The Absurdity of Creationists

Front view of National Museum of Natural History, RIzal Park, Manila Philippines (September 5, 2018)

By Ronald Michael Quijano, LPT

             I happened to visit the National Museum of Natural History in the heart of Metro Manila. It is located along Agrifina Circle in Rizal Park. To give some background about the building, it was originally built as Agriculture and Commerce Building in 1940. On the other side of this building, the National Museum of Anthropology is erected, where the history of the Philippines is preserved in a fashionable manner. This building formerly housed the Department of Finance. A few blocks from the National Museum of Anthropology where the National Museum of Fine Arts is located. The vital role of these museums in cultural growth was recognized as a contribution to the government’s desire for national development. In 1996, when President Ferdinand Marcos signed the Cultural Properties and Protection Act - which is also known as RA No. 4846 - it aims to protect and preserve the nation’s cultural properties. Most of us have some background knowledge about how religion affects the history of our nation, and the evidence is right in front of our eyes once you visit the National Museum of Anthropology. Another thing is that religion has a huge contribution in the field of our fine arts.

          Most paintings that are displayed in the National Museum of Fine Arts have some religious context within it. But what caught my attention most - and I am most proud of seeing - are the well-preserved species of our own flora and fauna. I wrote this essay to give knowledge to those people who happened not to understand evolution, and to give essential concepts on why creationism is grandiose and pernicious at the same time. Most religious people view evolution as a tedious explanation for life as we know it. Human beings see themselves as superior to all other life forms, which - I believe - to be evidence of how human beings worship and idolize themselves. The versions of how the universe began and how the world and everything in it was created differ from one religion to the other. The most influential version came from Judeo-Christian scriptures, the book of Genesis. I won’t discuss here the history of the book - even though that is one evidence of why is it not plausible - but let’s discuss why is it impossible, why creationism is impossible. There are creationist museum scattered all over the world, and the religious management handling such facilities are absolute about the truth of their version, while more and more religious people visiting that kind of museum are very adaptive resulting to concrete mindset and understanding of the world with their ignis fatuus.

         The creationist view of the world is that the earth was just approximately 6000 years old. But evidence all over the world and in every field - such as anthropology, chemistry, geology, biology, etc., - give such massive evidence that the world is way older than that. They don’t even have an idea of what the real world is capable of. In the book of Genesis, the sun was made first and the stars were created after, this is evidence that the author of that book doesn’t even know what those things are. How can there be light on the first day if the stars and sun were created on the fourth day? Were there photons on the first day? Not just that, in the book of Revelation, it is stated that one of the signs of the second coming is when the stars will fall down on earth. Those authors who wrote such prophetic claims have no idea what those things really are. Creationists have presented vacuous arguments which seem to be their escape to an ineluctable fact. Let us discuss the common Creationist arguments that are notoriously errant or based on a misunderstanding of evolutionary science and evidence.

          (1) “Evolution is only a theory. It is not a scientific law or a fact”. Those who raised this kind of argument have no idea about the difference between hypothesis and theory. According to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), a scientific theory is “a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world that can incorporate facts, laws, inferences, and tested hypotheses.” No amount of validation changes a theory into a law, which is a descriptive generalization about nature. When scientists talk about evolution, it doesn’t always correspond to the truth, but rather facts about evolution. The NAS' definition of fact as “an observation that has been repeatedly confirmed and for all practical purposes is accepted as ‘true.”, and the facts of evolution are can be seen clearly from fossil records and up to this date. The abundance of evidence testifies that an organism evolves over time. No one has seen evolution directly, yes it’s true, but the indirect evidence is clear, compelling, and lucid.

Image taken from the National Museum of Natural History, showing the different types of crabs that can be found in the islands of the Philippines. (September 5, 2018)

  (2) “If humans descended from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?” Those who raised this argument are at the bottom of the hierarchy of ignorance. We humans did not descend from monkeys, we have a common ancestry. It goes like this, a new species evolve by cleaving off from common grounds. When the population of this evolved species becomes separated from the main branch of their family, it will forever be distinct, and by chance, another type of species may evolve from the main branch. But that doesn’t mean that the established ones or their common ancestor became extinct, they may survive or they may fall into the list of extinct.

     (3) “Nobody has ever seen a species evolve”. Before I elaborate an explanation to this argument, let me start by stating; A population of a species doesn’t evolve, a generation of species evolve. How long? Some may take centuries, for some, even millennia. It’s hard for biologists to agree on whether when and how to determine a species. And it is difficult to do formative classification. Biologists therefore usually use an organism's’ physical and behavioral traits as clues to their species membership.

The image is taken from the National Museum of Natural History, Manila Philippines, showing different species of beetles in the Philippines. (September 5, 2018)

(4) “Evolution can’t explain how life first appeared here on Earth”. The origin of life is one of the greatest mysteries of Science. There are lots of things we do not understand and science up to this day can’t explain. It’s true that Science doesn’t have the answer to this argument, but we can give a plausible statement on why life is possible without an intelligent creator. The main components and the most common elements we can find in the universe are; Hydrogen, Helium, Oxygen, Carbon, Nitrogen, Iron, etc. The next question is what are the common elements that can be found in our body? These are; Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen, and Iron. The same common ingredients that can be found throughout the universe are also the same common ingredients that can be found in our bodies. Neil DeGrasse Tyson - An astrophysicist - said to one of his speech “If we are made out of the same common ingredients as the universe, how does that make us special? If you are made out of the isotope of Bismuth, that would be special”. The probability of life in the universe is very high.

            The universe has more to offer than we have on our hands. Belief and superstition are products of ignorant human beings that can’t understand natural phenomena due to a lack of knowledge. Science, however, makes us capable of analyzing, questioning, and testing shreds of evidence. It is true that there are a lot of things that science still can’t explain, we must admit it. Science also teaches us that most of the time, we can be wrong, and we must learn to accept that. There’s no shame in admitting that you don’t know everything, the only shame is when you pretend you have all the answers even when you can’t even justify it. Evolution is a thing, those people happened not to understand it are evidence that some humans stopped evolving.