Challenging dogmas
Correcting wrong ideas
Editorial
by Tas Walker
Robin Warren (left) and his Nobel co-recipient Barry Marshall
Thirty years ago, two Australian physicians, Robin Warren and Barry Marshall, discovered
that stress and diet do not cause peptic ulcers, as doctors believed. Instead, a
previously unknown bacterium (Helicobacter pylori) is the culprit. Other
doctors dismissed their findings and even rejected a paper about their work. It
was impossible, they thought, for bacteria to live inside the human stomach.
However, Warren and Marshall persisted with more research and publishing. Marshall
even infected himself with the bacteria and treated himself with antibiotics. As
they gathered more evidence, attitudes gradually changed.
False beliefs can have serious consequences. They also close people’s minds
to truth.
In 2005, Warren and Marshall were awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine. The committee
praised them for their tenacity and willingness to challenge prevailing dogmas.
Before this discovery, doctors treated persistent ulcers with major surgery, knowing
the patient was unlikely to be cured but would continue to be disabled. Now, just
one course of antibiotics will usually cure an ulcer.
False beliefs can have serious consequences. They also close people’s minds
to truth. Wrong beliefs about stomach ulcers had serious consequences for people’s
health. But wrong beliefs about our origin, about where we came from and why we
are here, are even more serious.
Many today dismiss God as Creator, not because they have examined the evidence but
because of conditioning. They accept ideas about science and the Bible because of
the culture. As with peptic ulcers, good research and information are needed to
correct these wrong ideas. This is what Creation magazine provides.
Design in living things, even the humble mudskipper living in tropical mangrove
swamps (pp. 48–50), is evidence that God created. Yet, we need to have some
of the amazing design features pointed out before we realise how truly remarkable
these animals are.
Scientists and engineers purposefully study God’s designs, like the mantis
shrimp eye (p. 56), because they can copy them to solve technological challenges.
This creature’s amazing eye construction has shown engineers how to develop
DVD players able to process more information than the current conventional models.
But creation is not just about design—it’s about history. Many imagine
the Bible’s 6,000-year history is unbelievable. But they have not considered
evidence that challenges belief in millions of years, such as fresh-looking wood
and leaves mummified in the Canadian Arctic (p. 19).
The key to understanding history is the global Flood, which formed the landscapes
and buried billions of dead things all over the earth. One spectacular evidence
is the fossil graveyard on display at Dinosaur National Monument, Utah, USA (pp.
28–31).
Evidence—that is what challenges dogmas and changes wrong ideas. And evidence
is what we present in Creation magazine. We hope you enjoy this issue and
share some of the exciting evidence with your friends and loved ones.
A reader’s commentIan B., Australia, 10 March 2012
To Dr Tas Walker - thanks and God bless you for an excellent article Challenging Dogmas Correcting Wrong Ideas. A classic example of this would have to be Dr Ignaz Semmelweis, who in 1847 proposed that perhaps there was a connection between his medical students going straight from body dissections at the morgue to the labour ward with unwashed hands, and the high mortality rate among new mums. They laughed at him for years. He said that "truth was not a democracy—the majority could just as easily agree on error as truth, especially if they refused to look at truth". Just as true today as then. Love your work.
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