Recovering Evangelicals #24 YECism responds to science — deny the evidence
You may have heard that when an ostrich perceives a threat, it responds by sticking its head in the sand. The implied logic being that it no longer sees the danger, so it no longer feels threatened. “Out of sight, out of mind.”
It turns out that this phenomenon isn’t true. It’s a myth!
It seems to be our misunderstanding their first response to a distant threat: lay down low with their head and neck stretched out on the ground — they’re pretty tall birds, so a lower profile might avoid detection. But if that distant threat is foolish enough to make itself an imminent threat, it can quickly find the ostriches opt for plan B: their powerful legs and 4-inch claws can immediately eviscerate the threat. They can even kill a lion!?
Nonetheless, that metaphor is in our language. It’s even got a name: “Ostrich Syndrome.” You can look it up in the Urban Dictionary. And defense lawyers have “Ostrich Defense” listed in their playbooks … “my client was completely ignorant of the criminal activities of her associate.”
So this is the metaphor we chose for this week’s topic: when certain Young Earth Creationists find modern science contradicts their literal reading of the Bible, especially the book of Genesis, they choose to simply reject the scientific data; which doesn’t make the problem go away, it just means they can hide cozily in their little world. It’s an eye-catching metaphor, and admittedly a provocative one. And what is this podcast series if not provocative? But please know that we don’t mean it in a derogatory way.
This week, we wanted to talk to people who feel justified in rejecting science when they think it conflicts with the Bible.
But we’re not looking for merely personal opinions here: we want to talk to people who are qualified to judge the scientific data and give strong, scientifically-defensible reasons for why and how they feel they can interpret the data differently than do experts in the field. Using an analogy that came up often in the episode: if we’re a National League baseball team looking for a pitcher, we’re not interested in talking to people who are just arm-chair athletes that have only ever watched baseball on TV … nor are we interested in talking to someone who got as far as college-level tennis.
So we scouted around to find anyone who is scientifically qualified (graduate training in science, and works directly in the area of genetics), who holds a Young Earth view, and who is willing to defend that on our podcast. We feel this is a legitimate ask, if we’re going to give a platform to someone who believes Evolution Theory is a failure and needs to be tossed out.
The problem is: we were unable to find anyone who fit these criteria. Even after contacting high-profile Young Earth organizations like Answers-in-Genesis and the Creation Research Institute. It seems their advertised promise of “just contact us, we’re happy to talk” is an empty one. Instead, the best we could get from them was “just check out our on-line resources and buy our books.” This is not the way scientists do business. Nor the way that people who sincerely believe they have the truth help honest seekers of the truth.
But it is the way that vendors do business. And their business model is a very profitable one: their vast warehouses are busy equipping a vast swathe of the general population to buy into this worldview. Ostriches in training.
Again, we’re using that metaphor not to be derogatory, but for the shock value: our motivation is the large numbers of young people who are raised on this anti-science worldview and end up losing their faith because of it. We want holders of this worldview to see that it has no legitimate scientific foundation. And that it brings ridicule to Christianity.
And we want them to know that there are valid alternatives for modern Christians: more on that in the next few episodes.
Tell us if you think differently.
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