22 Messages from Creationists to People Who Believe in Evolution

That Bill Nye and Ken Ham debate happened, apparently. I haven’t watched it. I have, however, stumbled across a Buzzfeed article by Matt Stopera with the title I have given this post. It is a series of pictures he took of creationists with questions they wanted to pose to Bill Nye. I thought I’d weigh in. The questions are in bold.

1.    Bill Nye, are you influencing the minds of children in a positive way?

I can’t speak for Bill Nye. But Bill Nye can. Bill Nye has already explicitly said that you can believe what you like, but encouraging children to learning something patently false (and calling it science) is not appropriate for children and damaging to the country that encourages it. Here.

2.    Are you scared of a Divine Creator?

No. In the words of Bill Nye “We would need just one piece of evidence… [list of possible things to change his mind]… Bring on any of those things and you would change me immediately.”

3.    Is it completely illogical that the earth was created mature? i.e. trees created with rings… Adam created as an adult…

Define “completely illogical”. If, by that, you mean ‘has to be accepted without evidence’, then yes. If you want to start down that line of reasoning, here’s another question: is it completely illogical that the earth was created mature 5 seconds ago? i.e. you created with the illusion of memories… knowledge and countries with the illusion of history…

4.    Does not the second law of thermodynamics disprove evolution?

No. The second law of thermodynamics refers to a closed system. Neither the earth nor biological beings are closed systems.

How do you explain a sunset if their [sic] is no God?

The earth rotates.

6.    If the Big Bang Theory is true and taught as science along with evolution, why do the laws of thermodynamics debunk said theories?

Do you propose that the laws of thermodynamics govern the “nothing” the universe came from? Excellent! Then you propose that the “nothing” could have some sort of property and, despite the baggage appended by language, “nothing” could be some sort of existential thing! (If it can’t be a thing, it can’t be governed by thermodynamics.) Did you know Lawrence Krauss’ book A Universe from Nothing deals with that very issue? Without ever violating the “energy cannot be destroyed” bit, the entire universe appears with every ‘bit’ having a negation; that is an inherent property of existential nothing.

7.    WHAT ABOUT NOETICS?

DON’T SHOUT AT ME! Good question. Do you have good reason to believe God is responsible for noetics and therefore for every bad thought you have? Does my not knowing legitimately give you room to shoehorn in your theory? Do you think science has made no progress? Does the God hypothesis help in any way?

8.    Where do you derive objective meaning in life?

Normally in my front room with a bottle of wine. Oh! You mean ‘where do I derive it from?’ From experience. But that’s my choice.

9.    If God did not create everything, how did the first single-celled organism originate? By chance?

First life was not a cell (probably). First life was more likely a chemical process without a cellulose wall or even a lipid bilayer.

10.  I believe in the Big Bang Theory… God said it and BANG it happened!

Citation needed.

11.   Why do evolutionists/secularists/huminists (sic)/non-God believing people reject the idea of their (sic) being a Creator God but embrace the concept of intelligent design from aliens or other extra-terrestrial sources?

Two answers. Firstly, because being able to identify one clearly awful idea does not mean you successfully reject all bad ideas. But also, secondly, and much more importantly, they don’t.

12.   There is no inbetween… the only one found has been Lucy and there are only a few pieces of the hundreds neccessary (sic) for an “official proof”

You appear to have quoted “official proof” from somewhere. If you’d care to share where it’s from so I can look up what the hell that means, that would be great. Why hundreds? What is an official proof? More importantly, what are you looking for an in between to and from? Because we have an entire Australopithecus genus, not just the Australopithecus afarensis.

13.  Does metamorphosis help support evolution?

No. Evolution stands up all by itself.

14.  If evolution is a Theory (like creation or the Bible) why then is Evolution taught as fact.

Same reason gravity, atoms and germs are taught as fact.

15.  Because science by definition is a “theory”-not testable, observable, nor repeatable” why do you object to creationism or intelligent design being taught in school?

This person can vote. Think about that. They think science is a theory and not a method. They also think that science is not observable, testable or repeatable. However, that’s the very definition of what science is. It is creationism that is none of those things. Besides, you can teach anything you like in an RE class. It’s the science room that nonsense doesn’t belong in. (Extra points if you noticed the questioner’s use of the Oxford comma)

16.  What mechanism has science discovered that evidences an increase of genetic information seen in any genetic mutation or evolutionary process?

I’m not sure the information in a genome has to increase for a mutation to happen. DNA could have different proteins coded on and off. Wikipedia gives a list of animals ordered by the number of chromosomes they have, and I can’t discern any need for a relationship between that list and a need for more information. However, just for fun, lets see Dawkins answer the question. The reason I pick Dawkins for this is because of the video where it look like he can’t answer it. (Short answer: gene duplication and mutation. A gene gets duplicated and has a minimal effect, but then it can later mutate, and if it’s beneficial it hangs around).

17.  What purpose do you think you are here for if you do not believe in salvation?

Are you trying to suggest that you were born into sin (under the doctrine or the Fall) else born destined to sin (under some revisionist version of the doctrine of the Fall) just so you could die saved? Is that your interpretation of your purpose, which in turn is so emotionally powerful you’ll believe the premise it’s built on without evidence?

18.  Why have we found only 1 “Lucy”, when we have found more than 1 of everything else?

You’re simply wrong. Read Wikipedia.

19.  Can you believe in “the big bang” without “faith”?

Dr Boghossian define faith as “pretending to know things you don’t know”. The answer is no. You can believe it with a revolutionary thing called “evidence”.

20.  How can you look at the world and not believe someone created/thought of it? It’s Amazing!!!

How does thinking about it help? How does a thought become a reality? What is the mechanism by which you believe that happened? How ridiculous and outside the realm of known things is that? Also, the problem of evil is important here: this is what something intentionally designed?

21.  Relating to the big bang theory…. where did the exploding star come from?

What exploding star? I have to correct your only two key words to make an intelligible question out of this. I’m going to change “exploding” to “expanding” and “star” to “matter” (and remove the definite article). The answer is ‘I don’t know’. Please now demonstrate the steps between my not knowing and it being God’s fault.

22.  If we come from monkeys then why are there still monkeys?

Same reason your cousins are here, even though you came from the same granddad. Moron.