Those constantly questioning evolution, looking to poke a hole, keep science on its toes, providing a public service in keeping due diligence in the scientific community. The usual targets are the rapidly disappearing gaps in the fossil record or past overreaching by a single fossil hunter, corrected by peer evolutionary biologists, not creationists as they would have you believe.
When this fails to create the desired incredulity, creationists resort to half-truths and outright lies, imagining that this somehow serves their side of the origins argument. I remember seeing John Agee (of Trinity Broadcasting) using a quote from National Geographic, stating that Australopithecus cannot be a direct ancestor to modern humans and using it as scientific proof against evolution. What good ole John did not do (while tossing the baby out with the bath water) was quote the rest of the article which stated that although not a direct ancestor, we surely shared a relatively recent common ancestor with this upright walking beast. It is easier to cast aspersions than to actually bear the burden of proof.
What of the stories of the Bible? So often Christians offer the text as confirmation of fact without questioning its content. Biblical fairy tales like Noah’s ark, the flat earth, the starry firmament, the cause of disease and mental illness (it’s demons in case you did not know) are glossed over or ignored for emotional convenience. But when these are questioned, creationists, defend these and show your work. Real scientists do not have the luxury of saying, “accept this”, and they shouldn’t. Nor should you.
Show proof of a deluge which encompassed all the land on earth -and don’t just point to the Grand Canyon and shout “see!” Thrush out a testable theory which stands up to all the science. Offer up the scientific support for a 6000 year earth. Provide archaeological evidence that the people of Israel were enslaved en mass by the Egyptians at the time of Moses. Extrapolate the physical presence of a human soul. Give us even some shred of evidence (besides stories written decades, even centuries after) of a man who performed miracles 2000 years ago in Roman Palestine.
You have to convince the world that the mish-mash of weird stories delivered thousands of years ago have any basis in fact. Archaeological support, geological data, physical substantiation, something besides third and fourth hand hearsay then passed down generation to generation, re-translated, and tweaked for self-serving political expediency. Help me out here! I’d even settle for some cosmic insight into the workings of the world. Don’t just prove it to me, prove it to yourself.
There are people from time to time who ask me what does it matter? Why care so much about what other people believe as long as it does not affect you? But so often it does. Not to be content believe in angels and demons in private, creationists impose their vision of the world on the rest of us. Policy makers, industrialists, social leaders, people who hold sway over vast portions of society base important decisions on this ridiculous book. Healthcare, education, the environment, the media, social equality all suffer at the hands of these self-righteous demagogues. If you purport to inflict your rules from your ancient storybook, you must shoulder the burden of proof.
You and I both know that you don’t consult the book when it comes to gun control, the death penalty, immigrants and food stamps. Red state salivating fundamentalists can’t wait to pull the lever on the electric chair (WWJD?). All that love thy neighbor and forgiveness stuff goes right out the window.
The argument to “believe as a child” is demagogue speak for “don’t you dare question”. Men, who did want to be challenged when setting down the rules to their benefit, claim they are handed down by an unquestionable authority. The power of the church, which even kings and emperors had to bow before (the slyest rulers claimed to be in direct contact with the Lord), is concerned with controlling the masses, keeping down dissent, getting the lower classes to fight their “holy” wars. Never question, never think, and if you did dare to, there was a ugly throng of god-fearing superstitious people to make sure your sediment was quashed along with your body.