The baffling inconsistancy of Creationism

I read an interesting piece by the Creationist organization Answers in Genesis recently that explained that because the Earth/nature is cursed and man is fallen we cannot really trust things like science, experimentation, reason and logic because they must be untrustworthy. Since the Fall rendered all human capability to correctly interpret the evidence utterly useless, we should then rather blindly put all faith and trust in the Bible as it is the only interpretation that can be trusted. So if you have hard evidence telling you one thing and the Bible telling you another you should discard the evidence and believe the Bible instead. Words like “interpretation” and “allegory” are for hell-bound heretics. The funny part is that these people sincerely believe that telling intelligent, thinking people not to think or reason is an effective form of evangelism.

OK so it’s not that funny, but sometimes I have to laugh to keep from weeping.

I have noticed however that most Young Earth Creationists are so busy patting themselves on the back for defending the literal truth of the Bible that they never even realize how hypocritical their behaviour is. I wonder if it ever occurred to them that they contradict everything they claim to stand for everytime they go to the doctor? Of course to prove this I’ll be using some of that inherently fallen human “reason” here so maybe it doesn’t count. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.

As it has been explained to me frequently, you can only be a real Christian if you believe that that the Universe and everything in it was created 6000 years ago in 6 literal days of 24 hours each, everything in its present form. You also need to believe that a massive worldwide flood 4500 years ago killed every human and animal in the world except for those on the Ark. Now of course there may be some evil atheist scientists out there who would try to show you “evidence” that “proves” that this cannot be literal truth. However as a real Christian you must accept the above doctrines as literal truth and reject all “evidence” to the contrary because:

1. This is what the Bible teaches and it gives no other options.
2. This is what God said through Moses and God also gave the 10 Commandments through Moses so to reject it is to reject the Commandments too.
3. Jesus also referenced this so therefore to reject it would be to reject Jesus.

Now with such compelling reasons you would expect utter consistency among creationists – surely they will treat every other scientific theory the way they treat the Theory of Evolution right? Well you would expect it but you would be wrong. For some unexplained reason they make an exception for germ theory.

See if they were consistent, Creation Scientists would be rejecting the pathogenic theory of medicine by using the exact same guidelines as they use for rejecting evolution. (As far as I can tell the only people who are actually this consistent are Christian Scientists – not to be confused with Christians who are also scientists of course!) Here is why Bible literalists should also be rejecting the germ theory of diseases:

1. It goes against the Bible

Just like evolution, germs are never mentioned in the Bible and therefore cannot be taken as a scientific fact – surely if it was a fact God would have mentioned it somewhere! The Bible makes it clear that diseases are not caused by the so called “germs”. Diseases are caused by demons, Satan or by God Himself so clearly then this so called “germ theory” is really just another attempt by the Atheist Agenda to marginalize and discredit God. The Bible clearly teaches that disease is supernatural in origin and therefore all evidence given by scientists with a naturalistic bias cannot be trusted. The supernatural nature of disease is further demonstrated in the Bible by the fact that the sick are not told to see doctors (as they would have been if there was any truth to this “pathogen” thing) but are rather instructed to seek healing through prayer.

2. It goes against Moses.

God clearly pointed out to Moses that He was the one who caused diseases and He was the one who cured them. The only reason people so readily accept the germ theory of disease is because it gives them an excuse to sin without guilt. After all, if you can reject what God said to Moses about disease you can reject what He said about adultery being wrong!

3. It goes against Jesus

Jesus never talked about germs at all. Instead He repeatedly endorsed the supernatural origin of disease by healing illnesses supernaturally and driving out the demons that were causing disease. Germ theory is just another attempt by Satan to discredit the authority of Jesus and any acceptance of germs theory is in effect a denial of the fact that Jesus is the Son of God and the only way to the Father.

In fact even the non-theological arguments creationists’ use against the Theory of Evolution can be used against the pathogenic theory of medicine. Germ theory is also “just” a theory, you an argue that it caused millions of deaths (far easier too than with the ToE I might add), it certainly doesn’t provide any clear moral guidelines for living and it demeans the intrinsic value of human beings by suggesting people are nothing but breeding grounds for these pathogens. Also, while there are some stories about scientists being wrong about evolutionary details in the past it cannot begin to compare to the many medical horror stories from the past!

Logically then you ought to find a consistant rejection of this and similar scientific theories among fundamentalist Bible literalist Christians. Of course the reality is that you will find no such consistency. Even though the germ theory (and several other scientific theories) should be opposed by the same reasoning they use to oppose the Theory of Evolution it is not. Why not? Why pick on evolution? For that matter why do the same people who so frequently express a desire for a return to Biblical Law go to the police when their daughters are raped? After all according to Biblical law the rapist is supposed to pay the dad and marry the girl, not be prosecuted! Funny how the same people who get all excited about fun things like executing gays and witches are less enthusiastic about that part… Why is this?

I'm afraid that question will have to remain rhetorical as I have no idea why so many Christians have this weird double standard. It certainly makes no sense to me. What I do know is that this has to stop. Ignoring all evidence that contradict your position is no way to gain credibility - quite the opposite in fact! The double standard is fooling no one. As for me, I have faith in God and I accept scientific findings (regardless of what they are) and contrary to what my Young Earth Creationist brethren may say, I don’t think this makes me any less of a Christian. I believe in the Bible too, I believe that it is God breathed and useful for instruction. I just don't see how that automatically means taking everything as literal, especially when the evidence disagrees. Regarding things in the Bible like the Creation account I believe that God met people at the level they were, giving them what they were able to process. (Take the rape legislation in the Bible for instance - sure its incredibly barbaric now but back when it was written it was a giant leap for womens rights!) I don’t for a second believe that God intended for us to ignore facts just so we could keep continue having faith in Him. I think faith is supposed to be better than that. I don't think God would ask us to be that brainwashed either.