Creationists have one unified system for explaining physical reality, for what they consider morality and for the supernatural.  So they imagine their opponents to have something equivalent.  This is false because modern science does not work that way.  Systems of thought can work differently from the creationists’ own one.  This is something creationists have to understand, or their arguments will be misdirected.

Modern science is about describing physical reality.  It only tells about the limitations of the possible or what results one would get.  There is nothing telling if those results are desirable or not.  Some seem to believe evolution tells us we should “behave as animals”.  This is usually paired with the belief that extreme cruelty is some sort of “normal animal behaviour”.  There is no such a thing as different species behave in different ways.  It all depends on what works for the species.  For humans cooperating on equal terms works better than being cruel, at least in the long run.

Present-day scientists have codes of conduct applying to their job.  This means they are no longer allowed many of the cruelties some of them committed in the past.  Cruelties has also become easier and easier to reveal over the decades.  Furthermore, people have come to care about more and more beings.  Scientists have taken part in the later development.  Unless highly socially inept they are aware of what is considered acceptable in their society.  You don’t need religious authorities to tell you that.

Scientists vary greatly in how they view the supernatural.  Some don’t think the supernatural exists.  Others consider it impossible to know if the supernatural exists or not.  Yet others think the supernatural exists but does not currently intervene.  Some may think there are subtle ways of supernatural intervention.  However, I don’t think there are any modern scientists using divine intervention as the default explanation for things in the physical world.  Some people seem to have trouble grasping any other form of religion exists.  Possibly because they are incapable of any other form of religion themselves.

Why do creationists so often rely on distant rumours about the ideas of others?  First and second-hand sources are easily available if one cares to actually search for them.  Yet creationists rely on what looks like fifth or sixth generation hearsay.  I once had a neighbour who was an Old Earth creationist.  He thought evolution meant a gorilla giving birth to a modern human!  No-one who understands evolution theory has ever claimed that.  He also thought Piltdown man had been revealed to be a hoax “a few years ago”.  This hoax was revealed more than 50 years earlier which was before he was born.

Uploaded on the 27th of November 2023.