Members of the Institute for Creation Research staff recently gave a series of presentations and workshops at the Concho Valley Homeschool Conference in San Angelo, Texas, presenting the young-earth creation position. Publicity of the event by the San Angelo Standard-Times caught the attention of a local university biologist, who recently wrote a letter to the paper expressing his regret that ICR was allowed to make its case at the conference.
Dr. Terry C. Maxwell, professor of biology at Angelo State University, objected to the fact that ICR trains parents to teach their children the creation view and to teach them the failure of evolution—specifically, the failure of evolution to supply eyewitness testimony to support its assertions. Maxwell claimed that "actual science disagrees" with this view.1
However, rather than supply eyewitness testimony supporting his own evolutionary views, Maxwell cited circumstantial evidence from a variety of scientific disciplines. Had Maxwell actually attended some of ICR's talks (I personally gave four of them), he would have known that ambiguous circumstantial evidence is no substitute for eyewitness testimony in a forensic question like the origin of the universe and of life.
In one of my talks, I made a clear distinction between operational science—the type of science that involves the scientific method and which has led to numerous discoveries on which our lives and health depend—and historical science, for which the scientific method does not apply since no one can travel back in time and observe the past. When trying to answer historical questions, science always provides weak and ambiguous evidence; reliable eyewitness testimony (such as that found in the Bible) is critical to filling this knowledge gap.
Furthermore, had Maxwell attended some of my presentations, he would have heard a mountain of circumstantial scientific evidence that is contrary to the evolutionary paradigm. When examined carefully, the scientific data don't match the "3.5 billion-year evolutionary history of life" or the "4.5 billion-year history" of the earth.1
Sadly, Maxwell's letter illustrates the profound misunderstanding of science that still pervades the academic community. Teaching creation will not "marginalize" students, as Maxwell claims; rather, it will train them to be better scientists.
Reference
- Maxwell, T. C. Letter: Evolution is a fact. San Angelo Standard-Times. Posted on gosanangelo.com June 4, 2011.
* Dr. Jeanson is Research Associate at the Institute for Creation Research.
Article posted June 15, 2011.
