Does National Geographic Promote Atheism? | The Institute for Creation Research

Does National Geographic Promote Atheism?

National Geographic interviewed atheist Jerry Coyne.1 The subject was not science, but Coyne's personal beliefs. Will Nat Geo provide the same platform for a researcher who believes that God, rather than nature, created all things?

In the article posted online May 31, 2015, Coyne took shots at the idea that God created the world from the perspective of his belief in an evolving universe. He is a professor of evolution at the University of Chicago, the author of the book Why Evolution is True, and has frequently contributed to National Geographic. In this new article, Coyne accused religion of being harmful superstition and promoted his new book, Faith vs. Fact: Why Science and Religion are Incompatible.

But what does Coyne mean by "science?" Conclusions derived from repeatable experiments confirm the Bible. For example, the various plant and animal kinds always breed within their kinds, and life always comes from life. But if Coyne defines science as conclusions derived from atheistic beliefs about an imagined distant past where life comes from non-life and animal kinds magically morph into other kinds, then of course "science" would be incompatible with Scripture.

Coyne said in the interview,

If you teach evolution, you're teaching the one form of science that hits Abrahamic religions in the solar plexus. You can teach chemistry and physics and physiology and other forms of science-based inquiry, like archaeology and history, and religious people don't have any problem with that. But, for evolution, they do.1

ICR has been communicating this same message for over 40 years! But we have another message that accompanies it: Science in the form of repeatable experimentation refutes evolution.

All Jerry Coyne needs to establish that evolution from particles-to-people actually happened is to provide the results of two key experiments. One experiment should show that lifeless chemicals coalesce on their own to form living cells. No such experiment exists, so there are no results. Second, scientists should have documented one fundamental kind of creature or basic life form morphing into a different fundamental form, like a fish morphing into an amphibian. No experiment has shown this either.

Since particles-to-people evolution is a mere story—one with no scientific backing—it poses no real threat to "Abrahamic religions" like Christianity.

Will National Geographic discuss these fundamental weaknesses of evolution? Will they supply a platform for creation scientists? So far, Nat Geo has focused on only one side of the origins debate—the side that supports the religion of atheism.

Reference

  1. Worrall, S. In Age of Science, Is Religion 'Harmful Superstition'? National Geographic. Posted on news.nationalgeographic.com May 31, 2015, accessed June 15, 2015.

*Mr. Thomas is Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.

Article posted on June 16, 2015.

The Latest
NEWS
The Origin of Eukaryotes
Eukaryotes are multicellular organisms that contain diverse differentiated cell types. Within almost every cell there are subcellular compartments called...

CREATION PODCAST
Water vs. Wind: The Controversial Coconino | The Creation Podcast:...
Welcome to the sixth episode in a series called “The Failures of Old Earth Creationism.” Many Christians attempt to fit old...

NEWS
Fossil Fish Finally Filmed
The bizarre lobe-finned coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae) “that flourished some 350 million years ago”1 continues to be a thorn...

NEWS
The Mosasaur: A Giant Sea Dragon
Mosasaurs (order Squamata) were massive marine lizards that were common in the pre-Flood oceans. Therefore, it is not surprising that their fossils...

DAYS OF PRAISE DEVOTIONALS
Summer 2025
...

NEWS
Was Life Detected on a Distant Planet?
There was celebration, albeit briefly, for the discovery of potential life on a planet called K2-18b, which is 124 lightyears away from Earth. The...

NEWS
Ichthyosaur Graveyard Explained by the Flood
Ichthyosaurs are marine reptiles that occur globally in the same rock layers as dinosaurs. Specimens with babies support the idea that they gave live...

CREATION PODCAST
What Do We Do With Geology's Unconforming Features? | The Creation...
Welcome to the fifth episode in a series called “The Failures of Old Earth Creationism.” Many Christians attempt to fit old...

NEWS
Freshwater Fish Fossil in Australia
Yet another fish fossil has been discovered. This one was found in the Australian desert and was dated by evolutionists to be “15 million years...

NEWS
May 2025 ICR Wallpaper
"Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." (Romans...