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Note: This article appeared in the recent (Spring 2007) CMI–Canada Prayer News—we felt that our international readers would appreciate seeing it too.
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For whom the (alarm) bells toll?
Professor at McGill University (Montreal) attacks CMI
by Emil Silvestru
Photo by Emil Silvestru
 Emil and wife, Flory, at limestone stack on Niagara Escarpment.
One of the things that troubled me the most when I lived in communist Romania was
the obsession the authorities had with any foreigner that happened to visit the
country. ‘If they are here they must have some secret plans to inflict some
sort of harm onto our wonderful society’ was an almost ubiquitous refrain.
There was no way they just came for fun, we were always told (and if we had a chat
with any foreigner, we were supposed to report it to the secret police).
A recent
web article1 revealed
the same attitude displayed in Canada! In it, the author, Jason R. Wiles, seems
to ring the alarm bells from the very title: ‘A threat to geoscience education:
creationist anti-evolution activity in Canada.’ This title makes a clear statement:
geoscience means evolution. Now, the word itself means ‘earth
science’ and does not depend on the presence or absence of evolution! Not
in Mr Wiles’ mind though, which seems to be conditioned to believe that science
means only naturalism and consequently any other approach is unscientific. Yet science,
as Einstein once said, should be ‘methodical thinking directed toward finding
regulative connections between our sensual experiences’.2 Or more simply put: making sense of our senses.
Evolution per se should be irrelevant to the topic.
One cannot stop wondering why, in a supposedly democratic society, teaching alternative
views—alongside evolutionary ones—would represent a threat and not a
more complete and balanced way of educating? But balanced education is not part
of the secular humanist philosophy. Just as communism suppressed any alternative
view, the secular humanists would go to any length to silence any worldview that
rejects their central tenet: there is no God.
In order to watch over the educational establishment in Canada, the Evolution Education
Research Centre (EERC) was created at McGill University and Mr Wiles is its co-manager.
The director of this organization is Brian Alters (Sir William Dawson Scholar at
McGill University) who has published many articles in prestigious science magazines
attacking any form of creationism. Scholars from both McGill and Harvard are involved
in this organization, as well as international collaborators.3
Photo by Flory Silvestru
 Emil Silvestru researching evidence of the biblical Flood on the Niagara Escarpment, Canada.
Mr Wiles feels compelled to dispel misconceptions ‘among Canadian scientific
scholars as well as the general public that fundamentalist creationist activity
or rejection of evolutionary theory stops at the US border.’ Apart from being
just one more case of a Canadian intellectual belittling the United States for the
wide acceptance of creationism, such a view (and the entire article) reveals, I
believe, a serious fear of the possible consequences of creationism being made known
to the general public. Why are they afraid, if their case is so strong? If creationism
has such a weak case, why ban it instead of dispassionately rebutting it? Mr Wiles
was present when I gave a lecture at McGill University on Noah’s Flood and
catastrophic plate tectonics. He asked no questions, he made no comment but kept
typing on his laptop throughout my entire presentation and during the Q & A
period.
In his web article Mr Wiles lists many creationist organizations active in Canada,
both home-grown and international. CMI is specifically mentioned for ‘sponsoring’
anti-evolution ‘field
trips’ (his quotation marks) and ‘presentations aimed at refuting
modern geology at sites such as the
Niagara Escarpment, Canada’s West coast, and “Creation
Family Camp” on the Red Deer River in Alberta’. Mr Wiles
is definitely unhappy that we dared go out into the field—which we see and
love as God’s creation—and use it as argument for the authority of the
Bible. As long as we stick to churches he would be willing to tolerate us but going
out into the field is a different issue!
Christians visiting geological sites which have been used for ages to refute the
Bible, suddenly being able to cogently interpret them as evidence for the Bible’s
accuracy
He states that CMI field trips are ‘aimed at refuting modern geology’.
In fact these trips clearly emphasize that modern geology accepts catastrophic events,
which it came to discover in the land features we visit. Our field trips and family
camp are meant to strengthen faith by revealing those features in the local geology
(as well as exhibits in the Royal Tyrell Museum) that can be interpreted in a perfectly
scientific manner and yet support the biblical narrative of the Flood. And maybe
this is the greatest source of angst for Mr Wiles: Christians visiting geological
sites which have been used for ages to refute the Bible, suddenly being able to
cogently interpret them as evidence for the Bible’s accuracy and through this,
fulfilling a biblical duty (1 Peter 3:15).
Mr Wiles’ article comes as a confirmation that CMI has hit their sore spot.
It was the generous help and constant prayers of many CMI supporters that made it
possible for CMI-Canada to organize both last year’s and this year’s
field trips and camps. We hope that these venues and even more in many areas of
interest will become regular CMI events.
Related products
References
- Wiles, J.R., A threat to geoscience education: creationist
anti-evolution activity in Canada, Geoscience Canada, 1 September 2006;
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-156291084.html. Return to
Text.
- Einstein, A., Religion and Science: Irreconcilable? The
Christian Register, June, 1948;
http://www.einsteinandreligion.com/irrec.html. Return to Text.
- Alters, B., Asghar, A. and Wiles, J.R., Evolution Education
Research Centre, Humanist Perspectives 154, 2005;
http://www.humanistperspectives.org/
issue154/EERC.html. Return
to Text.
Published: 10 July 2007(GMT+10)
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