Aron Ra - Foundational Falsehoods of Creationism

Pitchstone Publishing

Durham, North Carolina

www.pitchstonepublishing.com

Copyright 2016 by Aron Ra

All rights reserved

Printed in the USA

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Ra, Aron, author.

Title: Foundational falsehoods of creationism / Aron Ra.

Description: Durham, North Carolina : Pitchstone Publishing, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016014000| ISBN 9781634310789 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781634310802 (pdf) | ISBN 9781634310819 (mobi)

Subjects: LCSH: Creationism. | Evolution (Biology)

Classification: LCC BS652 .R24 2016 | DDC 231.7/652dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016014000

You cant prove evolutionism.

Yes, actually I can.

Prove it then!

I cant prove it right here and now, but if youll allow me some time, Ill create a presentation that will prove evolution to your satisfaction.

You cant prove evolution, because to do that, youd have to disprove God.

Whether God exists or not is irrelevant.

My name is not Aaron; its Aron. Its not pronounced like errand but more like arent. If you take out the o, and read it as Arn, youll probably say it right; although its better if you read it like the initials, R. N. It isnt the same as the Hebrew name either. This same name occurs independently in Korean and Indian languages too; mine is Scandinavian. I think its a convergent derivation of Arndt or something like thatmaybe Arne. Im not sure. I have to explain my name most every day, so I may as well start there.

My surname is no terrible secret, but it isnt my preference either. When I signed up for the Usenet group Talk.Origins, I needed a handle and quickly decided on Aron-Ra. Why? I wanted to give a nod to Amen-Ra, a composite of the Egyptian air god and sun god, also known as Amun-Re, whom I see as a template for the god of Western monotheism.

Ive always been an irreverent sort of person, with a preference for science over superstition, and ever since I first connected to the Internet, Ive spent an unhealthy amount of my time online obsessing over the topic of origins, particularly as relates to the evolution-creationism debate. I worked in a call center back then, one with very low demands that allowed unlimited overtime and did not restrict or interrupt my browsing while taking calls. So I basically just read the Internet all day every day.

The Usenet group Talk.Origins pitted theologians against professional scientists, giving me an opportunity to listen to the best arguments on both sides of the debate. I read the best points of either philosophy. Then I would post my questions and watch them go at it. I compared their answers, and whatever counterarguments followed those. Then I looked up all their references to see who was right about what. This started me on a learning curve well beyond anything I ever did in college. My first attempt at higher education was as a naive and ill-prepared kid. I was a fine arts major, and not a serious student. But in my thirties I studied Internet archives intently, several hours a day, every single daywith increasing interest, and that is no exaggeration. The pace picked up once I was moved to a graveyard shift and hardly got any calls at all. Then I studied with greater concentration. I didnt read physical books, but after a few years of this, I had read countless scientific articles and relevant publications, as well as many of the ancient myths and scriptures of various religions, and many other works and documents I had been advised to read. I had developed such a taste for it that I eventually went back to college as a geoscience major, studying paleontology. Three years into that, I had to quit school again due to a concurrence of life-changing events with my family and career at that time; much the pity, as I would rather spend my life learning than pretending to be learned.

I started this journey as someone who still believed in supernatural things such as souls, psychics and psionics, parapsychology, cryptozoology, extraterrestrial UFOs, and other such nonsense. My position was more or less typical of your average politically apathetic undereducated American who sees this stuff supported on science and history channels and everywhere else in our mass media. I didnt set out to change my own mind. I wasnt trying to dispel all the pseudoscience I had been led to believe since childhood. I wasnt trying to convince myself of anything either. I just wanted a better understanding of how things really are. I still do.

My country was once admired on the world stage for the very things we ourselves now largely reject. Weve fallen victim to anti-intellectualism. A lifetime ago, someone said that when fascism comes to America, it would be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross. That day has come. Nationalism comes from the same source as other ethnocentric prejudice like racism. We question science, ridicule experts, make fun of genius, and show a complete disdain for tolerance and multiculturalism, as if any of that was bad. Were incurious and we overtly express hatred of political correctness. Were even opposed to progress! So its no wonder were not making any.

The Religious Right is responsible for a lot of that, and creationism is a tool they use to spread their infection. As fortune would have it, when the Texas State Board of Education became world famous for politicizing classrooms, revising and censoring science, sex ed, and social studiesdeliberately misleading other peoples kidsI found myself in the geographically and intellectually best place to voice my objections and get involved, which I felt compelled to do.

How do I reach people? One of my best friends from high school is now an ordained Southern Baptist minister and the principal of a young-earth fundamentalist Christian school teaching that the Bible is the only source of truth in our world. He recommended that I read Evolution of a Creationist by Dr. Jobe Martin, someone touted as a creation scientist. Turns out this scientist has a degree in dentistry. His book revealed that he has no idea what evolution even is. I wrote a 19,000-word rebuttal to the second chapter of his book, proving that he got literally every sentence in the chapter wrong. Seriously, every single sentence! The problem is no one would ever read such a lengthy detailed newsgroup postnot even the friend for whom I wrote it. He said I should have written a book instead. So I guess he can take partial credit for this one. I tried educating educators, but that didnt work. I needed to teach people directly. I realized that in order to understand evolution by conventional means, one typically should have been raised in an environment where critical thinking, curiosity, literacy, and scientific methodology are supported and endorsed early in ones life. In addition, one must have an in-depth and very specific education in order to understand the extent of bizarre criticisms against science levied by the laity. Such an education requires a significant commitment of time, effort, and money. But faith-based psycho-babble is shared for free everywhere by people who dont know what theyre talking about and dont care to. You dont have to understand it either, as long as you profess your belief.

The only way I could see to counter that was to make a presentation suitable for those with minimal education and a short attention span. In my years on Usenet, I noticed that the same few creationist arguments are constantly repeated, and that these are the basis for all the erroneous arguments of evangelical pseudoscientists. I tried posting brief explanations of this list of errors on Christian discussion forums, but I found the moderators kept deleting them. So I made a series of videos addressing each of these foundational falsehoods of creationism.