The Rant, or A Rant - Either way it was going to happen.

How did we end up with ‘Answers in Genesis’? I mean, in terms of the Western World we’ve had the Reformation, we’ve had the Renaissance, we’ve had the Enlightenment, we’ve had the Industrial Revolution – there’s been progress affecting every layer of human existence, and then in the late 20^th century along comes this literal Bible-believing group that wants to send us back to some distant point in the past, and some sections of the community enthusiastically respond to it. What happened to us? How did our culture allow such a backward group of men develop? Young-Earth Creationism isn’t some fly-by-night rabble; it’s a slick, professional phenomenon that every day seems to attract more and more adherents.

These people really believe this stuff. They actually sign up with this one organisation and allow this one organisation to dictate to them their version of Bible-inspired world history. And the thing is, ‘Answers in Genesis’ make it all up. That’s an important point, they make it up. The Ice Age, dinosaurs, continental drift, Neanderthals… none of these things are in the Bible, but AiG pretend that they are, based on their own interpretations of what’s written in the Bible.

 It boggles the mind that seemingly intelligent men and women can be so susceptible to AiG’s brand of creationism. AiG is nonsense – it promotes fiction, it offers false clues to understanding our world, it contributes absolutely nothing to science or education, and it willingly distorts the Bible and holds it up to ridicule. These people should be ashamed of themselves for wasting time, money and resources by promoting such a ludicrous version of history, cleverly disguised in the name of faith and religion.

The powers that be at AiG are all playing a fantasy. They dress up in suits and open a museum and hold interviews and publish books and spout from the pulpit yet it’s all make-believe. They are living a delusion, a waking dream where they can act-out their fantasies, immune from the real world. And the gullible public sends in their financial donations to these actors to perpetuate their daydream.

AiG is akin to Peter Pan’s Neverland, a place where the children never grew up, where they keep ‘playing’ despite the outside world moving on. And just like children, they throw a tantrum whenever anyone disrupts or questions their make-believe world. Trust me, I’ve been on the receiving end of their vitriol and quasi legal threats simply because I dared to question them. They must be a scared bunch indeed, being so defensive by an ordinary (well, maybe slightly extraordinary guy) going about the very real world activity of analysis and reflection regarding their beliefs.

The concept of ‘God’ creating humankind in his (or her) image is a beautiful one indeed, but subverting science to prove dinosaurs on Noah’s Ark is reprehensible to say the least. For AiG, Christianity is no longer a faith, it is instead a set of graphs, charts and mathematical equations, all designed to wow us into thinking that young-earth creationism is a real proposition. The ‘faith’ element has been done away with by AiG, to be replaced with shonky, dictatorial fairly-tale science.

One of the key things I’ve noticed about AiG is that they are a reactionary organisation, meaning that they react to new scientific discoveries, rather than actually making them. For example, the ‘Scientific American’ magazine will publish details of a new discovery regarding, say,  human evolution, and all AiG can do is refute it with a couple of Bible quotes and a few dredge-ups from their past articles, and that’s about it. Really, that’s all AiG can muster. They certainly aren’t an out-in-the-field bunch of people; instead they are a sit-at-their-computer group who whine and complain about what actual, hard working experts are doing and discovering out in the real world. And yet they view themselves, arrogantly, as being better than everyone else.

Ultimately, AiG are just another addition to the modern world’s collection of religious extremists who offer nothing but division, selfish dogma and hatred. Hatred for other Christians who don’t follow their beliefs, hatred of evolutionists, hatred of secular science, hatred of free will. This ain’t good, this ain’t good at all. Is this what the Western world has fought for all these centuries, to end up with AiG and its walls of ignorance, censorship and anti-intellectualism?

AiG is nothing more than an egotistical, self-important, self-centred bunch of people who believe they have God on THEIR side and the rest of us are either dumb, delusional or brainwashed simply because we don't agree with them. They are the ultimate waste of space.