Who turned the world upside down?
Editorial
by Robert Doolan
The Skeptics Society in the united States has begun distributing an anti-creationist
article to science teachers. It is called ‘25 Creationists’ Arguments
& 25 Evolutionists’ Answers’. Executive editor of Skeptic Magazine,
Michael Shermer, wants the article available to science educators and students throughout
America, ‘to storm the tide of irrationality, superstition, and pseudoscience’
which he says the media present.
The article makes many basic blunders, even listing ‘Nebraska Man’ and
Hesperopithecus as two evolutionary mistakes when they are the same., fossil pig’s
tooth. (Evolutionists once thought this pig’s tooth was a ‘missing link’
between humans and ape-like creatures.)
This latest verbal attack on creationists is part of the Skeptics’ platform
of criticism of the supernatural—which includes criticizing the Bible and
Christians who believe it. Yet history shows that it has been the Bible-believing
Christians—not the skeptics—who have overwhelmingly contributed to excellence
in science, education, and humanitarian causes.
Examine the record. There are no Skeptics’ hospitals, welfare agencies, orphanages,
charities, relief agencies, aged-care homes, or any of the other life-improving
institutions such as those founded and funded by Christians. Deacons and elders
appointed by the early church in Jerusalem cared for the widows and the sick (Acts
6:1; James 5:13). In the Middle Ages, the monasteries created hospitals. Burgeoning
numbers of pilgrims to the Holy Land were cared for by the Order of the Hospital
of St John of Jerusalem.
Christians also led in care work in more recent centuries. The noble nursing reformer,
Florence Nightingale, received her training last century at the first Protestant
hospital—at Kaiserswerth in Germany.
While Charles Darwin was finalizing publication of his Origin of Species in 1859,
Swiss humanitarian and Biblebeliever Henri Dunant was planning the Red Cross and
negotiating the Geneva convention for care and treatment of wounded soldiers. Dunant
was co-winner of the first Nobel Prize for Peace in 1901, and his inspiring Red
Cross committee later won the award three times.
It was the Bible-believing Christians in England in the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries—not the skeptics of the day—who tackled the illiteracy problem,
adult education, abolition of slavery, prison reform, and treatment for alcoholics.
Christian missions arose in France, England and Switzerland at that time. The Young
Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) was formed in 1844, the Young Women’s
Christian Association began a decade later, and the Salvation Army launched its
multinational welfare organization based on Christian ethics and precepts in 1865.
Christians have always offered pastoral care to those who are hurt, troubled, grieving
or alienated. Christians set the foundations for education in North America, including
the establishment of universities such as Harvard and Yale, and contributed greatly
to education in Asia and Africa as well.
It is not true, as the Skeptics try to make out in their ‘25 Arguments’
article and elsewhere, that creation and science are incompatible, for the founders
of key areas of modern science were creationists, Bible-believing Christians, and
strong opponents of evolution. Many of the scientific principles and inventions
which even skeptics take for granted today (such as the marvellous MRI scanner discussed
in this issue) were brought to light through the efforts of dedicated men and women
who recognized the Bible as the Word of God, and whose efforts and service were
grounded in their love for their Creator and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Several of the
great founders of modern science recognized they were simply ‘thinking God’s
thoughts after Him’.
At Thessalonica in the first century, it was Christians such as Paul and Silas who
were said to have ‘turned the world upside down’, because of their preaching
about Christ, His creation and way of salvation, and His mighty works’ being
outpoured through them.
It is unlikely that the skeptical and evolutionary world view would ever allow significant
humanitarian causes to arise and flourish. History seems to bear this out. If you
believe that your fellow-humans are not creations of God … that you are not
accountable to your Creator for your actions … and that you are the product
of purposeless evolution through ‘survival of the fittest’ …
there is little incentive or reason to help the weak. The concept of humanitarianism
comes from God and His Word the Bible.
Unfortunately for the Skeptics, their latest article, which is being circulated
widely to science teachers and students, is not going to change the facts of history
in the slightest. History shows it is the Christians and creationists who have turned
the world upside down, and in the process have made it a better place for all—even
for skeptics.
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