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‘Teaching creation is child abuse’?

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A response to rabid atheist claims

Originally published in a CMI newsletter, April 2014
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The creation/evolution debate is polarizing for many Christians and pastors due in part to the rhetoric that wrongly characterizes the biblical view. Let’s face it; the secular media need to sell their product, and controversy sells! So, when evolutionist spokesmen supply juicy sound bites, it makes for great headlines, and unfortunately ‘mud sticks’. But people seem to miss the point that these scientists are not commenting about science facts, which is where their focus should be. For example:

  • The UK’s Independent featured an article titled: “Teaching creationism: Indoctrination is a form of child abuse.”1
  • Famous physicist and atheist propagandist, Lawrence Krauss gained wide exposure in a radio interview in Australia when he said, “Well, I’ve recently, in the United States, just stated that teaching creationism is child abuse and I think it is.”2 (See our three-part response).
  • Evolution’s high priest, Richard Dawkins, in his book The God Delusion, titled a whole chapter “Childhood abuse and the escape from religion.”
  • In the US, the well-known TV ‘science guy’ Bill Nye felt it necessary to release a video about the ‘dangers’ of creationism. He stated, “Creationism is not appropriate for children … We need scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future … we need engineers that can build stuff, solve problems.”3 See here for our video response.
  • And in New Zealand a website that helps defend children from real, physical child abuse states: “Yeah I know it’s not quite in the same league as bashing a baby to death but it’s still child abuse.” 4

The ‘abuse’ theme has gained global traction and churches are often playing into the atheists’ hands by distancing themselves from the origins debate. Thus, churchgoers are not taught how to critically think about the issue—so we are in effect allowing the atheists to win!

Let’s call it as it really is!

To all who would engage in such ‘fact free’ tirades we would say this;

“For a group of allegedly ‘informed’ people who are just supposed to deal with the facts, you must know you are being intellectually dishonest. You could not give a single example of how any child has been abusively harmed from learning about creation.”

Krauss stated that withholding knowledge from children is “child abuse”. He was, of course, referring to evolution. In fact, CMI is very much opposed to censoring children from learning about evolution; the more people understand about it (provided they also get to know of its huge scientific problems) the less likely they will be to believe it. Rather it is the anti-theists that prefer people never get to hear about the powerful evidences for creation! To liken teaching creation to actual child abuse is frankly disgraceful, and those claiming this should be ashamed of themselves. And all Christians should say so, and use these claims to highlight that it is really an atheistic, religious agenda that drives such comments.

Unscientific?

Claiming that creationists cannot do real science would be news to CMI’s Ph.D. scientists, by the way, who all got their doctorates in the same secular universities that many of these God-haters attended. And CMI staffers have made real contributions, like helping design satellites that steer television programs into our living rooms, or helping produce tropical fruit species that garnish our supermarket shelves. Also ignored is the fact that most of the great founding fathers of science who led the way for our modern advances were creationists who saw absolute consistency between their scientific observations and the idea of a biblical Creator.

Is teaching evolution harmful to children?

To completely censor one side of the debate—when there are thousands of qualified ‘real’ scientists who believe in creation, highlights that it is a philosophy—masquerading as science—that is at work. To indoctrinate children to believe only one side is the antithesis of the intellectual high ground being claimed because it is actually anti-intellectual.

Moreover historical facts demonstrate that this godless philosophy shaped the thinking of the greatest genocidal regimes in human history, such as Stalin, Hitler and Mao et al., who were only acting consistently with their worldview convictions. Some 100 million people have perished in the last century alone due to the advent of this apparently enlightened scientific philosophy. Plus the killing of many little, defenceless human beings in the womb (more than in all the wars in human history), is really the ultimate demonstration of real child abuse—not just rhetorical ad hominem—particularly when all modern observational science tells us they are fully human from conception, and not evolutionary transitions. Or consider the rationale behind many of the awful public school shootings in recent times.

A challenge

To these high priests of evolution, we say, “We are ready, so why do you keep avoiding CMI? Keep the ad hominem out of it; our science against yours. If your case is so strong, engage us in open and frank debate.”

To Christians—we are here to help

This is not the time to shirk away (The Lord said “Will I find faith?”). It is time to draw a line in the sand because the attacks won’t stop at the creation issue. Before long I suspect your right to take your children to church may be targeted. It is exactly because of the success of creationists bringing this debate to the fore that this issue is heating up. Now that creation is on the table we need to see it through and be more proactive than ever. Ministries like CMI are here to help this happen. Your support is more vital than ever at this critical time in history.

Published: 9 February 2017

References and notes

  1. Teaching creationism: Indoctrination is a form of child abuse, blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/07/20/teaching-creationism-indoctrination-is-a-form-of-child-abuse, 3 January, 2013. Return to text.
  2. From a transcript of the Australian public broadcaster ABC program Q&A, “A Show about Nothing”—broadcast Monday 18th February 2013, hosted by Tony Jones, www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s3687812.htm. Panel members were Lawrence Krauss, John Dickson, Tanya Plibersek, Greg Hunt and Cindy Pan. Return to text.
  3. Bill Nye the Science Guy: Creationism ‘holds everybody back’, blog.zap2it.com/pop2it/2012/08/bill-nye-the-science-guy-creationism-holds-everybody-back.html, 3 January, 2014. Return to text.
  4. Teaching Creationism is Child Abuse, childabuseinnz.wordpress.com/2013/08/28/teaching-creationism-is-child-abuse, 3 January 2014. Return to text.