility to care for the creation/environment. After all we are part of creation and need to ensure we understand it and our place in creation (or nature if you prefer.)