Anger from the Southern Hemisphere
Anger from the Southern Hemisphere
by Yves Barbero
"Telling Lies for God" by Ian Plimer, Paper, 303 pages, Random House (Australia), $14.95.
Remember those Fifties TV sitcoms where the eight year-old interrupts the adult guests at a party to tell them what his parents said about them earlier? The laugh track indicated nervous chuckles.
There's a bit of that in Ian Plimer's juicy book about his adventures fighting creationist inroads in the education of Australia's children. He is likely to embarrass the more staid among those fighting creationism.
"At creationist meetings, one can see that the cult leaders
take delight in their lies and the ease with which they fool
the faithful followers. In fact creationist cult leaders
actually get paid to perform such actions." p. 273
On the one hand, how does one see someone taking "delight" except subjectively? On the other, how many of us have secretly suspected that at least some creationist spokesmen are confidence tricksters? We may proclaim that they are probably sincere, and for legal reasons, barring some judicial pronouncement to the contrary, we probably have to use that as a working model. But we know what we secretly think. In fairness to Plimer, he does quote other opinions. For example, on page 272...
"I used to be convinced that [Duane] Gish was a conscious
liar, because so many of the things he says are demonstrably
false, and he is neither stupid nor uneducated. In the last
few years, I have changed my mind. I now think that Gish is
now so severely deluded that he can no longer distinguish
what he wants to believe from reality, at least on the
conscious level." Joyce Arthur, 1993, 'Scientific'
creationism and integrity, Vancouver.
Human frailties, being what they are, means that you can't assume that anyone is consistent in the way he or she looks at something. There may be days when your average "creationist cult leader," is perfectly sincere. And days when that same individual knows it is a con job (though justified by concern for the immortal souls of the great unwashed). Any good salesman knows that he has to believe in the product, at least at the moment of the sales pitch, or the pitch goes down. The jalopy may have poor piston compression, but it'll probably save the teenager's life if the kid can't speed.
More important than hanging a label on creationist leaders, is the descriptions of how they operate. In this, Plimer does a superb job. He examines their finances, their tactics, their manipulation of the emotions and fears of the devout, and their media savvy. One particularly interesting aspect of the book is his description of how they handle 'debates.' These are really public lectures, not debates, and every attempt is made to control questions, and even who attends. Creationists are at pains to control every aspect of the events.
One of the more intriguing parts of the book is his numerous confrontations, over time, of the geologist, A. A. Snelling. Snelling actually has a Ph.D. from a real university, and has written a number of articles on uranium formations for learned journals in which he apparently acknowledges geological ages. At the same time, he is a young-earther when writing for creationist publications. Plimer, a professor of geology at the University of Melbourne goes to great lengths to expose him. On one occasion, with the help of a confederate, he tricked Snelling into writing that a 200 million year old rock contained paper. Plimer claims he wasn't being unfair since he left all sorts of clues in the cover letter he had his confederate write to Snelling's organization that the rock was a fraud.
Of particular delight are the dozens of pages that describe the logistical nightmare Noah must of had in packing the ark.
"How did Noah know what perch sizes to build for all the
undiscovered birds as different species have variable feet
sizes and hence require variable perch sizes? Each cage
would have had to have a different design, size, feeding
method, watering method and height." p. 105
And (my favorite)...
"How did Noah know how to design tamper-proof locks for the
yet undiscovered Southeast Asian and South American
primates?" p. 106
Any high school science teacher facing a convinced creationist student could pose these practical questions and dozens of others Plimer supplies. Theology has no place in the science classroom, but problem solving certainly does.
Plimer, to his credit, distinguishes between mainstream religion, and the 'cult' of creationism. He spends a good part of the book analyzing the theological issues, and strongly suggests that creationism is as far removed from scholarly theology as from science. An American, raised in the strong tradition of Church-State separation (usually interpreted as meaning you don't talk about religion in secular environments like a professional work place), might be uncomfortable doing this, but Plimer has no problem plunging into the theological issues. I've rarely seen it handled at all, and certainly never this well...
"The creationist answer [to the expanding universe, and the
fact that light from distant stars takes millions of years
to get to Earth] is wonderfully novel and really provides an
insight into creationist thinking. They argue that not only
has light slowed down since creation but light was created
only to appear to derive from a distant source. However,
nowhere in the Bible do we read anything of such a paradox.
The only alternative is that the creationist god is
deceitful! To the believer, creationism is an insult to God." p. 33
Plimer is not satisfied in preventing creationists from hijacking science. He won't let them steal theology either. The Bible, whatever one believes, is part of Western culture and deserves better than creationist abuse.
Plimer says that the speed of light, according to creationists, was 200 billion times faster than now to allow everything to have happened in 6000 years. That would have made everything somewhat more energetic. "...if Adam lovingly lit a fire for Eve, than the energy released would have been equivalent to a 50-megaton atomic blast. Adam and Eve produced two children and the energy released during each of the two necessary acts of procreation would be equivalent to an explosion of 500 tons of TNT. This is clearly the origin of the expression 'Did the Earth move for you also, darling?', or perhaps it could be interpreted as the creationist big bang theory." pp. 33-34
As a manual of tactics in the public policy arena ... well, things are somewhat different in Australia. I'd think long and hard before adopting some of these tactics in the US. In fairness, Plimer is no ordinary recorder of events. He got his hands bloody fighting the good fight (debating creationists like Gish). And he does have a lot to show us. Some of his tactics, modified, might work very well here.
As a work of theology, it reads as if Plimer has had some training, and sounds a lot more in the tradition of Christianity than what comes from the creationists.
(I've always thought that the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century divines who fathered modern science as one of the consequences of the Reformation would have been shocked by modern creationism. Unlike the idea these divines had of finding out about origins, starting with the Bible, but with observation becoming a key tool in understanding God's work, modern creationism is based entirely on a certain interpretation of biblical writings (not as literal as is claimed). The divines used observation as a check for reality, because they were fearful that now that they had gotten rid of Roman papal authority, some of the faithful might make the Bible a "paper pope." The post-Reformation divines had exceptional insight.)
As a history, it is definitely partisan. However, Plimer is my kind of partisan. The caveat is that it's hard to check on every detail, not being in the geologist's pipeline or in the land down under. But my own limited experience does jibe with what he writes. I've run into more than one professional creationist.
As an analyses of creationist absurdities, the book is without peer, and is well worth the time and treasure. If that were its only feature it would still be worth the purchase. It is this feature that will permanently place it next to the classic Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, by Charles MacKay (1841), and Vance Packard's The Hidden Persuaders (1957), about the world of advertising, on my book shelf.
It's a good read, angry in parts, but full of humor and good sense (Plimer makes it all work together). The book is especially good if the reader is new to the controversy. I wouldn't hesitate to give it to an bright teenager, or an interested adult.
© Copyright 1996 by Yves Barbero
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