Distant Origin

supersport sums up his view of evolutionary theory:

A fairytale dreamed up by a select few who have no intention of actually studying the material world — as real science requires.

The material world includes rock strata, fossils, and DNA. The study of the relationships between these three things — which often includes a logical look at how species have moved around the planet over millions of years and adapted accordingly — is real science practised by more than "a select few" qualified, intellectual people, even by supersport's definition. He gives no references and no real backing for his "findings".

Instead, their only intention is to give atheists around the world a vessel to latch on to so they can justify their own existence without having to acknowledge the truth of the Almighty Creator.

Truth without explanation has no meaning. Religion was created to justify one's own existence when there was no other truth in reach. Why do new religions not continue to pop up in the modern age? Could it have anything to do with the fact that the truth now is in reach? And that we no longer have to stretch our imaginations and give people around the world a vessel to latch on to so that they feel safer about themselves?

The majority of creationism variants — all led to the charge by the Young Earth — hold onto the notion that the Earth could be no more than a few thousand years old, when carbon dating accurately and reliably continues to date fossils and other carbon-based remnants at hundreds of millions of years old. [4]

(Carbon dating is an empirical, practised technology with solid grounds in all "real" science, mainly the type of science that allowed nuclear power stations to be built to power your homes. It can't be refuted.)

The Interacademy Panel on International Issues responded to this idea: [5]

The overwhelming scientific consensus is that creationist claims have no scientific validity. A statement by 68 national and international science academies lists as evidence-based facts that have been established by numerous observations and independently derived experimental results from a multitude of scientific disciplines, without any contradiction from scientific evidence, that the Earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old and has shown continuing change, that life appeared on Earth at least 2.5 billion years ago, and has subsequently taken many forms, all of which continue to evolve, and that the genetic code of all organisms living today, including humans, clearly indicates their common primordial origin.

The continual complaint that the lack of support for a Young Earth theory in professional science journals or among professional science organizations is due to discrimination and censorship [6] [7] stinks of childish hatred of a strong, conflicting view, rather than mature, reasoned contrasting discussion.

Bootnote

I consider myself to be a vaguely spiritual person, so the assertion that "life is not scientific, life is spiritual" has some validity to my own beliefs. Still, the assertion itself is no platform on which one can correctly, logically or reasonably form an argument from personal incredulity on a spiritual level, a scientific level or otherwise.

Naturally, though, the christianforums.com thread swiftly devolved into a bate of hatred, name-calling and downright bullying on all sides. Quite pathetic, really, that such a violent struggle of meaningless words stemmed solely from one large assertion, individual parts of which are variations of logical fallacies, lies and outright refusal to consider direct empirical evidence.

Disclaimer

The above was not an attack on Creationism and its followers in general, nor on Christians or their beliefs. Rather, I have tried to highlight the lack of authoritativeness of supersport's post and some issues with his various methods of attempting to formulate an argument.

References

[1] "Evolutionary Science is a fairytale", christianforums.com. Retrieved on 18th January 2008.
[2] Dictionary entries for 'science', answers.com. Retrieved on 18th January 2008.
[3] "Penicillin Gets A "Checkmate" Against Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria", sciencedaily.com, 1998. Retrieved on 18th January 2008.
[4] "Bee fossil, DNA generate a buzz", BBC News, 2007. Retrieved on 18th January 2008.
[5] IAP Statement on the teaching of evolution, the Interacademy Panel on international issues (2006). Retrieved on 3rd July 2007.
[6] "Do Creationists Publish in Notable Refereed Journals?", D. Buckna, 2007. Retrieved on 3rd July 2007.
[7] US Congressional Committee Report: "Intolerance and the politicization of science at the Smithsonian", 2006. Retrieved on 3rd July 2007.

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